Sign and gain freedom from a squandered future

Florida communities and environmental resources have suffered from permissive development policies heavily subsidized on the back end by taxpayer. We now have aquifer contamination and polluted springs, from Wakulla to Wekiva. The St. Johns River Water Management District is telling Jacksonville that its drinking water resource could pass its sustainable level after six years. The Southwest Water Management District, which includes 16 counties, has spent $200 million to help restore 3,000 acres of wetlands, forests and waterways. We're spending $160 million right here in Tallahassee to offset water contamination from previous and planned development.

Florida's sprawling development now has us consuming 400 acres of farmland a day and more energy than New York.

We're in a multi-billion shortfall with our transportation infrastructure, and one of the answers is to privatize more road building. Coastal developments can't get insured, so the rest of us are insuring them. Central Florida is expected to experience explosive growth, and a continuation of the land-use decisions there will overrun areas that shouldn't even be developed.

Sarasota County, in the midst of its Sustainable Sarasota initiative, has proposed to rein in growth by requiring super-majority commission votes on some large or intensive developments. The Marion County school superintendent says that, for schools there to catch up to the need for more facilities, the county would have to stop growing for the next three years.

We're talking an extreme and severe use of taxpayer money.

As a local planning commissioner, I dread a process that is bent toward approving development at a rate that is expensive for existing residents and communities. Instead of having to prove a certificate of need, a development can merely meet the letter of the law. This obligates a community to take on developments of questionable economic, social, and sustainable value. The "spirit" of the law is lost. If the effort to balance concerns such as economic development and environmental quality, and public needs with private interests, were truly working, we surely would not be spending our public tax dollars on cleaning up springs, adding portables to schools, and fighting over who pays for crossing guards.

The reality is that growth management in Florida is causing more communities to lose what makes them unique and to become more homogenized, more sprawled out and more costly. Any public gain is quickly swallowed by new public costs to support new residents.

The new and well-meaning secretary of the Department of Community Affairs, Tom Pelham, has expressed his intent to improve the planning process. He can do it, but not alone. In the background of our planning woes, efforts to weaken the public sector have been successful. Legislation has been passed that stops votes, cuts down on amendments, limits petitions and revokes signatures. The ranks of public servants, including land-use planners, have been thinned, outsourced and micromanaged at all levels.

This notion of less government has been well at work in Florida. We must be reminded, however, that whether it is based in good intentions or simply an infatuation with cutting taxes, there are costs from a loss of oversight and a cut in services.

There is no constitutional right to pollute, or to build for private gain that leaves public expenditures. There are two things you can accomplish by supporting the petition for a Florida Hometown Democracy Act: You can preserve your public involvement and right to petition, and you can send a message to local and state officials that the status quo with land-use planning is not good enough. Not by a long shot.

Sign the petition. This should give Mr. Pelham the public backing to make substantive legislative changes to Florida's comprehensive planning process before the amendment comes up for a vote. You still can vote No on the November 2008 ballot.