So you want to halt sprawl? Fat chance.

It doesn't matter that Florida has a huge glut of abandoned homes thrown up in the hinterlands, dragging down the economy.

Our political leaders want more.

Not only are they refusing to control sprawl, but they also are making sure you don't either. It's the biggest disconnect I've ever seen between public desire and political action.

Consider Florida Hometown Democracy, an amendment proposed by a small band of environmentalists that would require voters to sign off on changes to local growth plans. Supporters are gathering signatures to put it on the 2010 ballot.

The very notion has terrified the state's business/political cartel, which treats growth plans like disposable diapers. So the business lobby has joined the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist to pull every dirty trick possible to keep it off the ballot.

One tactic was legislation passed last year. It allowed amendment opponents to try to persuade those who signed the Hometown Democracy petition to revoke their signatures.

This started a disinformation campaign in which the business lobby warned that "this bad amendment will open the door for big developers to ruin Florida's natural and scenic beauty, but you can help stop the special interests."

It may be the most stunning lie ever told in Florida -- the audacity of desperation.

The person behind it was John Thrasher, a former speaker of the House, now a hired-gun lobbyist for the state's biggest developers.

It's one sleazy, incestuous stew up there in Tallahassee. Do you really think they're going to let you muck up their good thing by letting you vote on growth?

Last month a state appeals court threw out the signature revocation law. The Crist administration plans to appeal.

All the so-called responsible environmentalists and growth-management gurus sit on the sideline because they say Hometown Democracy is just too radical. As if sending bulldozers ever farther out into the rural abyss of a state already overbuilt is more responsible.

Meanwhile, legislators once again squashed growth-management reforms this year.

Rep. Dean Cannon of Winter Park, the future House speaker, actually tried to weaken citizen input. Maybe he's after John Thrasher's job.

Said Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham: "I expect that the sponsors of Hometown Democracy are very happy with the way things turned out. All of this will add fuel to their cause, I'm sure."

It is past time.

Back in 2004, more than 70 percent of Volusia voters supported a referendum to limit rampant growth. Home builders got it tossed with a legal challenge.

This year, nearly 80 percent of Sarasota voters passed a referendum requiring a unanimous vote by the County Commission to increase zoning densities outside the urban-service boundary.

Earlier they passed a measure requiring a supermajority County Commission vote to increase density in the comprehensive growth plan.

"There is much more debate now," says Bill Earl, an activist behind the measures. "Smart developers are going to neighborhood associations and to environmental groups to ask what they can do to make projects acceptable."

Backroom deals are out in Sarasota. Guess who loses power?

It is why the politicians, lobbyists and developers are so desperate to keep this movement from growing.


Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525 or mthomas@orlandosentinel.com.