The woman -- and trend -- developers fear
March 16, 2007
By LAUREN RITCHIE
Orlando Sentinel COMMENTARY

That blonde in the classy lime green suit with pale pink lipstick has developers on the run.

They hate her. Lesley Blackner is anathema to them. And it's pretty amusing how their last frayed nerve is starting to show.

Blackner, a Palm Beach lawyer and mother of two, found herself on the cover of Florida Trend magazine and the subject of a catty profile in the March issue.

A headline on the cover asked, "Who's Lesley Blackner?" Another answered: "The woman behind 'Hometown Democracy' -- and why every business group in Florida hates it."

The magazine needn't have bothered. Its readers already know. For most of the rest of us, however, Blackner's life work is a mystery, and her name is unfamiliar.

Here's the short answer: She's the woman making a liar of every developer who ever repeated the mantra, "Growth is coming -- there's nothing you can do about it."

Blackner runs the organization collecting signatures for a ballot question on a constitutional amendment that would require a change in every local government's blueprint for growth: It would force elected officials to ask you, the voter, each time a developer wants to change land use to build a big subdivision.

Imagine being able to take control of the destiny of your community. What a delightful switch -- no longer would residents be condemned to life at the mercy of sprawl junkies.

Imagine what would happen to developers. Instead of treating residents with contempt or throwing condescending "town meetings," developers would be forced into building decent communities that voters would like to live next door to.

Oh, no! The party is up! Au revoir to the easy money!

Rather than spending a limited amount of cash on getting three elected officials -- or a majority -- to vote for the change, they would have to convince the whole county that their development is worthy.

No wonder they're coming apart.

Florida Trend quotes critics as saying that Blackner uses shallow sound bites to get support.

One of her favorite sayings is "We have government of the developer, by the developer and for the developer."

Certainly, it's clever, but is she wrong? I think not. And neither do they.

The magazine says Blackner appeals to emotion rather than deliberation. I guess that criticism doesn't apply to a Florida Chamber of Commerce executive who said that the Hometown Democracy initiative is "environmentalists using our Constitution to shut down jobs."

Oh, boy. They're scared. How scared?

Consider that Blackner's group has not yet come close to success. They have 250,000 signatures and need 611,000 by the end of the year. Yet, a consortium of folks -- made up largely of building and development interests -- successfully spent about $3.4 million last year to make it harder to pass a constitutional amendment like Blackner's. Now, approval of a constitutional amendment requires a 60 percent vote rather than a simple majority.

And yet, the development community remains clueless. Trend quotes a professor as saying that there is an "undercurrent" of anti-growth sentiment. Undercurrent? On which planet? People have been screaming at the top of their lungs about the degradation of their roads, schools, water supplies and way of life because of out-of-control sprawl. They're just not listening.

Want to help?

Go to FloridaHometownDemocracy.com for instructions and a petition. If you're not hooked to the Internet, write Florida Hometown Democracy Inc., P.O. Box 636, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32170 or make a toll-free call to the 1-866-779-5513, and the staff will send you a stack.

What seems to bother developers most is that this one-woman threat has their checkbook in her hands.

They've attacked her -- in the press, in private and just about anywhere else.

They are in denial.

Blackner isn't their problem.

People are -- huge hordes of residents, many of whom live in the impersonal, scorched-earth subdivisions that developers created. She simply has tapped into the emotion.

If developers had three brain cells to rub together, they'd forget about Blackner and her nifty suit and start playing to the crowd. Regardless of whether Blackner and her group succeed, people have realized that they DO have power and that a better way of life is possible.

If they don't get a more reasonable growth rate, they're going to use that power, one way or another.

Lauren Ritchie can be reached at Lritchie@orlandosentinel.comor 352-742-5918.