January 6, 2010

System is broken

Florida Hometown Democracy is the last best hope for citizen purview over the future of our beautiful state and its development. I find it ludicrous to read this in the editorial: "Comprehensive plans are thick, technical documents usually written by professional planners. Elected officials are best situated to shape those plans to match a community's long-term vision for its future."

How many of your elected officials do you think read "thick technical documents"? Having spent 15 years of my volunteer life actually reading and then feeding document information to "elected officials" (a handful of them perform due diligence but not enough of them to protect us), you can trust voting and taxpaying advocates who care and work for free for progress and sensible government action far more than your garden variety elected official.

Most comprehensive plans are weak, with plan amendments approving more and more intensive development, courtesy of developer incentives via campaign dollar support. The comprehensive plan process is completely broken in Florida growth management. Vote YES on Amendment 4, Florida Hometown Democracy 2010.

Lorraine Margeson, St. Petersburg