Editorial: Counties, cities ought to start taking some responsibility for ill-planned developments
By: TCPalm Staff
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Original Article
Despite the slump in Florida's construction industry, the state Department of Community Affairs is busier than ever.
DCA Secretary Tom Pelham says his agency has been deluged with "speculative" large-scale development plans in advance of a possible 2010 vote on Florida Hometown Democracy.
The FHD initiative, which has gathered 668,506 valid signatures, according to the state Division of Elections. It stands 8,305 signatures short of qualifying for the ballot, which would require voter referendums on any changes to local comprehensive plans.
Fearing that future residential ventures will be thwarted by the electorate, developers are swamping the DCA with proposed projects ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 homes.
Without taking a position on Hometown Democracy, Pelham says the deluge of applications reflects poorly on local governments.
"Far too often, it appears local plans or local planning are being driven by individual landowners' development applications for plan amendments that are acted upon in a vacuum without any comprehensive evaluation as to how it affects the entire plan," Pelham said recently.
"Local government just becomes a conduit for transferring the applications on up to the department." Ouch.
Pelham didn't identify the offenders, but he could have cited Fellsmere as a textbook example. The rural Indian River County community's 2008 development proposal, which envisioned clearing 20,000 acres for tens of thousands of new homes west of Interstate 95, was summarily bounced back by the DCA.
Floridians have seen how sprawling suburban growth raises public-service costs, drives traffic congestion and diminishes quality of life. So it's little wonder that developers are anxious to get in line before Hometown Democracy potentially empowers residents to reject ill-conceived growth plans.
Whatever happens with FHD, Pelham is right to call out to city and county governments to "take ownership" of their comprehensive land-use plans and to stop setting up the DCA as the "bad cop."
"I think we need to do a much better job of basing our planning on reasonably projected future (population) needs, rather than a purely speculative proposal," Pelham advises.
It's sound advice that public officials ignore at their peril.
