Kenric Ward: Crist refuels the bulldozers
By: Kenric Ward
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Original Post
Gov. Charlie Crist cleared the way for developers by signing Senate Bill 360.
Watch out, Treasure Coast!
The bill, which would eliminate road-improvement requirements for developments in "urban" areas, was widely opposed by environmentalists.
But before the enviros opposed SB360, they favored it. Then they discovered that the bill defined "urban" as any area having 1,000 people per square mile. That equates to one house per acre. Hardly "densely populated."
Indeed, several Treasure Coast cities -- including Stuart, Fort Pierce, Port St. Lucie, Vero Beach and Sebastian -- are classified as urban for the purposes of the bill, and thus, will not be able to collect concurrency fees from developers.
Sen. Mike Bennett, a Bradenton Republican who also happens to be a developer, said his measure was designed to curb sprawl. But gutting the current impact-fee and concurrency requirements seems counterproductive.
Crist apparently felt sheepish about the whole thing. Unlike his previous high-profile bill signings, the governor issued a terse written statement about his action after business hours on Monday evening.
"I'm trying to be balanced on it and I know it's probably one of those bills where no one is going to be overly happy on either side of the argument," he stated.
But the Florida Chamber of Commerce was unambiguously ebullient, calling the bill "a thoughtful, reasoned package of legislation that will create jobs and get Florida moving again."
Environmentalists at Progress Florida see nothing but gridlock ahead.
"We're tired of sitting in traffic, watching our environment getting eaten away by urban sprawl, and seeing our property tax dollars help subsidize unnecessary development instead of public schools and improvements to existing infrastructure," the organization wrote in a letter to Crist.
Which side are you on?
