"Smarter Growth" Petition Fails to Make 2010 Ballot
After failing to keep Florida Hometown Democracy off the November 2010 ballot, the Florida Chamber of Commerce has pulled the plug on their front group, “Floridians for Smarter Growth”. This front for the (over-)development industry admits to having spent $4,000,000 to cook up a bogus, trick petition designed to derail the Hometown Democracy campaign.
The “Smarter Growth” petition demonstrates the profound contempt held by the over-development industry for Florida voters: they would let you have a referendum on a change to your local growth plan only if 10% of your fellow registered voters went down to the Supervisor of Elections office, showed a bunch of ID, and then signed a petition. Most shockingly, their referendum process discriminated against our deployed military, disabled and homebound people, and working folks chained to their job from 9 to 5 – locked them out of participation because they couldn’t get to their local Elections office to sign a petition, the only place they were to be available.
In court, and in the press, our campaign pointed out that no other such discriminatory petition process has ever been allowed in the United States.
After we “outed” them on the discrimination issue, they quietly abandoned their petition collection efforts. February 1st was the deadline for qualifying their petition numbers for the November 2010 ballot. They fell far short of the state requirement…their “Smarter Growth” petition is dead in the water.
But wait! The same cast of characters has now reincarnated themselves with a new identity: “Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy”.
Let’s see….Lower Taxes? From the same crew who has stuck Florida taxpayers with the ever-growing bill for overdevelopment that doesn’t pay its way? nd
Stronger Economy? From the same crew who crashed Florida’s economy with overbuilding?
These folks also have multiple, other fake identities, all couched in wonderful sounding names such as… “Foundation for Leadership Integrity”; "Floridians for Principled Government”; "Committee for Florida's Future”; "Coalition for Florida's Families”; “Citizens for Housing and Urban Growth”; “Committee Supporting Utilities and Competitive Commerce”...all being run out of the same office….same old gang, different name, different day…same game.
On a happier note…Florida Thinks, a new online magazine, has devoted its first edition to Amendment 4. Please visit their site, look them over, take their online poll and enjoy!
FloridaTHINKS.com …the forum for civil debate
http://floridathinks.com/florida-issues/category/florida-issues/growth-management/
Hometown Democracy’s Founder: Time for Control
By Lesley Blackner
More often than not, growth management doesn’t work in Florida, even though a law requiring it has been on the books for 25 years.
The Growth Management Act mandates that each county and municipality adopt a long-term master-growth plan. Lots of time, effort and millions of taxpayer dollars go into crafting these plans. Their goal is to ensure orderly growth that doesn’t swallow the community in a tidal wave of speculative, ill-conceived construction.
Despite good intentions, “growth management” in Florida has proved to be an oxymoron. Too much of this gorgeous state has been swallowed by ugly sprawl and overdevelopment.
A big part of the problem is the tendency of local commissions to rubberstamp developers’ requests for plan changes. Even the best plan doesn’t mean much if it can be changed willy-nilly.
Not only has much of Florida’s unique beauty been unnecessarily destroyed, “development gone wild” has driven Florida’s economy over the cliff. The recent binge of growth has stuffed nearly every corner of the state with a glut of every type of construction — single family, condo, commercial. The oversupply is driving down property values while, perversely, sticking taxpayers with a swelling bill for new construction’s infrastructure and services.
To add insult to injury, Floridians’ quality of life has steadily eroded.
It’s important to note that all types of growth – from schools, roads, water, hospitals and so on – are already embedded in Florida’s plans. The Department of Community Affairs, the agency overseeing growth, recently noted that Leon County has enough growth capacity already in its plan for the next 268 years. Osceola and St. Lucie counties follow, with enough growth for the next 105 and 212 years, respectively. Jackson County has growth ensured until the year 3000. In fact, there is enough capacity built into Florida’s growth plans to add another 80 million people to our current population of 18 million.
You begin to see why Floridians are unhappy with the status quo.
Why can’t our commissioners respect our growth plans? Why do so many of them run on a platform of “responsible development” and then, once elected, approve yet one more request to add yet more housing and commercial supply to local plans?
Too Many Politicians in the “Sprawl” Business
Changing a growth plan is a political decision, not an automatic right. Yet in Florida, developers make it their business to control politics through generous campaign donations. Moreover, many politicians are in the sprawl business themselves. The developer/politician nexus helps explain the construction frenzy and the subsequent meltdown.
Hometown Democracy, on the November ballot as Amendment 4, finally would put the public interest back into growth management. It would do this by giving voters a veto over plan changes approved by their commission.
Opponents of Hometown Democracy – the very people who went wild with overbuilding and crashed the economy – have the nerve to say Amendment 4 would kill construction jobs. Why aren’t they building now? As noted, there’s plenty of growth to go around for decades to come without ever changing a plan. But the fact is that construction jobs have evaporated because demand crashed.
Opponents of Amendment 4 don’t want to build now; they just want to continue building whatever they want, wherever they want. They know Amendment 4 would cramp their style.
Opponents also say residents would have to vote in frequent elections on lots of little technical things. Yet Amendment 4 would not require special elections. Changes to local comprehensive plans are made, on average, three to four times a year by local governments.
Reckless changes to growth plans can ruin a community for decades to come. Praying for our commissioners to “do the right thing” has not worked. Let’s put Amendment 4 in the Florida Constitution for ourselves and future generations.
The hometown you save will be your own.
Lesley Blackner is the president of Florida Hometown Democracy, a nonpartisan political action committee that is the sponsor of Amendment 4. You can learn more at www.floridahometowndemocracy.com
uVote YES 4 Hometown Democracy!
HELP SAVE WHAT'S LEFT OF FLORIDA...
LET THE PEOPLE VOTE to control growth!
http://www.FloridaHometownDemocracy.com
PO Box 636, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32170-0636.
Pd.pol.adv.byFloridaHometownDemocracy,Inc,PAC
