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Hometown Democracy Gives Voters A Say In Development

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By ARTHUR HAYHOE, Special to the Tribune

Published: October 21, 2007

Are you tired of developers leaping over the local comprehensive land use plan with the approval of county commissioners and building larger and higher and covering more wetlands and wildlife habitat?

Are you tired of developers building unsuitable development in unsuitable places and stressing our roads, water supply and drainage?

Are you concerned that rapid development the past 20 years has been piecemeal and not integrated our need for infrastructure and natural resources?

These issues have stimulated growing convictions that development in Florida is out of control and led to the creation of a solution called Hometown Democracy, a ballot initiative being readied for the 2008 general election. Voters would decide whether land use plans, the road map for growth, are changed.

Development in Central and South Florida has already tapped out local water supplies, and developers and utilities have proposed piping water in from other areas so they can continue to develop! Many areas along the coast and the Interstate 4 corridor show signs that no more growth can be sustained unless developers fill more wetlands and habitat and push unsuitable development into unsuitable areas.

There is little or no middle ground in this argument. Either you support what we have now - uncontrolled development - or you support Hometown Democracy.

What would Hometown Democracy do? It's very simple: It says to developers that if you want to jump over the local comprehensive plan like you already have done close to 10,000 times in Florida, you first must place it on the ballot for voter approval.

Developers, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and associated industries are in an absolute state of panic. If this passes they know the party that drove development in Florida to unprecedented heights will be over.

You already are hearing hundreds of 'the sky will fall' arguments, and many more will be offered before we vote on this constitutional amendment. This is simply a smoke screen to hide the real issue.

Do you recall that in 2006 a ballot initiative was passed requiring that future initiatives must receive at least 60 percent of the vote to become law? Guess who bank-rolled that idea, with support from the business-friendly Republican Legislature and tons of donated money? In 2003 Florida Hometown Democracy was started, and the change in the 60 percent requirement was aimed at it.

So who created this mess besides developers, who couldn't do it alone?

The system has been called government of the developer, by the developer and for the developer. It really got started when Tallahassee, more than 15 years ago, shifted development issues to county commissioners, waving the flag of free enterprise and proclaiming that democracy on the local level was the kind of democracy our forefathers cherished.

Developers literally had a party, as they no longer had to strictly deal with Tallahassee. They could use their money to elect developer friendly commissioners to do their bidding.

Developers have an unbeatable system. Local planning boards, county commissioners, developers, staff and lots of lawyers know each other by first names and are there to keep the engine of development running smoothly. They worry constantly that if they don't give this developer what he wants, they'll get sued. That is the excuse government uses.

With Hometown Democracy, commissioners will only have to worry about their next election.

A member of the governor's staff and developers have solutions they claim will work much better than Hometown Democracy, which they claim is draconian.

Tom Pelham, secretary of the Department of Community Affairs, writing in several newspapers, freely admits the lack of oversight of development has helped stoke the Hometown Democracy movement, and he freely admits DCA has become the developers' lapdog.

Pelham's solution is laughable. He proposed that this developer friendly Legislature pass legislation to solve the problem, including limiting how often developers can leap over local comprehensive plans, among other suggestions. This isn't a solution - this is farce.

Hometown Democracy is the only option that will put you in direct control of development.

The developers' solution? 'What problem?' They know of no problem. If they can defeat Hometown Democracy, they will be able to continue to develop this beautiful state the way we have in the past.

Ah, but they have initiated an amendment of their own to compete directly with Hometown Democracy, and it reads a lot like Hometown Democracy. The difference is that with Hometown Democracy, you would get the right to vote directly on each land use amendment at each election. The developers' initiative would create hoops to jump through before you could obtain the right to vote on each development issue.

If I were a socialist, which I'm not, I couldn't create a better kind of special interest socialism than what developers in Florida have created for themselves. Hometown Democracy will put some backbone into what little representative government we still have.

Go online to Hometown Democracy (http://floridahometowndemocracy.com) and sign up.

Arthur Hayhoe, a Wesley Chapel resident, is a Democratic activist.

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