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Stop Unwarranted Assault On DCA

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 8, 2009

When the state's development friendly lawmakers aren't trying to undo growth management laws, they're trying to gut or eliminate altogether the agency charged with enforcing them, the Department of Community Affairs.

It's Tallahassee legislating at its worst.

Gov. Jeb Bush at one time proposed folding DCA into the Department of State, but, fortunately, public outcry stopped that scheme. Instead, in Bush's last term, misguided lawmakers decided to slowly bleed the department by eliminating three or four positions a year.

The attack on development oversight has continued the last two years. Last year Secretary Tom Pelham lost eight positions. But some lawmakers pledged to Pelham that the positions would be restored if he supported their flawed growth management legislation. Pelham declined.

A couple of weeks ago, another handful of planners were let go.

The worst offenders are in the House. Speaker-elect Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, has long had it in for the department. But Rep. Rich Glorioso, a Plant City Republican, also wants the agency's budget slashed by 50 percent this session. Glorioso, who once served on the Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization and endorsed growth management while running for office, should know better. And Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, who one day could become House speaker, also is on record supporting a 50 percent cut.

We'd hate to see what would happen if it were not for Gov. Charlie Crist. Pelham says: "The governor could not be more supportive." And DCA supporters in the Senate, including Senate President Jeff Atwater and Ken Pruitt, have so far blunted some of the attacks on DCA.

But this year the target on the department's back has gotten bigger.

First, DCA is under the state's "sunset review" microscope - a mandated operational review by the Legislature that will determine whether it continues to exist.

Further, as Pelham says, growth in Florida has pretty much come to a standstill. And the state is mired in a financial crisis, so lawmakers are looking to save money.

Some inexperienced lawmakers mistakenly believe there's nothing for department employees to do. Others simply think the department is nothing more than a wasteful redundancy. Both assertions are false.

Even though growth has dramatically slowed, that hasn't stopped developers from seeking changes to city and county comprehensive land use plans so projects are ready to go when the recession is over. Local governments must submit amendments to the DCA, which reviews them and has the authority to mandate major changes.

The department isn't seeing any drop-off in the number of plan amendments it normally reviews, says Pelham, who also served as DCA secretary under former Gov. Bob Martinez.

Relaxing growth controls - and gutting the agency that enforces them - will do nothing to improve the state's economy. Indeed, it will make conditions worse

The state already has upwards of a five-year inventory of unoccupied homes, and tens of thousands of residential units also have been approved by local governments but not yet constructed. Moreover, even before the recession, the state was starting to lose appeal because of traffic congestion, inadequate schools, water shortage and diminished quality of life - much of it the result of development approvals made before Florida got serious about growth management. State growth controls did not slow the boom and had nothing to do with the recent downturn.

While smart business and local leaders seek to diversify the economy and develop the kind of communities that attract top businesses and high-paying jobs, the House leadership seems to think simply turning on the growth spigot will solve Florida's economic woes. How pathetic.

It's not as if homebuilders are sitting idle, even if not much construction is going on. They continue to propose massive projects such as Destiny, a proposed 100,000-home city in Osceola County, and Ormond Crossings in Ormond Beach, a 6,000-acre development, and push growth farther into areas that can't sustain it.

It is DCA's job to redirect these efforts into more suitable places, to provide checks-and-balances to local governments, which tend to be swayed by influential developers and too often ignore their own plans. We'd hate to envision the state without the agency's oversight.

Growth management isn't the department's only duty. It administers housing and community development programs. It distributes to qualifying communities and nonprofits proceeds from the Florida Communities Trust to purchase land for parks and protect green space, among other projects. It ensures that structures meet the Florida Building Code, protecting residents, among other responsibilities.

Florida needs the Department of Community Affairs. The agency provides the guidance and review necessary to protect residents' quality of life and promote responsible growth, tasks that will ensure Florida's continued appeal.

Boneheaded lawmakers bent on destroying the agency are, in reality, attacking the state's chances for future economic success.

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