By HOWARD TIPTON, COMMUNITY VOICE
Amendment 4, which will be presented to Florida voters on the November ballot as "Hometown Democracy," is a thinly disguised effort to stifle all development now reviewed and approved by our elected and city officials. If approved, Amendment 4 would take away local representative government and say, to every citizen, "You decide each land-use comprehensive plan amendment."
It is another amendment along the lines of the "Save Our Homes" initiative that created extreme tax inequities between identical residential properties in the same neighborhoods -- which also removed local decisions from elected officials, and shifted the burden of residential property taxes to commercial and industrial properties. Also, like the Save Our Homes amendment, Hometown Democracy would distort our ability to attract economic growth to Florida.
How many of our voting citizens are well-informed enough to vote on comprehensive land-use amendments? Ask yourself if you are so informed. A typical comprehensive plan amendment can take between one and two years of staff work, public hearings, citizen input and council or commission consideration. In checking a few of the current comprehensive plan amendments proposed in our area, you will find 70-page, 101-page and even longer amendments on file. Are you ready to read that material to make an educated vote?
If Amendment 4 passes, citizen involvement is sadly moved to the end of the process -- at the ballot box -- rather than citizens being involved from beginning to end.
Consider the complexity of the issues and geographic nature of some of the amendments. Should voters decide on the redevelopment of abandoned structures or slum areas to create a shopping center? Should people living in the LPGA or Pelican Bay developments decide where to put a Wal-Mart on Daytona Beach's peninsula? Should at-large voters decide land-use changes that are necessary for storm drainage and utility improvements in Port Orange. Will the public do enough homework to determine density and appropriate categories of use for all Volusia County?
We elect local government leaders to represent us on these decisions. The founding fathers were concerned enough about the dangers of direct democracy to create legislative, representative bodies instead -- avoiding putting important issues on the ballot. Decisions, by the way, that will be influenced by high-priced ad campaigns and bumper stickers with slick slogans. The deliberative process is truly necessary, and should not be rushed with a single ballot question when land use is being determined.
We now have the right to voice our opinions to these elected officials in person, in public hearings, letters or e-mails. Have you attended public hearings or written to those officials in the past? There is no question that urban sprawl has happened in some cases because elected leaders made poor decisions. But electing good local leaders to represent us is more essential than amending the state constitution to give land-use decisions to voters who may be uninformed and uninterested. Amendment 4 will not undo any past land-use mistakes, and it will make many more problems than it promises to solve. It is not good public policy.
Tipton spent 16 years as city manager of Daytona Beach, and also served as Orlando's city manager. In 2006, he was awarded the International City Manager Association's Distinguished Service award for his history of public service.
