(return to media page)Daytona News Journal, July 13, 2007
Builders offer rival measure to growth-control initiative July 13, 2007
Builders offer rival measure to growth-control initiative
By JIM SAUNDERS
Tallahassee Bureau Chief
TALLAHASSEE -- Fearing that the proposed Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment would stifle growth, a business-backed group has started a campaign to pass a rival ballot initiative.
The National Association of Home Builders and businesses such as Miami Corp. -- a major Volusia County landowner -- have poured more than $800,000 into the group known as Floridians for Smarter Growth.
The group in late June filed a proposed constitutional amendment designed to combat Florida Hometown Democracy, which could go on the ballot in 2008 and would require voter approval of changes to local land-use plans.
The new initiative includes language that says it would "pre-empt or supersede" other proposals, such as Florida Hometown Democracy. It would allow referendums on land-use changes, but only if 10 percent of voters went to city or county offices to sign petitions.
Florida Hometown Democracy leaders accused backers of the new amendment of trying to trick voters, saying it is a "Trojan horse" meant to undercut Hometown Democracy. They said the conditions included in the amendment would make it difficult to ever hold referendums on land-use changes.
"It's a complete fraud on the public," said Lesley Blackner, a Palm Beach County attorney who has spearheaded the Hometown Democracy effort.
But supporters of the Floridians for Smarter Growth initiative said they are trying to offer a better choice to voters. They argue the Hometown Democracy proposal would create obstacles to development plans that would have a crippling effect on Florida's economy.
"This is a battle of ideas," said Michael Caputo, executive director of Floridians for Smarter Growth. "Our idea versus her (Blackner's) idea."
The debate centers on city and county growth-management plans that are blueprints for development. Florida Hometown Democracy contends developers have too much political sway over city and county land-use decisions and that voters should determine whether to change the plans -- an idea that critics say is unwieldy.
Both proposed amendments will need 611,000 petition signatures by Feb. 1 to get on the 2008 ballot. Blackner said Hometown Democracy has collected about 400,000 signatures, with the state indicating 262,000 had been verified as of Thursday.
Floridians for Smarter Growth also will have to get its ballot language approved by the state Supreme Court, a process Hometown Democracy has already gone through.
But while it remains uncertain whether the amendments will reach the ballot, the emergence of Floridians for Smarter Growth is a sign of a high-stakes political battle that could play out during the coming year.
Daniel Smith, a University of Florida political-science professor who studies ballot initiatives, said the Floridians for Smarter Growth proposal is designed to take the "steam" out of the Hometown Democracy amendment by creating confusion and a more complicated ballot.
But Caputo said his group believes its plan is better than Hometown Democracy and that it is not "selling a 'no.' " Floridians for Smarter Growth filed a campaign-finance report this week that showed it had collected $841,000 in contributions over three months. By comparison, Florida Hometown Democracy has received about $826,000 in cash and in-kind contributions since being formed in 2003, with at least $487,000 of that total coming from Blackner.
The National Association of Home Builders has been the biggest contributor to Floridians for Smarter Growth, giving $550,000. But the campaign also has received money from major businesses and landowners, including U.S. Sugar Corp. and the Chicago-based Miami Corp.
Miami Corp., which owns a huge swath of Volusia and Brevard counties, said earlier this year it would like to create what is known as a "Rural Land Stewardship Area" that would cluster development on part of the land while preserving other parts.
Glenn Storch, a Miami Corp. attorney, said he thinks Florida Hometown Democracy would lead to poor planning.
Making it harder to get land-use changes for planned projects would lead to large landowners selling off tracts of land for "ranchettes" -- homes that would sprawl through rural areas, Storch said.