(return to media page)HIGH SPRINGS HERALD, September 7, 2007
Proposal will allow voters -- not politicians -- to determine city zoning
By Dominick Tao & Mallory Colliflower
When factories are built on farmland or coffee houses get built in residential neighborhoods, those businesses didn't simply pick the spot and set up shop.
Most likely, local city commissioners gave their approval first.
But with development around the state accelerating faster than some people would like, an organization that advocates limited growth has started a petition that would allow residents – not elected city leaders – to approve or deny zoning changes.
The petition is asking to get land use changes on local ballots across Florida by way of a state constitutional amendment.
Fans of limiting development are supporting the amendment, according to Florida Hometown Democracy, the group proposing the idea.
But city officials in the Crescent Communities said that letting residents plan growth instead of city commissioners and staff is a disaster waiting to happen.
“Would they (city residents) vote on every single minor comprehensive plan change?,” said Alachua Mayor Gib Coerper. “Would you start voting on them 10 times a year? The devil is in the details.”
Under the system in Florida, when a person or company wants to develop land and make changes to the city’s long-range land use plan, city commissioners must give initial approval to the project and send the proposal to Tallahassee for review, said Newberry Mayor John Glanzer.
Glanzer said he understands why the petition is circulating -- because some citizens feel that developers, not local governments, are running their cities.
“In some areas of the state, there have been abuses of the system by developers -- where they bulldoze commissioners with their lawyers and stuff like that,” he said.
But he said allowing citizens to take power away from elected officials defeats the purpose of representative democracy altogether.
He said if locals are unhappy with the way their local leaders are running things, they should simply vote new leaders into office.
“Like the bumper sticker says: throw the bums out,” he said.
Currently, the petition has about half the required number of signatures -- 611,009 -- needed to get the amendment on statewide ballots, according to the Florida Hometown Democracy Website.
Lesley Blackner, an environmental lawyer and representative of Florida Hometown Democracy, said drastic action is needed in order to stop what she sees as uncontrolled and irresponsible development taking place across Florida.
“I’ve been in the state since the '60s and in my lifetime the destruction has been unbelievable,” Blackner said. “We have to change the politics of growth once and for all to make developers more accountable for the lives of the people in these communities.”
She said that many local governments can be swayed by developers and that the good of the people can sometimes be lost in fancy pitches and the promise of booming business.
“If we can get this to the ballot and get this passed, it is going to have positive trickle down effects throughout the community,” she said. “Local government can focus on other more important things.”
Jim Drumm, the city manager of High Springs, said he thinks the opposite would happen. Direct citizen control over zoning, he said, would dangerously stagnate growth -- especially in larger cities where dozens of comprehensive land use plan changes are proposed annually.
“The amount of applications we receive could clog up the elections process for quite a while,” he said.
Drumm said if passed, the amendment would likely mean that developers with the best advertising campaigns -- and not necessarily the best projects -- would have more sway.
“There are some people who want growth to stop,” he said. “It seems to be a tool by no-growth groups to get development to stop.”
Gerry Dedenbach, a planner who has represented many major developers over the past few years, agreed with Drumm that how proposed developments are presented would change.
“It would be a different type of informational campaign altogether, where you now focus on the people in the surrounding properties and not public officials,” Dedenbach said.
Despite the skepticism from local leaders around Florida and from groups such as Floridians for Smarter Growth, which are campaigning against ballot box zoning initiatives, Blackner said the state should have more faith in the judgement of concerned residents living near potential developments.
“Right now, people don’t know much about many plan changes because there is no reason to explain things to the public,” she said. “If the amendment is added to our constitution, developers will have to explain these changes in plain English and prove that this will be good for the community."