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Ft. Myers News-Press, October 6, 2007

Green hired to fight proposed amendment

By Betty Parker

Former Lee County state Rep. Carole Green has been tapped to lead the fight in Lee and Collier counties against “Hometown Democracy,” the push for a constitutional amendment that would put land use and zoning decisions up in referendums to all voters.

The amendment is promoted by citizens who say average people are shut out of the land use decision-making process, and that developers wield too much power when such decisions are left up to elected officials and other boards.

Business groups and some environmental and planning organizations, meanwhile, oppose the measure, saying it’s unwieldy, and many of the factors involved are technical and difficult for nonprofessionals to fully grasp.

“Hometown Democracy is just unworkable, considering the huge taxpayer expense and overload that accompanies voting a few hundred of times each year,” said Green, a Republican who represented south Lee County for six years in the state House, until losing a bid for Congress in 2004. She then was appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush as director of the Department of Elder Affairs until last January, and now works as a lobbyist.

“I’m particularly concerned about the amendment’s unintended tax on our community’s health and elder care services,” Green said.

“What if Immokalee desperately needs an urgent care center? You’ll have to get the support of voters 50 miles away in Naples.

“That’s a recipe for interminable delays — or worse.”

Green was hired by Floridians for Smarter Growth, a coalition of business and community leaders formed to fight the proposed amendment.