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Bradenton Herald, November 9, 2007

Should voters or officials control growth?

By NICHOLAS AZZARA

MANATEE --A brewing statewide debate on development took center stage at the University of South Florida's Sarasota-Manatee campus Thursday.

During USF's Institute for Public Policy and Leadership's first forum, a panel of experts from around the state agreed that more public input is needed for better growth planning in Florida.

The institute's director, former Herald Editorial Page Editor David Klement, called the growth battle one of the most important issues Florida will face in 2008.

But philosophies on how to handle it remain leagues apart.

At the center of the debate is Hometown Democracy, a movement that's trying to put growth decisions - perhaps hundreds of them a year - to voters in the form of a referendum each fall. Instead of allowing local governments to make decisions on land-use changes, a majority of local voters would have to approve changes to comprehensive plans each fall, according to the group's proposal.

Hometown Democracy advocates say the plan would rein in the state's growth and allow residents to have more of a say in how quickly the community is built.

"The point is, if local planners and elected officials decide to adopt an amendment to the land-use plan, they ought to be able to convince a majority of local voters that it's in their best interest," said Ross Burnaman, co-founder of the movement and longtime land-use attorney.

The group needs 611,000 signatures to qualify the amendment for the fall 2008 ballot. To date, more than 356,000 have been certified, but Burnaman said his group has submitted close to 500,000 signatures. The initiative would require 60 percent of voters' approval to become a constitutional amendment.

But Hometown Democracy's biggest critics criticized the plan as a meat cleaver solution to a delicate problem in need of a scalpel. They pointed out that while comprehensive-plan amendments can be highly technical, they can also mean only tweaking a word or two. That could mean that voter referendums could number in the hundreds, driving up the cost of elections.

Last year, Manatee County adopted 242 comprehensive-plan amendments. Bradenton had 82.

Critics also said the amendment could suffocate a struggling economy, further complicate already complex planning matters and water down representative government.

"The democratic system is a representative form of government and has done a pretty good job of protecting our freedom for more than 200 years," said Ryan Houck, political director for Floridians for Smarter Growth. "Hometown Democracy will turn the planning process into a political process. Voters don't win."

Houck said Hometown Democracy's plan is "neither fair nor democratic," and that it will disenfranchise an already dwindling base of voters and drive up election costs. Others on the panel agreed.

Land-use attorney Richard Lincoln classified Hometown Democracy as an "insidious" anti-planning, anti-government approach to solving problems. He said the amendment could collapse democracy into "the hold of the mob."

Manatee County Comprehensive Plan Administrator Michael Wood said voter approval on every comp-plan amendment would only make it more difficult to build needed roads and infrastructure.

Even an impartial guest at the forum wasn't convinced of Hometown Democracy's merits. New College's general counsel Steve Pfeiffer said Florida's growth isn't keeping up with infrastructure, but the answer isn't Hometown Democracy.

"Hometown Democracy is a dramatic solution that will result in high-priced media campaigns that will favor deep-pocketed developers," Pfeiffer said. "It will be more difficult to locate affordable housing, you'll have piecemeal planning and more sprawl. I fear the result."

Later he added that greater public participation in the planning process would go a long way toward addressing growth headaches.

With the influential support of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida Homebuilders Association, Floridians for Smarter Growth is pushing for a constitutional amendment to counter Hometown Democracy, though it won't reveal how many signatures it has collected. The pro-business group says it agrees that better planning measures are needed, but its amendment calls for voter referendum only if 10 percent of a community's voters petition against growth-management plans.

The percentage sounds small, but it would require a monumental effort from residents. For example, if a neighborhood in unincorporated Manatee wanted to oppose a comp-plan amendment, it would need to gather about 15,000 signatures in order to put the amendment on a referendum.

The particulars:

Hometown Democracy's proposed constitutional amendment: Establishes that before a local government may adopt a new comprehensive land-use plan, or amend a comprehensive land-use plan, the proposed plan or amendment shall be subject to vote of the electors of the local government by referendum, following preparation by the local planning agency, consideration by the governing body and notice. Provides definitions.

Floridians for Smarter Growth's proposed constitutional amendment: Allows Floridians to call for voter approval of changes to local growth-management plans through a citizen petition. Voter approval of growth-management plan changes will be required if 10 percent of the voters in the city or county sign a petition calling for such a referendum. Defines terms and establishes petition requirements.