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Largo Leader, December 5, 2007

City mulls proposed state amendment

BY DAVE SHELTON

LARGO – Should voters have the final say in any changes in municipal comprehensive plans?

Local officials say such an idea could bring development to a standstill in the city as developers balk at having to await the outcome of a referendum on their plans.

Proponents, pointing to the condominiums towering over the Gulf Coast, contend local officials have allowed unbridled growth in Florida. They are collecting petitions to put control of local growth into the hands of voters through an amendment to the Florida Constitution.

Mayor Pat Gerard said during the City Commission’s Dec. 4 meeting that paid employees of the proponents are circulating the petitions and that they are not telling voters the truth when they ask for signatures on their petitions.

Gerard said some of those with the petitions aren’t Florida residents. City Attorney Alan Zimmet added some of the proposal’s organizers are not from Florida.

According to the official Web site of Florida Hometown Democracy, the organization was founded by Tallahassee lawyer Ross Burnaman and Palm Beach lawyer Lesley Blackner.

Gerard said the group has already collected half of the some 600,000 signatures it needs to put the issue on the ballot. She noted that if approved by voters, many small municipalities will be forced to hold referendums for approval of comprehensive plan changes including new roads, schools and public utilities as well as residential and retail developments.

The mayor noted that if local voters feel they need to seize control of development in their town, they can do so as the voters of St. Pete Beach have done. Voters in St. Pete Beach have already taken control of any development in their city away from city and county planners and elected officials.

Any changes in St. Pete Beach must now be approved by voters.

While Largo commissioners voiced their problems with such restrictions, Commissioner Mary Gray Black questioned the resolution opposing the constitutional amendment.

Black asked Robert Klute, the acting community director, what the city was going to do with the resolution if passed by the commission. Klute said it would be sent to Tallahassee to register the city’s opposition to the proposal.

Black then said that was futile, since state legislators have no say in the proposed amendment.

Commissioner Gigi Arntzen then explained the resolution was the idea of the Largo/Mid-Pinellas Chamber of Commerce. She said chambers from throughout the state were fighting against the proposal. She said the resolution would show the commission’s support for the chamber.

Commissioner Harriet Crozier said Largo gives its residents many opportunities to learn about and speak against any proposed change in the city comprehensive plan. She said developers must hold meetings with all nearby residents and the change must go before the city’s planning board and commission, with each conducting public hearings.

In the end, the resolution was approved unanimously by the commission, but after deleting one sentence – “The City Commission of the city of Largo urges citizens to vote ‘NO’ on the proposed Florida Hometown Democracy amendment if it appears on any ballot.”

Instead, the resolution says, “The City Commission of the City of Largo, having dedicated its own policies to advancing smarter growth, recommends defeat of the Florida Hometown Democracy initiative and the proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution.”