(return to media page)


Orlando Sentinel, January 21, 2008

Taking aim at Hometown Democracy

BY Beth Kassab

If there's one thing that riles those in commercial real estate, it's the Hometown Democracy ballot initiative that they say threatens to halt growth.

At a lunch last week, the local chapter of the National Association for Industrial and Office Properties strategized on how to keep the measure from making the ballot and how to beat it if it does.

"This is one of the most dangerous proposals looming before us," said the group's president, Terry Delahunty, a development attorney at Foley & Lardner.
The group was hopeful, but not yet celebratory, about Hometown Democracy's apparent shortfall of signatures to get on the ballot. The deadline is Jan. 31, and the proposal's leaders are about 100,000 short with about 501,000 signatures.

The proposal would send every change to a community's official growth plan to a popular vote, creating a bureaucratic headache and further politicizing growth decisions.

Even if the initiative's opponents get to cheer its failure to make the ballot, it will only be a temporary reprieve. The signatures collected by Hometown legally have a shelf life of about four years, meaning it is bound to resurface in 2010.

"If this does make it to the ballot in this cycle or some future cycle, we will be ready," said Ryan Houck, political director for Floridians for Smarter Growth Inc., a group formed to defeat the measure.

These guys are serious. So far, they've outspent Hometown supporters by more than 2 to 1.

The takeaway for the crowd of about 100 at the lunch was this: If you see Hometown signature gatherers, don't sign and call the hot line set up to track their activity.

And the panel, which also included Adam Babington of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and state Rep. Stephen Precourt of Orlando, also decried Hometown's supporters such as Tampa strip-club mogul Joe Redner.

"His $37,000 was contributed exclusively in singles," Houck said.