(return to media page)Jacksonville Business Journal, January 18, 2008
Amendment raises questions
by Mark Szakonyi, Staff Writer
JACKSONVILLE -- If the Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment makes the November ballot and then gets enough votes to pass, many questions will surface.
The proposed amendment appears straightforward in that it will allow residents to vote on every proposed change to local growth management plans. But what isn't explained is when the votes will take place and who will pay for them, land use attorneys said.
"Is it in two months? Is it in a year? Do you wait for the next general election so they don't have to have the additional costs for a special election?" said Stanley Price, a land use attorney who provides counsel for the South Florida Builders Association.
With a general election held every two years, developers and municipalities could have to wait up to 23 months before voters had the chance to vote on a proposed change. And if a special election is held, then the proponent of the change will likely have to pay the cost.
A one-day special election would cost about $1.3 million in Duval County, Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland said.
Tom Larson, chairman of the Sierra Club, Northeast Florida Group, said residents wouldn't necessarily have to wait until the next general election. It could be a mail-in vote.
Residents could vote every six months to parallel the current process of changing the comprehensive plan and sending proposed changes to the Florida Department of Community Affairs. Larson said speculation that the initiative would require special elections was pre-emptive.
If the proposed amendment passes, the Florida Legislature will resolve questions surrounding the initiative, he said. "It would be presumptuous of us to decide the whole process. It is better if the Legislature does it."
Larson supports the group behind the amendment, Florida Hometown Democracy Inc., but doesn't represent it. Hometown Democracy's leader, Lesley Blackner, declined to comment.
Opponents of Hometown Democracy have exaggerated the number of proposed changes to a comprehensive plan voters will have to decide, Larson said.
Duval County adopted 24 large-scale land use amendments in 2007, said Brad Thoburn, the city's planning director. Thirty-eight small land use amendments, which are proposed changes for lots under 10 acres, were also adopted last year.
Even if residents were allowed to vote on proposed changes every six months, Thoburn said, it would still slow the process. Charging for land use change applications and for a vote would be unfair.
Duval County's comprehensive plan has been amended 500 times in seven years, Thoburn said.
"We have a future land use map that isn't reflective of the future," he said. "We put so many different categories in it that it is starting to look like a zoning map, instead of a land use map."
But Hometown Democracy's piecemeal approach isn't the solution, either, Thoburn said. A holistic revision is.
Thoburn fears that voters wouldn't spend the time needed to review proposed changes, and instead would vote either for or against growth. Proposed plan changes also would likely become public relations battles as developers and anti-growth groups try to persuade voters.
Larson disagreed. "It is odd to suggest people don't know what they are voting for when they vote," he said.
Larson cited the debate over the proposed extension of the Craig Municipal Airport runway as an example of how people educate themselves, but with the Hometown Democracy amendment, they could be directly involved.
The printing of ballot and voter information material for Florida's registered voter population would cost about $950 million annually, according to Floridians for Smarter Growth Inc., which is proposing a rival amendment.
Michael Caputo, the group's executive director, said the additional paperwork costs would be passed to taxpayers.
Until the Legislature provides exemptions to the amendment, all proposed land use amendments will be treated the same, including those involving fire and police services, said Wade Hopping, a Tallahassee land use attorney and former Florida Supreme Court judge.
Hometown Democracy believes developers will pay, Hopping said. "The problem with the term 'developer' is that it will include churches, schools, hospitals and sewage treatment plants."
The initiative doesn't differentiate between proposed changes for small projects and large projects, or for essential fire and police service projects. "The thing is so draconian," Hopping said. "They didn't exempt anybody."
Community projects
The lack of exemptions means residents could block amendments related to community projects ranging from affordable housing to schools, said Charles Pattison, president of 1,000 Friends of Florida, a nonprofit think tank on growth and community issues that has come out against the proposed amendment. This "not in my backyard" thinking will prevent infill development and encourage sprawl.
Passage of the Hometown Democracy amendment will lead to gridlock because the initiative doesn't just fail to answer questions on the timing and funding of votes on proposed land use amendments, but also what happens if voters approve such an amendment and the Department of Community Affairs rejects it, Pattison said. Or what if voters reject changes mandated by the seven-year update of a comprehensive land use plan?
Pattison said a constitutional amendment proposed by Floridians for Smarter Growth is not the answer, either.
That initiative would allow residents to vote on any changes to local growth management plans if 10 percent of residents sign a petition for a referendum.
The petition could be signed only at the office of the appropriate county supervisor of elections, county clerk or a similar election authority, meaning few would make the effort or know of it, Blackner said previously.
+++