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Orlando Business Journal, January 11, 2008

Hometown Democracy opponents marshal forces

By Chris Kauffmann

Two business-backed Florida organizations are on very different tracks to accomplish one common goal: Derail Florida Hometown Democracy's proposed constitutional amendment.

That amendment, if it makes the November ballot, would require residents to vote on every proposed change to local comprehensive land-use plans.

But foes say it would shut down development and put people in the position of having to vote on at least 200-300 items per year, depending on the area.

New Smyrna Beach-based Florida Hometown Democracy says it now has more than 500,000 of the 611,000 signatures it must have by Feb. 1 to get on the November ballot.

However, an opposing group, Save Our Constitution, is working to get people to revoke their signatures -- and Hometown Democracy admits on its Web site that at least 2,850 people have done so. About 2,300 of those revocations have been validated by the state. Officials for Save Our Constitution could not be reached for comment.

Yet another group, Orlando's Floridians for Smarter Growth, is taking a two-pronged approach in its attempt to neutralize Hometown Democracy:

First, it's trying to stop the Hometown Democracy amendment from getting on the ballot.
Second, it's seeking signatures for its own constitutional amendment that's essentially a watered-down version of Hometown Democracy's amendment.
Under Floridians for Smarter Growth's proposal, referendums would be required only on land-use changes if 10 percent of the local voters sign a petition asking for a referendum.

Moreover, that proposed amendment includes a provision that if voters approve both Hometown Democracy's amendment and Floridians for Smarter Growth's amendment, then Floridians for Smarter Growth's version supersedes Hometown Democracy's version.

"The strategy is to put a better idea before the voters, because Hometown Democracy is simply a bad idea," says Michael Caputo, executive director for Floridians for Smarter Growth, who runs Caputo Public Relations in Miami.

Officials for Hometown Democracy could not be reached for comment, but opponents of Floridians for Smarter Growth's measure have said that group's effort is just an attempt to confuse voters.

Orlando attorney Terry Delahunty of the Foley & Lardner law firm disagrees, saying the idea is to educate people about the real consequences of the Hometown Democracy amendment. "My members say they already have to go through a crippling amount of regulations in order to develop," says Delahunty, the Central Florida chapter president of National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

He adds, "If you clamp down more, it will just hurt the economy, raise the cost of housing and foster sprawl, because people will move away from the central business cores to rural areas where there's less going on."

Hogwash, says Bill Newton, executive director of Tampa-based Florida Consumer Action Network, which supports Hometown Democracy. "Developers are causing urban sprawl by developing all over the place," he says. "Maybe if we went slower and thought about what we're doing, we wouldn't be in the economic situation we're in, which is not good."

He adds, "This is happening because the governor and the state refuse to do anything about growth, so the people have to take matters into their own hands."

Floridians for Smarter Growth won't reveal how many signatures it has collected so far.

Election offices in Orange, Seminole, Volusia and Brevard counties say more than 70,000 signatures have been submitted by Floridians for Smarter Growth, though not verified. Caputo says he also has signatures from Osceola and Lake counties, but hasn't submitted them yet.

Part of his organization's goal is to show widespread support throughout the state. By law, organizers must get 8 percent of the eligible signatures in 13 of the 25 Congressional districts to get on the ballot.

"If we just wanted 611,000 signatures, all we would have to do is go down to South Florida and get them, but we want to show that [opposition to Hometown Democracy] is all over," Caputo says.