Florida: the growth machine squirms

A new report by 1000 Friends of Florida chairman emeritus, Nathaniel P. Reed, offers a sober, inclusive blue-print towards reforming the state’s out of control growth and a call to action. But the call to action, first to market, is a proposal by Florida Hometown Democracy, summoning state-wide voters to a referendum on growth in the 2008 ballot.

The Florida Hometown Democracy amendment would require existing municipal and county development plans, from which zoning changes flow, to be voted on by the public. Its opponents call it a blunt-edged tool.

But anything in Florida that is called a "blunt-edged tool" needs to be looked at carefully from a political point of view: this is the state that pushed George W. Bush to the White House in 2000. There was nothing blunt-edged how that happened.

Pay attention to Florida. It is one of the nation’s fastest growing states, and until the last election cycle its growth was administered by the president's brother, two-term Governor Jeb Bush.

Bush’s political ascendancy was facilitated by Florida’s homebuilders, developers and land speculators, for whom the party is over. The few remaining platted subdivisions under construction in Florida ressemble dead shrimp floating in a plastic bowl at a campaign victory party after everyone has gone home.

Since last November, Governor Charlie Crist emerged from Jeb’s shadow, a welcome relief from a leadership that brooked no diversity in policy matters.

While in office, Governor Bush governed according to a simple formula: whatever government does, private industry can do better. In principle, it worked like Grover Norquist claimed it would: shrink government to a size it could be drowned in a bathtub.

Jeb had a particular interest to show that industry cooperation could achieve more than regulation, and in particular, that commerce profits protects the environment better than government authority. What is left, is the imprint of low interest rates burning platted subdivisions into wetlands, unmitigated disasters that pooched estuaries and rivers and kept pollution flowing into the Everglades from Big Sugar.

One of the first points of correction, led by the current Governor Charlie Crist, was to smooth over relations with environmentalists. Jeb relished divide and conquer tactics that kept environmentalists in camps: those who favored compromise and those who believed that compromise from values that had already been compromised was the same deal as getting half of nothing from nothing.

These are the general conditions from which the 1000 Friends of Florida report, “Working to sustain Florida’s rural and natural lands: A call to action”, has emerged. But there are enough reports, plans, and studies for a sustainable Florida to line the shelves of a library.

Now 1000 Friends of Florida, whose board represents a blue chip group of builders, development interests, present and former government officials and a smattering of public interest representatives, has brought to the forefront a way, perhaps, for big landowners and farmers to join in a collaborative effort towards a new model for growth.

But the obstructionism of the past, really the foundation of the Bush years in Tallahassee, is not over by a long shot.

On the other hand, what Florida Hometown Democracy proposes could become a sharp-edged tool putting an end to instant-gro growth and scary strip mall culture that defines Florida.

The 1000 Friends report is bannered by the coda, “saving special places, fighting sprawl, building better communities”, that voters would endorse if given the chance by direct vote of specific new measures.

Instead, when these goals appear, they are in the context of state laws that have been either turned into paper tigers or ground to dust by repetitive changes, hollowed out by lobbyists, or counter measures that ensure dysfunction and failure. Avenues of appeal in state courts have been thwarted, stymied, or blocked.

It is as though what passes for growth management to protect Floridians' quality of life and environment is wrapped in parchment that disintegrates on contact.

Floridians deserve accountability for the massive costs imposed by unsustainable growth on taxpayers and the environment. But the model for growth today avoids accountability at every turn: it is model so ingrained, so inculcated in local government that even with billions of dollars of losses through crashing housing markets, no legislative majority exists today that knows how to do anything but pass zoning changes, protect the revolving door of public officials, big engineering firms, and lobbyists, and wait for a better market.

The problem with the 1000 Friends of Florida recommendations is the eternal dilemma of optimists: how to get from here to there, where the playing field—that is to say, our legislatures— fail the standards of representative democracy.

Florida’s builders, developers and large landowners have pledged to raise as much money it takes to defeat Florida Hometown Democracy. There is nothing like a good battle to rouse the troops dispirited by the collapse of a housing boom.

It is a simple rule that is threatened by the citizens' movement: we’ll give you campaign money if you give us the zoning changes for sprawl.

Every single campaign contributor from the growth machine who is bundled around a zoning change knows it is a lot easier to keep track of coins stacked on an incumbent county commissioner than spread all over the place.

Industry and local elected officials fiercely oppose Florida Hometown Democracy, darkly inveighing against the chaos that would ensue by putting a leash on the zoning authority of local elected officials. Of course they are wrong. The measure proposed by Florida Hometown Democracy doesn’t take away zoning authority: what it does is require that applications to amend existing master plans must be voted on, by specific jurisdiction.

Floridians don’t trust their government for very good reason. The promise of growth and development seeded the state with the after-effects including a state budget crisis and collapsed housing markets that leave permanent footprints in some of Florida’s most fragile landscapes, leap frog development that has ruined aquifers, and turned decision makers into the functional equivalent of Middle Age church elders arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

In comparing the collegial spirit of 1000 Friends of Florida report and the sharp edged sword of Florida Hometown Democracy, Floridians should ask themselves: is your quality of life, is your environment, is your traffic congestion and neighborhood comity better today than it was ten years ago?

The answer in Florida’s urban regions, is, no.

It’s exceedingly rare when one civic action, one pull of the ballot or push of the touch screen can actually shift political reality. When all is in doubt, declare war against voters.

If Florida Hometown Democracy passed, 1000 Friends of Florida and its recommendations would then offer a reasonable response to the public anger that is forcing the state to a dramatic showdown between voters and taxpayers and the development lobby.

Absent that incentive, the Florida legislature will do nothing, or, worse.

So embrace the spirit of 1000 Friends of Florida, but sign the petition and vote first for Florida Hometown Democracy.



Kenric Ward: Double-dealing
Politicians, businessmen pooling resources in effort to shut down the Florida Hometown Democracy initiative
By TCPalm Staff
Monday, October 22, 2007
The Florida Chamber of Commerce apparently thinks the state’s cities and counties are doing a swell job of managing growth. And vice versa.
In its latest assault against Florida Hometown Democracy — the citizens initiative that would give voters a direct say on any comprehensive plan changes in their communities — the chamber’s campaign organ is drafting municipalities to fight for the status-quo.
Evidently, a multimillion-dollar war chest and legions of corporate backers aren’t nearly enough for the chamber’s political action committee. It wants to tap tax dollars, too.
By linking arms with the public sector, “Floridians for Smarter Growth” is further exposing the incestuous intercourse between business and politicians.
Answering the chamber’s call-up, the Indian River Shores Town Council dutifully mailed a letter to each of its 2,800 residences this month. In it, the council urged voters not to sign the Florida Hometown Democracy petition. Those who already signed are asked to revoke their support (via another chamber spin-off, “Save Our Constitution”). Watch for more crafty civic appeals as FHD moves ever closer to the 611,000 signatures needed to reach the 2008 ballot.
The chamber’s gambit may strike some as a blatant abuse of government resources and public trust, but the wall between business elites and elected officials was breached long ago. Aside from a few side skirmishes over impact fees (which are passed on to new homebuyers anyway), the Florida League of Cities and the chamber march pretty much in lockstep.
An extreme example of corporatism is Fellsmere, where Sun Ag and other large landholders drive that town’s annexation agenda. Port St. Lucie made itself synonymous with sprawl by working with developers.
But the screws are turning everywhere — even in “slow-growth” Martin County. Meantime, Indian River County’s cities, including Indian River Shores, are angling to grow by claiming large swaths of unincorporated land.
This is not some new phenomenon triggered in response to Florida Hometown Democracy or attempts at charter government. The Sunshine State has been bulldozing open space for decades, at the rate of 20 acres a day.
“The very essence of a locality is its operation as a growth machine. The key motivation for members of politically mobilized local elites is their common interest in growth,” states New York University professor Harvey Molotch. He wrote those words back in 1976, under the title, “The City as a Growth Machine.”
Because land begets wealth, and wealth begets power, local governments become the de facto servants of landed interests. The cross-directorship that rules Florida ensures a close working relationship between developers and public officials statewide. Checks and balances? Government by the consent of the governed? These quaint notions went out with the horse and buggy.
What terrifies the growth-development complex is Florida Hometown Democracy’s threat to disrupt this cozy arrangement by giving residents a direct say in their communities’ future.
Noting the legalistic complexity of “comprehensive planning,” defenders of the current system say the public is ill-equipped to make intelligent decisions on such matters. FHP opponents assert it would be impractical to hold referendums on every tweak of the comp plan.
These claims — echoed by “professional planners,” land-use attorneys and oh-so-sage politicians — reek of utter disregard not only for taxpayers, but for the planning process itself. Aren’t these the same voters who elect the office holders? And if our elected officials are so committed to good, long-range planning, why are they constantly changing the rules?
The obvious answer is that “planning” has become a con game set up by developers, for developers. They have the gall to call it “managing growth.”
Molotch again: “The clearest indication of success at growth is a constantly rising urban-area population –— initial expansion of basic industries, followed by an expanded labor force, a rising scale of retail and wholesale commerce, more far-flung and increasingly intensive land development and higher population density.”
Any of this sound familiar? It should, as public-private partners keep crafting growth-inducing tools, such as “clustering,” “density transfers,” “planned developments” and “town-villages-countryside.”
Instead of benefiting from a rising tide that lifts all boats, taxpayers are swamped by higher taxes, more congestion, a degraded environment, a hugely overblown real-estate market and, maybe, a few more service-sector jobs. Want to attract or keep better paying jobs? Well, that will cost you extra.
Indian River County residents are discovering this with Piper. The public-private cartel that propels the growth machine dictates higher stakes by raiding public funds in a bid to make the Treasure Coast “competitive.” “It’s the way the game is played,” we’re told.
As business and politics blur, taxpayers may feel they’re getting played in a game of three-card monte. And they’d be right. The elites — both corporate and cracker — call the shots. The best John Q. Public can hope for is trickle-down economics. Good luck!
On the planning front, you can probably name a few developers and elected officials who deftly deal the cards, in and out of public view. When those politicians or businessmen tell you Florida Hometown Democracy is a bad thing, ask them this: “For whom, exactly?”
ken.ward@scripps.com