The worst possible outcome in the use of trillions of dollars of taxpayer money as fiscal stimulus would be to support the losing formula of economic growth related to suburban sprawl.
But that is exactly the direction the Republican-lead Florida legislature appears to be heading. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the legislature is considering what appear to be, at face-value, the sort of measures one would expect from the injured, hobbled economic elites tied to construction and development: get the nail guns going again and any cost.
My view is that we desperately need a fiscal stimulus, but that there is also a significant chance the cure could be worse than the disease if all the stimulus does is to reward entrenched economic interests who drove the economy onto the rocks in the first place. How can outcome be avoided, if the stimulus and its execution is put in the same hands as those that created the crisis?
The Orlando Sentinel report does not seem hopeful on that score. One of the measures sought by the GOP status quo: to eliminate the state's requirement for transportation concurrency and mandates governing Developments of Regional Impact.
Long before the current economic crisis, Florida's builders had "growth management" in its cross-hairs. The hubris and wealth created during the housing boom, that overran the legislature, sent its political troops to eviscerate what measly measures were in place to temper growth. It is a sad irony that the collapse of its markets-- in fields and wetlands now delineated by failed subdivisions-- is giving even greater energy to public expenditures to revive the sprawl machine.
What the Florida legislature should be doing is carefully listening to what kinds of outcomes it may be able to influence, to get real, sustainable jobs that will fortify the economy and not just feed our tax dollars down a black hole. The lack of foresight, as reported by the Sentinel, is the stamp of failure.
OrlandoSentinel.com
Florida heads for U-turn on road mandates for developers
Aaron Deslatte
Tallahassee Bureau
February 6, 2009
TALLAHASSEE
One idea emerging in the Legislature to kick-start Florida's stalled growth engine: repeal the road-building mandates developers hate.
Four years after lawmakers and then-Gov. Jeb Bush put sharper teeth and more money into the state's 20-year-old development rules, legislation unveiled Thursday proposes to roll back those transportation requirements for most of the state's cities and urban counties.
Although most of the state's once-exploding population centers now have more new homes than the marketplace can absorb, members of the Senate's Select Committee on Florida's Economy described the bill as a growth stimulator and dubbed it the "Community Renewal Act."
The bill would "unclog stalled projects that have been hamstrung by [state] requirements" and "remove government-created barriers to job creation," said the committee's chairman, Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.
"We want to lift those barriers and get government out of the way."
Changes intended to scale back state regulation include allowing urban areas to completely opt out of what's called transportation concurrency -- the law that requires local governments and builders to add enough road capacity within three years to handle the added traffic their developments create.
Even rural areas could get state permission to dodge the road-building requirement.
In 2005, lawmakers put up more than $1.5 billion to help meet the transportation-concurrency requirements. Senators conceded Thursday that the effort had largely flopped.
Huge projects, school impacts
The new bill also would retire a nearly 30-year-old policy for regulation known as "Developments of Regional Impact," which forces large-scale projects such as airports, shopping malls and factories to go through a lengthy state review.
And it would soften the 2005 mandate forcing developers to take into account the extra students that would pour into nearby schools when they calculate the impact of their subdivisions,
Ironically, the bill has the same sponsor, Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, and even the same number (SB 360) as the then-heralded 2005 act.
"Many of the problems we deal with are the solutions we passed before," Bennett said. "We're going to go back and do it one more time."
Lawmakers, local governments, developers, Florida's growth-management czar, and even environmental groups such as 1000 Friends of Florida and The Nature Conservancy were supportive of the bill Thursday at its first airing.
All basically agreed the road-building mandates at the heart of Florida's 23-year-old growth-management act -- once hailed nationally as a model for other fast-growing states -- had actually driven more development to rural areas where traffic congestion isn't as bad and it's cheaper to build.
'Significant step'
"It really is a very, very significant step forward," said longtime growth guru Tom Pelham, secretary of the Department of Community Affairs, which polices Florida's growth laws.
Pelham, though, was less than willing to say the proposal would stimulate growth. Home builders have said the state has about 300,000 homes that have been built but are now sitting vacant.
"The purpose of this is not to speed up residential construction," he said. "You could dismantle DCA and the entire growth-management act and it would not revive the economy, because it didn't cause the problem."
The bill is still a few weeks away from a first vote, but lawmakers appeared ready to steamroll it through the Senate early in the 60-day legislative session that starts March 3.
"With 300,000 empty houses sitting on a parched market in Florida, we probably don't need to build some more houses," Gaetz acknowledged, "but rather, commercial projects and industrial projects that create jobs are the kinds that seem to be held up."
Aaron Deslatte can be reached at 850-222-5564 or adeslatte@orlandosentinel.com.
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel
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