A Thinking Republican Gives Charlie Crist a Message on 360: NO! By Geniusofdespair

Ray Judah is a Republican from Lee County who I like very much:

Ray Judah guest opinion - Bill would gut growth management in Florida, hurt recovery:

By Ray Judah - Special to news-press.com - May 24, 2009

In response to Sen. Bennett's recent commentary concerning Senate Bill 360 ("New bill reforms road mandates, discourages sprawl," May 22) let us look at the record.

In the 1920s, Florida was leading the nation in designing new communities. The best- trained and experienced urban planners in the world were practicing in Florida. However, relatively few communities then actually planned, and runaway development created a real estate bubble that collapsed, which help triggered the Great Depression. The population of the state increased 50 percent during this period.

In the 1950s and '60s real estate again took off. This time though Florida
was not enjoying the reputation of having well-planned communities. Instead, we were called the silver throated hucksters of swamp land. A citizens revolt led to the environmental and growth management laws that we have - or had - today. During this period population tripled.

From the 1970s to the present Florida's laws and the required infrastructure investment resulting from those laws took away the reputation of swamp land sellers. The communities have struggled with the challenges of those laws, but - contrary to the arbitrary and poorly supported legislative findings - communities that took the challenge seriously have prospered. During this period, the state's population tripled.

The current recession is again the result of a real estate bubble, from declaring value beyond what was reasonable. We are all suffering. Vast housing stocks exist, but they will be absorbed by the market because the public investments we are making are protecting the underlying function of those residences-safe, sanitary, and decent housing in the best state in the nation for enjoying retirement and raising a family, with an outdoors incomparable year around.

The Bennett legislation reverses that. It returns us to the 1950s and '60s at a time when a simmering anti-growth rebellion - Hometown Democracy - is gathering petitions for a statewide referendum in 2010. With the gutting of growth management, and the radical changes made to environmental management, there will be little belief the management systems will work. The petition drive will succeed. The situation is even worse than the 1950s and '60s, since this same growth management legislation is stripping local governments of the ability to fund infrastructure, replacing them with statewide fees for "mobility." This - like the lottery - will be just one more fund for the Legislature to loot, as it just did with the transportation trust fund when nearly $200 million was transferred to unfunded uses.

Most culpable of all the problems of this legislation is that it will reduce
jobs, not increase them. It is the local government investments in infrastructure that have kept people employed.

The building industry still has the terrible backlog of unsold and foreclosed homes that will need to be absorbed, and without infrastructure, the value of built homes will not recover.

So there will be no new immediate employment, just additional unemployment.
There will not be returned increases in property value, the current deconstructed value will just continue.

Before this legislation, Florida was competing and competing well with the nations of the world that demanded quality of their communities. After it, we now compete with the nations that do not have meaningful community and growth management. Why is this a good thing?

Opposition to SB 360 was led by the organizations and entities that opposed the runaway growth that led to this great recession. Its proponents were the ones who promoted it. The recession did not come about because of the state's growth management laws, and the recession will not end because we have eliminated them.

I urge Gov. Crist to veto SB 360