The Florida Supreme Court yesterday, struck down (4 to 2) a law that let voters revoke their signatures from petition drives to put constitutional amendments on statewide ballots. There was a drive by developer friendly, Associated Industries of Florida, to kill the petition so they worked on getting 13,000 signers to revoke their signatures with misleading information like the infamous Thrasher letter (hit on image to see it). The petitions that were in limbo are now being counted which means FHTD now has 711,168 valid signatures (676,811 are required). So, after 4 harrowing years and 116 Eye on Miami posts, it looks like the amendment will be on the ballot thanks to a healthy 34,357 cushion! It is just in time to help neutralize toxic Senate Bill 360 that Crist just signed into law.
Angry Associated Industries President and CEO Barney Bishop said his organization may ask the Legislature for a constitutional amendment permitting signature revocations and overriding the Supreme Court ruling. He also said opponents may try to use the courts to stop the measure. He said: "Tell 'em to be prepared, What's good for the goose is good for the gander. This ain't over." Putz. This is why we need redistricting, because SOB's like this control the legislature. Sign the redistricting petition!
16 comments:
FHD is not a good thing! These are some of the issues:
High-Priced Media Campaigns--Debates on controversial comprehensive plan amendments would likely turn into high-priced media campaigns, favoring deep pocket large developers over homeowner associations and grassroots groups.
NIMBYism or "Not In My Back Yard"--Local governments would find it much more difficult to adopt amendments related to often controversial but much needed community projects such as affordable housing, schools, transit systems, landfills, and other public facilities, leading local governments to pursue either more costly or less desirable alternatives.
Piecemeal Planning--FHD would also remove the "comprehensive" from the comprehensive planning approach, resulting in a series of uncoordinated, piecemeal decisions driven by popularity rather than necessity.
Sprawl--This proposal could limit responsible new development in more populated, urbanized areas, forcing development out into rural areas which have fewer people to oppose the proposed plan amendment. It could also limit efforts to pass plan amendments intended to lessen sprawling patterns of development.
Legal Gridlock--A series of legal challenges will likely be necessary because of the vague wording of the proposed amendment. Questions include: Will plan amendments be voted on individually or in a bundled package of many amendments? Will the amendments be considered at regular elections or will special elections be required? Who will pay for the new and increased costs associated with these elections? What happens if voters approve an amendment found "not in compliance" by the Florida Department of Community Affairs? What happens if changes required during the mandated 7-year update of the comprehensive plan are not approved by the voters?
Legislative Backlash--To avoid such legal challenges, the Florida Legislature could change the plan amendment process for the worse, reduce the ability of citizens to challenge plan amendments, or undertake other similarly drastic and counter-productive alternatives that would render Florida Hometown Democracy-and Florida's growth management process--moot.
After 116 post, I have no energy to refute your arguments which I don't agree with. Did it before.
Geniusofdespair, you haven't refuted these arguments, you've only floated your own argument, which in your mind trumps all the above: "FHD means...I get to vote on it!" You just want someone to listen to you. So even though the average person lacks the information and capacity to do the complex, long-term economic interest-balancing that real planning entails, you want to have a direct say in planning. FHD is not progress, it's just a way to keep things the same. But it was never really about progress, just sold as such, because FHD supporters don't understand real planning, they just don't like other people. Like the guy in "There Will Be Blood." FHD = narsicistic masanthropy.
Well Anonymous, the amendment may not be ideal, but with what was signed in SB360 there is really no choice. It is unquestionable better than life with SB360 and probably better than life before SB360. The legislature could embrace the key elements of FHD and pass legislation to take the "take the wind out of its sails" of FHD but they are functionally incapable of giving the citizenry of Florida what they want and need and cannot stop bowing to the $pecial interest$ in the state. Thus a flawed referendum trumps the crap we have now.
The developers, lawyers, and banks have a lock on local politicians. Almost all developments are approved since the general public are not at the same table with the well connected and financed builders. This past planning has helped create the financial meltdown. Why do people think that keeping things as they are will improve the quality of life for the community, when it has done the exact opposite.
Don't annoy me anonymous. I don't like being annoyed by Johnny Come Lately. Read the file and then tell me that Gimleteye and I didn't address your concerns.
I keep going back to this article, written by Janet Reno's sister as I think it is easy to understand and covers the bases:
Hometown Democracy: People want right to say no
By Maggy Hurchalla, guest columnist ---STUART NEWS
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
It's easy to tell who the bad guys are in the Hometown Democracy debate. They lie so viciously and creatively that they make normal dirty politics seem friendly. They are committing huge piles of money to say and do whatever is necessary to stop Florida Hometown Democracy from getting on the ballot. They clearly believe that people will vote for it and it will slow growth.
And then there are the innocents — the frustrated, angry public that have watched the best planning laws in the country turn into bureaucratic pablum. They want the right to just say "no."
What's puzzling are the good guys caught in between. Tom Pelham, one of Florida's better state planning directors in the past, is fighting Hometown Democracy while warning the Legislature that growth management in Florida has failed. 1000 Friends of Florida is reluctantly and ever so politely not a friend of Hometown Democracy. The American Planning Association state chapter is afraid of it.
When your thoughtful friends question a decision, it's time to stop and think. I have thought long and hard over all the arguments against it. I think my hopeful friends in the middle are wrong.
Opponents go on and on about how difficult it will be to vote on each and every comprehensive plan amendment. They miss the point that local governments are handing out amendments like chewing gum. The problem is that we have too many amendments.
Everyone agrees that our local plan is our constitution. We should treat it like one. We should be conservative in making changes. We should let the people vote on those changes.
It's very clear from the opposition that there will be far fewer amendments proposed if the public gets the right to say "no."
As long as there are 8,000 plan amendments around the state every year, there will be chaos. We're watching it happen. Comp plan amendments should be rare. They should happen every two years at the general election. They should be something the public can understand. Our politicians have proved rather dramatically that they are not smarter than we are on planning issues.
Doubters of Hometown Democracy propose a list of bold legislative changes that would restore the public's role in planning without giving them the "draconian" power to say "no".
I think any of us who have watched the Legislature in recent years can say with complete confidence that there is not a snowball's chance in hell that any of those reforms will pass, unless Hometown Democracy makes it onto the ballot for next November.
Go to: www.floridahometowndemocracy.com or call the toll-free number for petitions: 866-779-5513. Download a petition and mail it in ASAP. E-mail your friends. Beg your neighbors. Time is running out.
And when we get it on the ballot, we will see whether the Legislature can meet the challenge to make growth management work for people instead of developers. If they can't, then we know for sure that we need Hometown Democracy.
Opponents keep saying that letting the people vote will turn over important planning decisions to the side that has the most money for advertising. I find that viewpoint incredibly offensive in terms of its attitude toward voters and democracy in general.
Look at next post (continued)
But if we get on the ballot, the November election will produce an unbiased answer to the accusation that voters can always be bought.
The campaign is clearly going to be David versus Goliath. The opponents of Florida Hometown Democracy have already shown that they will be the big bad mean Goliath with most of the money on their side.
So if the people of Florida vote overwhelmingly for the Hometown Democracy amendment, they will have proved that democracy and honesty can win over big money.
That's a happy thought."
Hurchalla, a former Martin County commissioner who lives in Port Salerno, co-authored Martin County's comprehensive plan and has been a longtime statewide advocate for conservation and land preservation.
That reader should read Gimleteye's post (the same reader probably wrote the comment that Gimleteye is referring to) in:
"More, on Florida's Growth Machine: blame the birds"
Yes, reader let me put Gimleteye's post here as well because it covers what this bogus person is referring to:
Here's a response to a reader's comment on yesterday's post, "Florida's Growth Machine: blame the birds." A cranky reader writes: "Boo hoo. The legislature gives cities the power to promote mobility any way they want, and NIMBYs complain. Why? Because NIMBYs are dumb. They prefer sloganeering like "Hold the Line" to actually doing planning. Oh, and under the new SB 360, existing city comprehensive plans and zoning, with all their concurrency requirements (which drove up urban land costs and only exacerbated sprawl) and their thoroughly outdated and discredited planning concepts REMAIN IN FORCE unless affirmatively changed. Which raises a larger point (Hometown Democracy, I'm looking in your direction): WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT EXISTING COMP PLANS AND ZONING? Why would any progressive thinker want to keep existing land use patterns and make it harder to change them? 20th Century land use has been proven wrong." My response: this idea that citizens can be substantively involved and "actually" do planning is not borne out by history. Every citizens' effort to be "included" in planning has come down to third class citizen status. South Dade Watershed Study? Thousands of hours, put on a shelf. The Ag Retention Study? Buried by land speculators. The South Miami Charette, or, the Key Biscayne Master Plan. The governors' repetitive blue ribbon panels on growth? Let's study this some more and do what the speculators want.
Gimleteye continued...
In Florida, anything that has "planning" in its title ends with what developers want. The record of design charettes involving the public in South Florida? Eastward Ho? Only if you give Doral, Homestead, Sweetwater, Westchester, Hialeah and MIami Lakes first. What the developers want is what local zoning councils and elected bodies deliver.
There really is no distinguishing, in Florida, developers from the majority of zoning councils and elected bodies. None. Nada. Niente. Ask Natacha Seijas who she really works for. She won't tell you the truth: she works for "the little people".
As to the comment about Florida Hometown Democracy: "what's so great about existing comp plans and zoning?" (FHD proposed that changes to local comp plans will have to be approved by direct vote.) FHD is a very good change to the Florida Constitution, if it ever makes it to the ballot. Why? Because developers will see, finally, that their strategy implemented through lobbyists and trade associations-- instead of championing every crappy development proposal that comes down the pike--is going to have to find a way to persuade the public of a long-term vision: not short-term profit. Wow, now there's a novel idea.
Gimleteye Finishes....
A very good example of how this WON'T work in the future is the Sergio Pino master plan for Tamiami Airport, heading west and south toward Krome Gold and Parkland. Mind-numbing to watch speculators dress their multi-thousand unit projects as "green" outside and hollow inside.
Here is what is so hard for Associated Industries, the Florida Home Builders Association, and the Florida of Chamber of Commerce to understand: they brought Florida Hometown Democracy on themselves.
Nothing could argue for FHD better than turning the Florida legislature into their own private fortress, guarded by Hopping Green et al. Evidence: recent measures in the legislature supported by Gov. Crist (The Growth Anywhere Act), and the incessant fiddling with citizen standing and other anti-democratic measures designed to thwart the public in zoning issues. To the writer, above, who claims that local jurisdictions still have to follow state mandates: just wait and see how long that lasts.
The creepiness was on full display, yesterday, when Barney Bishop, the CEO of Associated Industries whined about the decision by the Florida Supreme Court to nullify his syndicate's effort to revoke FHD petition signatures, "Bishop said his organization may ask the Legislature for a constitutional amendment permitting signature revocations and overriding the Supreme Court ruling. He also said opponents may try to use the courts to stop the measure. "Tell 'em to be prepared," Bishop said. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander. This ain't over." Good for the goose, Barney? You guys cooked the Florida goose. It used to be golden and you burnt it to a crisp.
The real NIMBY's are builders and developers and lobbyists like Barney Bishop who don't want anyone in their backyard messing with the formula of low cost, suburban sprawl. They want their trade luncheons, award ceremonies and fish rodeos in the Bahamas to be lush and filled with tuna, the way it was in the boom. Ain't gonna happen. First of all, no demand for what they are pushing. Second, the formula that put millions in their pockets is now backed by the US taxpayer-- a formula that only works with derivative mortgages and insurance--is busted.
The taxpayers and voters mopping up after the looters have wrecked the temple are not happy.
If you don't think citizens are angry enough to vote for Florida Hometown Democracy today, just wait until it becomes clear that billions bailing out crap debt instruments that ungird so much of crap development is primed to be unleashed again because of short-sighted, self-defeating attacks. You can't fight audacity of hope with poverty of imagination.
I'm reminded of the story how one of Florida's top lobbyists, in the midst of the housing bubble, showed up to a trade show with a smile a mile wide and T-shirt printed, "Pave Everything". It made everyone laugh. Not so funny, anymore.
EOM, you two think your arguments are diverse and airtight, but they are all just different ways to say "Those guys are corrupt, listen to meeeeee!" But if you're right and Hometown Democracy wins, the same majoroty voters who keep electing the corrupt politicians will now be making planning decisions. What makes you think they'll suddenly start making good decisions? And not just veto decisions, affirmative decisions for which progressive planners (as you probably fancy yourselves) will have to spend years, maybe decades educating thousands of people to win support. And in the meantime, the old comp plan will keep chuging out development based on discredited ideas like segregation of uses and no transit. Can't you even acknowlege that there may be massive policy and procedural flaws with the whole premise of Hometown Democracy? Other ways to root out corruption? Other considerations than just "give me a vote?" Can you even answer the simple question: What's so great about existing comp plans? Sincerely, Johnny Who Got Here Long Before EOM Did
Methinks first anon is trying to get people hysterical. Only those applications APPROVED by the local government will go to the LOCAL community for a vote. After almost a decade on a zoning board my experience has been that most communities are not NIMBY IF the application enhances their community. They are NIMBY IF the application is not compatible with their community and diminishes their quality of life. The burden will be on the developer to work with the people to design a project that is good for the community. Most people do not object to a well-designed project; yes, even affordable housing.Miami-Dade County conducted urban density workshops several years ago. They asked people what they thought about increased density (among other things). The biggest objection to increased density was an increase in crime; followed by traffic. They rated loss of farmland as their first concern about sprawl. Our development industry is so used to having their way with local politicians, they don't want to work with the communities. Decades of abuse has led to FHD. If nothing else we will get a more level playing field and the players don't want that.
Great blog! I hope to someday grow my Miami Blog to the level yours is at. Keep up the good work and don't be a stranger. Stop by and show some love.
Anyone have a workable definition of "compatible with and enhances their community does not diminish their quality of life?" Thought not. Some people say Baylink is not "compatible" with Art Deco architecture, but they are just rich Anglos and Jews who want to keep out poor Blacks from Downtown. As long as "compatible" is that broad, it's a joke and NIMBYs lose credibility. Precision, folks. IJR
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