It is sickening to watch the Growth Machine taking advantage of the worst economic crisis since the Depression to gear up new rules and regulations so that when housing markets return, citizens will have even less access to the law to protect their communities and the environment. The latest: the Florida Homebuilders Association is lobbying the federal government to de-list the wood stork as an endangered species, saying the bird's status impedes recovery of one of the state's core industries. It is actually the mirror opposite: the wood stork is not "an albatross", the production home builders are. (The wood stork played a prominent role in the successful citizen and environmental organization effort to stop illegal permitting of rock mines in West Miami Dade that not only threatens this endangered species but also the supply of affordable, clean drinking water for millions of south Floridians.)
The home builders only know how to do one thing: build half-empty suburbs on the taxpayer's dime. Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent to bail out not just the banks, but the crappy financial derivatives on which the power of the home builders is based. It is all fraud. Still, the costs to the public of disposable communities created vast wealth for the Growth Machine supply chain. One way or another, our tax investment to "rescue" threatened industries like the home builders are being used against the public. Recently, the home builders influence in the Florida legislature lead to the "The Growth Anywhere Act" (SB 360) signed into law by political opportunist: Gov. Charlie Crist. The Palm Beach Post, among other state-wide newspapers, lamented the failure of Gov. Crist to veto the measure that essentially removes state supervision of major developments and transportation concurrency; an effort to balance development by assuring adequate infrastructure is in place to handle traffic.
Today, the Palm Beach Post opines that all is not lost if local governments rise to the occasion and use the new law to establish strict review parameters for new development. But the Post also notes the undue influence of the land speculators and real estate development lobby. Far from chastened by the implosion of housing markets due to vast oversupply, these campaign contributors are priming the glue guns and particle board to do it all over again.
Even the Florida League of Cities, and Miami-Dade County, joined in opposition to "The Growth Anywhere Act": you see, the county commission has grown accustomed to approving bad developments, knowing that the state of Florida would be on the hot seat to do the tough work of rejecting the entreaties of powerful lobbyists.
The same forces that created this national economic crisis-- spread around the world-- have gotten a free pass from the Florida legislature and Gov. Crist to do it all over again. Blame the birds.
EDITORIAL: Bad growth rush? Not yet
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Floridians should thank Tom Pelham for trying to save growth management.
Mr. Pelham is secretary of the Department of Community Affairs, the state's land-planning agency. On Friday, he held an Internet forum for more than 1,100 parties and discussed his interpretation of Senate Bill 360, which abolished the two key portions of the Growth Management Act that the Legislature passed in 1985. To developers hoping to cash in quickly on bad projects, Mr. Pelham said, in essence, "Not so fast."
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Supporters believe that the new law automatically eliminates traffic concurrency, which requires adequate roads to be in place concurrent with development. According to Mr. Pelham, however, the law allows local governments to keep concurrency. In fact, he said, concurrency can't go away unless local governments change their growth plans, which takes at least six months and can drag out for years.
To spur redevelopment, the law took aim at the biggest counties and densest cities. But Mr. Pelham clarified that it doesn't affect every city in a qualifying county. Cities with fewer than 5,000 residents don't qualify. That eliminates half of Palm Beach County's 38 municipalities, including the oceanfront trailer park town of Briny Breezes. Among the remaining 19, only Palm Beach Gardens doesn't appear to meet the density requirement. On the Treasure Coast, Stuart, Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie qualify. While eight counties and 200 of Florida's roughly 450 cities are expected to be eligible, an official list won't be published until July.
But in Mr. Pelham's view, the new law could have little or no effect on even the eligible cities. Revised transportation plans due in two years can be built around concurrency. That pleases Palm Beach County officials who worried that, without the law's leverage, developers no longer would have to pay for roads.
Despite Mr. Pelham's narrow reading, the bill remains bad for Florida. Without a state backup, developers can spend heavily to lobby local politicians to get what they want. A real-life example: When Palm Beach County commissioners had a chance to draft realistic standards for undeveloped citrus groves, they caved and allowed suburban sprawl. State oversight stopped them. Three commissioners who supported that plan - Tony Masilotti, Warren Newell and Mary McCarty - are in prison on corruption charges.
If some cities cave and others resist, the bill will result in chaos. Cities opposed to the ambitious growth plans of a neighbor would have no way to avoid traffic gridlock. For developers, it could mean different standards in every city.
Mr. Pelham could have imposed SB 360 on local governments. Instead, he gave local politicians a chance to draft meaningful growth controls. That will mean meeting the Legislature's goal of steering growth into dense areas and ending suburban sprawl. If local governments blow this chance, SB 360 will deliver just the opposite.
Find this article at:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2009/06/16/a10a_leadedit_growthbill_0617.html
5 comments:
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.
Let's hear it for the Builders and Developers!
There will be no "housing market return". What fundamental market forces would produce one. Bubbles once burst never reinflate.
Bubbles do, indeed, inflate in housing. Check your history.
Rather than checking my history, which will show no bubbles reinflating in any facet of the economy including the housing market, why don't you cite an example. Has the dot.com bubble ever reinflated?
You will be able to cite cyclical valuations in housing but never has there been a crash or pop like we are enduring now. It is unprecedented. It is historic.
There will be no "recovery" for the US economy, only a "stabilization" at some lover level of material wealth. And you can take that to your insolvent bank.
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