Barry White: an effective citizen activist making a difference ... by gimleteye

I'm intrigued-- if that is the right word-- how the mainstream media highlights volunteerism in our communities. NBC Nightly News, for instance, has a segment "Making a Difference". It is along the lines of 1000 Points of Light: remember those from the first Bush White House? Miami Today has its "Newsmaker" feature. It is basically an extension of the Chamber of Commerce. The Herald is AWOL, except perhaps for the society page. You wouldn't find any volunteers in any of these places who pitch in to help protect communities from the persistent threats to our quality of life and to the environment, for example. It is schizophrenic, isn't it: the stories are all about "green" and global warming, and yet the people who are making a difference on the ground, in our neighborhoods-- who butt up against the business elite and status quo-- are invisible to the general public. Not even WLRN, public radio, ventures into this realm. Well, there are a few activists who do deserve recognition.

There are a good examples of people who are making a difference. Barry White is one. Barry is an effective activist. He and colleagues like Eric Prince learned about the way communities in South Florida are planned and grow, by participating and paying attention to the government decisions required to meet the objectives of the State of Florida: that growth should occur in an orderly way that does not unfairly burden taxpayers with gross hits to quality of life, to traffic, schools, water supply and quality and other costs that are scarcely absorbed by developer impact fees. As a consequence of paying attention, Barry White is making a difference.

If you have free time-- perhaps a student, perhaps retired, or waiting for that next big thing-- you might consider learning how to become an effective civic activist. The environment happens to be the route I took to engagement with our shared world. You might be concerned about good government, about political corruption, and want to lend a hand to leave this place, wherever you are, in better shape than you found it. A few local groups do a great job on this front, at a time of great need and with very, very scarce funding: Clean Water Action, Tropical Audubon Society, the Urban Environment League, and Friends of the Everglades. Each group has a slightly different focus, but all the same goal: protect our communities from bad decisions and poor compromise based on distorted logic and, often, corruption. Click 'read more', for Mr. White's recent letter to the State of Florida.

Mr. White focuses, rightly, on problems in the western and southern part of Miami-Dade County, where the biggest pressure for growth has now created traffic nightmares and ghost suburbs. He knows as well as anyone how the gears of the Growth Machine mesh together; from county commissioners, to lobbyists, the engineering cartel, and all the way to mortgage bankers and big campaign contributors. Below, you will find letter that Mr. White wrote to the Florida Department of Community Affairs, objecting on behalf of an organization he helped to start, the transmittal of a land use amendment that would proliferate more sprawl outside the Urban Development Boundary; all for the purpose of helping a land speculator caught with pricey property. You can also learn about the Hold The Line effort to halt movement of the Urban Development Boundary in Miami-Dade, here. You can also check our archive feature, "UDB" or use the search engine to enter relevant terms. I've been poking around some older blog posts, and here is a good one to help you understand the underlying politics in Miami-Dade.

TO: The Department Of Community Affairs, State Of Floirda

Re: Ferro Application, Miami-Dade County, Florida (SW 167 Ave & SW 104 St)

It is our understanding that the Board Of County Commissioners (BCC) has forwarded the subject application to DCA for consideration and comment. We have the following concerns regarding this application.

IMPACT ON AGRICULTURE
The 9.9 acre tract is beyond the UDB. It will be the first developed land beyond the UDB at that point, it will be surrounded on three sides by agricultural land and is contiguous with extensive agricultural land. Agriculture in Miami-Dade county was down to 67,050 acres (2007). In 2002 that number was 90,373, a decline of 26%. Studies have determined that 55,000 acres of contiguous land in agriculture is required to support the industry. That is the minimum required for suppliers and services to the industry to remain economically viable. At the current rate of decline, agriculture, which employs over 20,000 people and represents over $661 million in gross sales will essentially be dead in Miami Dade county five years.

NO NET LOSS
We cannot keep taking land out of agriculture. THE BCC seems to consistently ignore the provision that the CDMP requires that there be no net loss in agricultural land. With no clear statement of how much land is to be retained in agriculture, there are no guidelines. However, nowhere in the Ferro application does it state how this almost 10 acre loss will be offset and he owns another 95 acres in the area. Actually, since approval of this application will be the camel's nose under the UDB tent, the net loss here will, in time, be the whole industry; how do you offset that?

SUFFICIENT LAND WITHIN THE UDB
In the Lowes ruling, Judge Canter, held that there is sufficient land within the UDB for development; there still is. Development in Miami-Dade County should focus on urban infill, not expansion. There is ample opportunity for serious developers to retain one of the many creative urban planning firms to re-define, and vitalize areas already developed. Coral Way just east of SW 37 Ave is an example of what can be accomplished. New condominiums and retirement housing within walking distance of shops, restaurants, offices, and entrainment on existing transportation routes; this is the model with which real, not opportunistic, developers should be concerned. Making urban areas more attractive, more efficient, more functional, this is the type of building required and merited; not paving over raw land.

NEEDS ASSESSMENT
We would ask if a needs assessment for this project as set out in FL Statute 9-J5 and defined in 9-J5.006, has been completed.

LAND BANKING
Given the current economic downturn in Miami-Dade County, and an anticipation that it will last for many years, this is a project which represents land banking, increasing the value of the property by obtaining re-zoning by investing in legal, lobbying and administrative costs now for flipping the property in five to fifteen years when building might be economically feasible. Should we be allowing this?

IMPACT FEES NEVER SUFFICIENT
Impact fees have not been raised in fifteen years in Miami Dade County and never cover the full cost of bringing infrastructure to a new area. For this, the County must draw on general funds to provide infrastructure, taking funds from under- developed or stressed areas of the County. So, disadvantaged citizens are subsidizing development in new areas and funding urban sprawl.

NO WATER; NO BUILDING PERMIT
We are on permanent water restrictions in Miami-Dade County. The quantity and quality of naturally available water are constant concerns. While our tap water is of the highest quality, interestingly, the South Florida Water Management District cannot tell us exactly, or even roughly, how much naturally occurring water we can count on each year. How can we measure water concurrency under Statute 163 if we do not have this information. If we knew this, we could divide by the amount of water required annually per person and by agriculture and industry and thereby determine the number of people this narrow spit of land can support. After that, no more residential building permits should be issued; re-shape the county through urban infill and planning.

VEGETATION CLEANS THE AQUIFER
Recent research has shown that vegetation above an aquifer serves to remove impurities from it. By reducing the amount of all types of growth on our land we are removing this natural cleansing agent. Gradually paving over our land is killing the Golden Goose. Everyone should read Paving Paradise by Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite. How much land can we afford to pave over for buildings, roads and parking lots.? How much water seepage can we stop and still recharge the aquifer?

TRAFFIC CONCURRENCY QUESTIONABLE
Roads in the area are nearing capacity; new building in this area will bring increased pressure on them. The traffic count figures provided by Planning and Zoning are questionable. They used to tell the exact month and year they were gathered. Now they put one date, July 8, 2009, 9:45:58 AM, for all stations. Similarly, the FDOT station counts were all made on 3/26/09. How is this possible? How can we measure for traffic concurrency? Also, the Miami Dade
County station counts and those of FDOT do not use the same parameters. And there really do not seem to be stations in the vicinity of this project. Where is the publicly available, accurate and understandable, information on traffic counts?

FROM THE GUT
There might be more information here than is required to oppose the Ferro project. But, this is not a zoning matter. It is a question of the sustainability and the quality of life in a major urban area part of a 5.5 million person megalopolis. It is hard to sit in a small city and understand what is like to live with morning and evening gridlock on our roads, millions of hours and millions of gallons wasted every day. It plays on your psyche, and pervades and flavors your life, It saps your spare time and daily energy. No wonder people are leaving and no longer retiring or relocating here. We must foster rational growth, and, for a time at least, shift into neutral until we see where the economy and the environment are heading.

THERE IS NO NEED OR REASON, OTHER THAN DEVELOPERS' GREED,
TO BUILD BEYOND THE CURRENT UDB. PLEASE FOLLOW THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE COUNTY STAFF AND REJECT FERRO FOR A THIRD TIME. THREE STRIKES, YOU'RE OUT!

Thanks for your attention.

Barry J. White
Vice-President
CANT/Citizens Against Nonconcurrency Taskforce, Inc.