The idiotic Hialeah Government called Amendment 4, on their agenda, the "Vote on Everything Amendment," a phrase coined by the phony Floridians For Smarter Growth (a bunch of developers, lobbyists, lawyers, etc. that think you are stupid. They should be called growth-at-any-cost). I think that it is very unprofessional for a Government entity to put a partisan slogan in their official papers, but it is Hialeah so I shouldn't be surprised. It is disrespectful nonetheless. For the record: Amendment 4 doesn’t cover re-zonings, variances, permits or annexations; just comprehensive plan* changes. That's it. And not ALL plan changes just "land use changes." President of Florida Hometown Democracy, Lesley Blackner says:The plain language of Amendment 4 establishes voter referendum only over comprehensive plan changes that concern “future land development.” Nothing else.
Land-use is just ONE element of the plans. How many land-use changes are there? For example, none in Miami Beach for the last three years that I checked and Coral Gables gets 1 to 3 a year since 2005. With Miami 21 pending, the giant overhaul of the zoning code of the City of Miami, they must have had more. But, for the most part, Comprehensive Plan Changes are few and far between. You would know them: they are usually those very large developments or those very wrong developments that occur in the worst possible places. You see a little map in a newspaper notice-ad when a comp plan land-use change is occurring. Most land use comprehensive plan changes in the County are Urban Development Boundary assaults, and there aren't that many of those either. The misinformation on Florida Amendment 4 is akin to the death squads for seniors. For instance:
Your opportunity to vote only kicks in if the Commission or Council APPROVES THE CHANGE. You get to veto their vote. You might have something on the bottom of your ballot to vote on, like those city/county questions you vote on every so often. That's it. You aren't going to be faced with pages of questions, that is just hype. And, you don't have to vote on them anyway, Florida's Amendment 4 would just give you the option. If you trust your County or City Commission, you can totally ignore the vote that Amendment 4 would afford you. People already only vote on stuff they care about, so this isn't so different. No one will be holding a gun to your head forcing you to vote or read something. You only vote if you care enough.
Don't get sucked in by the developers and their lobbyists with phony slogans. I don't know what all the fuss is about. Who wouldn't want more power over their surroundings? Unless you are a developer, this can't hurt you. It gives you an extra layer of protection in your neighborhood. How is that so bad?
BTW, Floridians for Smarter Growth is funded by developers, lobbyists, builder's groups, developer interests and the Chamber of Commerce. Yeah, they have YOUR best interest at heart. These rich guys are actually asking for donations too, posing as a grass-roots group. Give me a break! Here are some groups that are opposing Amendment 4 on Floridians for Smarter Growth - The group that thinks your stupid website:
Florida Building & Construction Trades Council
Florida Building Materials Association
Florida Chamber of Commerce
Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association
Florida Coalition for Property Rights
Florida Economic Development Council
Florida Engineering Society
Florida Farm Bureau Federation
Florida Forestry Association
Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association
Florida Gulfcoast Commercial Association of Realtors
Florida Home Builders Association
Florida Institute of Consulting Engineers
Florida Land Council
Florida Land Title Association
Florida League of Cities
Florida Limerock & Aggregate Institute (rock miners)
Asphalt Contractors Association of Florida
Building Owners and Managers Association of Florida
Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, Inc.
Business Forum of Palm Beach County
Central Florida Commercial Association of Realtors
*Comprehensive plans: In 1985, the Florida Legislature enacted The Local Government Comprehensive Planning and Land Development Regulation Act that requires all Florida counties and municipalities to adopt Local Government Comprehensive Plans to guide future growth and development including land use, housing, transportation and infrastructure, among other aspects. These plans are updated every 7 years by cities and counties under the leadership of the State of Florida's Department of Community Affairs and Regional Planning Council. This review is known as the EAR process. A developer can do anything that is approved in the plan. Growth is built into the plan. It is when the developer wants something MORE, that is when you have an application to change a development plan.
15 comments:
Again, as I noted before on this blog, there is widespread confusion about the scope of Amendment Four.
It is true that the Amendment does not involve zoning decisions.
However, it will apply to all changes to local comprehensive plans.
Even in jurisdictions that are basically built out, there are changes required to these plans every year. For example, each plan has a Capital Improvements Element, which includes a list of arcane projects such as road widenings and water and sewer plant expansions. State law requires changes to this part of the plan every year.
This is the kind of important decision for which Amendment 4 will require a vote of the electorate.
The vast majority of comprehensive plan changes are small and technical and, frankly, are related to things that few people are concerned about.
The bottom line is that Amendment 4 will cost local governments a significant amount of money for little or no gain.
A good article on this:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/editorials/the-real-amendment-4-116138.html
By the way, there have probably been hundreds of comprehensive plan changes in the City of Miami in the last ten years.
Thank you Floridian for Smarter Growth advocate, Lee Allen@
We don't trust our government so why not Amendment 4? The developers run our politicians. This will take some of their most menacing decisions into the public arena. I like the chance to veto. I am voting for it. Lee, you are a plant. We all know it.
Yeah, LeeAllen@, I can't turn my single family house into a duplex either. Bummer. It's my land, right? I mean, if I want to buy a house across from you and turn it into a nursing home - I should be able to, right?
Oh, wait, do you live in a gated community in the Gables or something? Do they build skyscraper nursing homes over there on the waterfront? Oh, wait, I am getting the Gables confused with Palmetto Bay. Sorry.
Ah yes, the old ad hominem attack. Glad to see that intelligent debate is still going on here on EyeonMiami.
Still haven't read how I got the impact of the Amendment wrong.
At this time of very limited local revenues, leave it to a developer to change state law to allow a city or county commission to spend scarce taxpayer dollars for a campaign to tell people how they should vote. If Senator Mike Bennett’s legislation is passed, a county commission could spend thousands of taxpayer dollars for ads to get people to vote for higher taxes, as well as to oppose Amendment 4’s plan to limit the commission’s power to grant favors to developers.
Last session Senator Bennett tried to abolish the Department of Community Affairs. He was the prime mover for Senate Bill 360, which whittled away at what little remains of growth management.
Mr. Bennett is a developer. "I chase real estate deals," he said to the Herald Tribune. "That's what I do."
While our politicians are entitled to their opinions, they are not entitled to spend our taxes to tell us how to vote. That’s as far as the First Amendment goes.
One of of commissioners called Amendemnt 4 the "vote on everything amendment" too.
They dropped their resolution Tuesday after the county attorney warned them off.
But, it makes you wonder where these elected officials are getting their information and their resolutions.
what is the frequency on elections going to be...are they going to put changes on hold untile there are several of them to have a vote on? is it county wide elections for any and all projects, or municipal or district? I need some answers before making my decision. I will probably vote for it, but i dont think it really adresses the real problem. It feels like its putting a band-aid on cancer.
Lee Allen:
The Palm Beach Post
Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor:
The November 2010 election is still a year away and yet The Post is already editorializing against Florida Hometown Democracy, on the ballot as Amendment 4. Given The Post recognized that Amendment 4 is “the biggest thing on the 2010 ballot,” it is very important to set the record straight.
The Post editorialized that under Amendment 4, voters will be forced to vote on every single change to a local comprehensive plan, whether important or meaningless. In fact, the plain language of Amendment 4 establishes voter referendum only over comprehensive plan changes that concern “future land development.” Nothing else. These “future land development” changes often determine the future of a community for decades to come. The Post thus erred when it stated that Amendment 4 will require a vote on each and every comprehensive plan change.
For the past 25 years, the Florida Growth Management Act has mandated that each local government have a “comprehensive plan.” According to the law, each plan’s purpose is to “establish standards for the orderly and balanced future economic, social, physical, environmental, and fiscal development of the area.” The Growth Management Act acknowledges that Americans rightly expect a certain level of infrastructure and municipal services which will be paid for by a dedicated funding source. The American standard of living requires government to provide certain things like drinkable water, adequate police, drivable roads, decent schools, open space, etc. It’s what separates us from the Third World.
To that end, the law directs that each comprehensive plan must contain a map designating future land use categories. The plan must also contain other elements supporting the land use designation with levels of service for traffic; sewer and water; conservation, recreation and open space; and capital improvements. Commissioners vote on changes to these plan elements. Amendment 4 will not cover those changes. Commissioners also vote on changes to the future land use element, which controls the location, amount and type of development permitted. Amendment 4 will cover these changes.
The frustrating experience of years watching arrogant commissioners ignore the public interest and rubberstamp endless speculative overdevelopment produced Amendment 4. Too many local commissions forget who they represent when they just can’t say no to yet another piece of reckless sprawl that further raises our taxes and depresses our home values. Operating under the influence of developer contributions to their political campaigns, our political class drove Florida’s economy over the cliff. Yet most are loathe to take any “personal responsibility” for the calamity.
Unrepentant, too many elected local officials continue to mindlessly rubberstamp growth plan changes to allow even more speculative “future land development.” Anyone paying attention sees that our political class is incapable of self reform. Voters must take back control. Amendment 4 is the only way to bring accountability back to a broken growth planning system.
Sincerely yours,
Lesley Blackner
When a commission votes in favor of a comprehensive plan change, that vote is codified as an ordinance. The law of referenda requires that the public vote shall be tailored to and "track" the vote of the commission. Accordingly, if your commission adopts five ordinances approving comprehensive plan changes concerning future land development, then there will be five referenda items on the ballot at the next election.
The plain language of Amendment 4 establishes voter referendum only over comprehensive plan changes that concern “future land development.” Nothing else. Other types of plan changes that do not address “future land development” will not be subject to referendum.
Frequency of elections: Next scheduled election or they can call for a special election if time is of the essence.
Yes it is not a cure-all but a bandaid on cancer is not accurate. It is more like chemotherapy.
Developers and greedy attorneys have too much power over elected officials. The will of the voters is ignored. Vote Yes on Amendment 4.
In Hialeah, we have a mayor who is in real estate and tuned into helping his developer friends first. His part-time job is being the mayor of our city. Otherwise, he wouldn't spend so much energy and time marketing himself to protect his image, while at the same time participating actively in the demolition of historic buildings.
Under his commad, an old bungalow was demolished without approval of anyone (administrative decision), the original Milander Auditorium, was demolished to build a new, state-of-art center --- hmmm, I wonder who got that contract?, the historic stables at Hialeah Park were also demolished. There was an ordinance passed in 2007 that will allow 5 to 9-story, mixed used buildings throughout areas of East and SE Hialeah, and on land currently occupied by mobile homes. Note that none of this will occur near his home in West Hialeah or where most of the council members live.
At the last council meeting for the city of Hialeah (Jan 12, 2010), the agenda included an item that read, "Proposed resolution strongly opposing proposed Constitutional Amendment Four, the “vote-on-everything” amendment requiring a referendum on every City Comprehensive Plan Amendment and further urging all voters to vote “no” on Amendment Four on the General Election Ballot of 2010. (ADMINISTRATION)" - The Administration is Mayor Julio Robaina. The vote from the council members was 7-0.
Vote YES on Amendment 4.
People keep insisting you have to vote on everything which is what developers are trying to make you believe. I decided to post this here it is right off the dept. of Community Affairs Website:
"Comprehensive plans contain chapters or "elements" that address future land use, housing, transportation, infrastructure, coastal management, conservation, recreation and open space, intergovernmental coordination, and capital improvements."
Amendment 4 ONLY APPLIES TO ONE "ELEMENT": LAND USE.
And, only if the land use change is first approved by local officials.
The fewer they approve, the few we would have to vote on.
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