Update to all of our Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment Supporters:
We are continuing to gather grim evidence of how Florida Hometown Democracy was kept off the ballot. Our plans are to mount a challenge to this system that we see is designed to uphold (at any cost) government of the developer, by the developer and for the developer, even if it means they destroy democracy along the way.
The very bedrock of our constitutional rights, the First Amendment, is at stake, and we must defend our absolute right to petition our government for redress of grievances - in order to take back our power from a government that has become totally unresponsive to our best interests, wishes and needs!
Please send your donation today to help us build the necessary legal fund...the way ahead will be expensive, but challenge we must!
If each person reading this can send or raise and donate a minimum of $100 towards the effort, we will have enough to get us well on the way to our next, critical step - the challenge!
However, GIVE WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD!! Any amount will help.
Mail your check to:
Florida Hometown Democracy
PO Box 636
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32170-0636.
Thank you again! Lesley Blackner, President of Florida Hometown Democracy
10 comments:
I am so mad at what Thrasher did to Hometown Democracy and also the Chamber of Commerce. I will put some money in for a court battle!
Marco Rubio and his cronies (Rivera) were in on this too---against the FHD petition. What a shame.
Hometown Democracy... That's what you call it... Well, I am sorry, but, the form of government that we have enjoyed in this Country for years is a Representative, or republican form of government. There are good reasons for it. If this measure passes, all development, good and bad will be stymied in this State. Forget jobs in the real estate market, they will be obliterated. Really, sometimes, activists think with their heart instead of their head.
Wake up!!
I know you are frustrated with some of the land use decisions made at the County Commission. The answer is to go out and elect better people, not cutting off our nose to spite our face!!
WE HAVE DISTRICTS...YOU WAKE UP. If we could put good people in office we would but we can't.
And don't say we ENJOYED...this is no fun!
The other anon hit the nail on the head. If you don't like the decisions that people make, then change the people. And don't blame districting, either. If they keep getting re-elected in their district, then they're doing something right for some of their constituents. Unfortunately the whole world cannot be happy all the time, every time. And using the state constitution to make changes is inherently wrong (bullet train, pregnant pigs, among others). And if you think the market has come to screeching halt now, you haven't seen anything if HD passes. Heck, I think Blackner lives in Palm Beach. Wasn't that a pristine island at one point?? I guess once you have it, no one else should be able to get it.
you county employees commissioner aides are all alike. You write the same thing. People do not need comp plan changes. they treat them like it is a right. It isn't. Nothing would come to a halt...people would just build what the zoning allows. That is fundamentally the right way to do it. The commissioners should not be granting changes at their whim. HTD would change the playing field. If you think following the plan that the county approved will grind the economy to a halt, you are an idiot. We would just see better planning being implemented.
Genious:
I have to disagree with you. Implementing Hometown Democracy is a death nail to any meaningful development. They have a version on Key Biscayne now, and that is in the process of being overturned. It doesn't work. You can't justify good applications if all CDMP applications are subject to the vote of the electorate. Most voters won't even read the applications, don't know what it means, and have no idea what substantial competent evidence is.
What should happen then, since you seem to be happy with your district commissioner (your point is that since commissioners are chosen by district, and you can't control who is elected from other districts, the representative form of government is lacking in this area, correct me if I am wrong), is limit CDMP changes to the will of that specific community council. There is no reason that the Community Council cannot act as the local planning agency for purposes of compliance with 163 Florida Statutes.
And please, don't say this isn't fun. If it wasn't fun, you wouldn't spend so much time on this blog, which is a great venue by the way for political junkies like me. Thank you for the venue by the way.
Exactly what I said a last week:
Key Biscayne council wants its zoning power back
The Key Biscayne Village Council wants to reverse an ordinance that places power to make zoning changes in voters' hands.
Posted on Mon, Mar. 24, 2008Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
BY ANTHONY MINERVA
aminerva@MiamiHerald.com
Less than a year after Key Biscayne voters approved a referendum stripping the Village Council of the power to make zoning changes, some council members are hoping voters will give some of that power back.
In a zoning meeting scheduled for Tuesday, the Village Council is expected to consider an ordinance that would place a charter amendment on November's ballot modifying restrictions approved by voters in June.
Last year, Key Biscayne voters approved a charter amendment requiring voter approval whenever the village's land development regulations, including the zoning code, are modified.
The ordinance to be considered Tuesday proposes that an amendment be placed on the Nov. 4 ballot changing the charter so ``voter approval is required only for changes to the land regulations (including the zoning code) which increase the density or intensity of land in the Hotel-Resort (HR) Zoning District only.''
Council members who support the change say the current restrictions will require costly elections and bog down the process. ''If this amendment continues there will be hundreds of ordinances for people to vote on,'' Village Attorney Steve Helfman said at council's meeting March 4.
The council can grant small variances to residents, but it chooses not to for fear changes may violate the village's master plan, said councilman Stephen Leidman, who sponsored a resolution authorizing Village Attorney Steve Helfman to draft a new ordinance.
A residents' group pushed for the charter amendment last year after the owners of the Sonesta Beach Resort property sought approval for a redevelopment that some feared would bring more congestion to the island. It was approved by about 70 percent of those who cast votes.
Ballot language proposed by the ordinance reads: ``The Village Charter currently restricts the Village Council from making changes to the Village's Land Development Regulations in any Zoning District without approval of the electors. It is proposed that the Charter be amended to limit the elector approval requirement to changes to the Land Development Regulations that govern the Hotel-Resort (HR) Zoning District when the changes would increase the density or intensity of development.''
''The reason people voted in favor of the amendment was because of Sonesta,'' Leidman said.
``Now the people realize the vote had nothing to do with Sonesta. They'll have to be educated more, but I think they'll vote in favor of this resolution.''
But at the March 4 council meeting, activist Michael Kelly said residents are still wary of the council's ability to control development.
''We don't trust you to stop density and intensity,'' he said.
The meeting takes place at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Village Council Chamber, 560 Crandon Blvd. For details, call the clerk's office at 305-365-5606 or visit www.keybiscayne.fl.gov.
Hometown democracy is born of the public’s frustration with governments that are controlled by special interests. It happens at all levels of government and so many people are really fed up. HDA would never have been conceived if local, regional and state governments had been doing their job of public service instead of bowing to the pressures of big money.
Lots of time to find all the information and put the puzzle together. Florida, development, taxes, properties, local government, budgets, public statements, facts and fictions, it all has to be reviewed and lots of it is out there on the web for someone who cares about what is real. Today Surfside, Florida has elected officials who talk green but who are beholden and controlled by the overdevelopment crowd, the special interests. The only green is the money going from public resources into private resources. Privatization?
Much information available on line. Surfside, once a successful and proud community, has nosed dived into an abyss of waste, mistakes, ridiculous rhetoric, blatantly false and simply crazy accusations against former officials, and the lowest form of local politics. The men in charge, now mayor Charles Burkett and his sidekick Howard Weinberg, have plunged the Town into the depths of government gutter.
The way it used to be was so different! Surfside, Florida emerged as a leading community in serving the public interest rather than special interests. Courageous, honest, and productive leadership was the hallmark of the Town of Surfside from 1992 - 2004. During that time, Mayor Paul Novack and the then serving Town Commission unanimously enact budget corrections and fiscally responsible policies and every year for 12 years the town operated under balanced, stable and efficient budgets, with production of increased levels of town services, and numerous capital projects undertaken and completed that upgraded the parks, playgrounds, streets, drainage system, business district, Veterans Park, Town Hall, and much more, all with no debt, no bonds, and with the building of significant town surplus funds to serve the town’s present and future. The town attracted a new Publix and many new restaurants and shops for the business district and made improvements and expansions to town parking facilities. Plans were made for a new town library and hi-tech information center to go on newly acquired property on the west side of Collins Avenue. The town was internationally recognized as a model community, and in 2003 Novack was honored as the state-wide “Community Steward of the Year” in Tallahassee.
Paul Novack received the Community Steward Award for his steadfast advocacy for effective growth management in Surfside. In 1992, Surfside residents overwhelmingly supported a referendum to prevent a twenty-story beachfront condominium. For more than a decade after then, Novack has served as mayor of this small Dade County community for the grand fee of one dollar per year. Throughout his tenure, Novack and the town’s commissioners have consistently denied any requests for height and density variances, maintaining heights at twelve stories east of Collins Avenue, and five stories to the west. Nominators wrote that, thanks to Mayor Novack, “the town’s zoning code has been consistently, fairly and effectively enforced.” Besides that, Novack has maintained a balanced budget without raising property taxes, there is a one-minute emergency police response time, and garbage is picked up six days a week for a nominal fee. During the selection process, 1000 Friends was impressed with Mayor Novack’s steadfast determination to uphold the planning and development standards needed to maintain Surfside’s distinctive character and scale, noted Pattison. “With his dynamic leadership abilities, commitment to sound planning, and concern for the residents of Surfside, Mayor Novack exemplifies the qualities of a true community steward.”
Mayor Novack was elected by the voters six times to serve as mayor, not one variance for height or density or setbacks or uses were ever approved during his tenure, and he retired from office in 2004 with official tributes from the Florida House of Representatives, the Governor of Florida, Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and an official entry into the United States Congressional Record, and honors and thanks from many others from throughout the world.
Today in 2008 the town faces huge operational deficits, potential major debt, stagnation, failed promises, and higher taxes, and overdevelopment. New Town officials have now thrown their weight behind opening up the zoning code for commercial development. Green? $$$$$$$ against quality of life. The most hypocrital example of promising people one thing then pushing hard for changes in the opposite direction. Now Surfside has nose dived into the pits of politics because of the disgraceful malfeasance of Charles Burkett, Marc Imberman, Howard Weinberg, and Steve Levine? Did their avarice for attention divert them from being publicly honest or even honest to themselves?
Public records and internet resources still show the facts and they are instructive for other communities and all of Florida.
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