COLUMN: Growth as 'We the People' want it for our communities

What does “growth” really look like to Florida communities?  

Three “skinny-mini” condos built on each 100 feet of waterfront, repeated down the beach shoreline?  Million dollar-plus residences unsold or unoccupied? Thousands of acres platted, approved and unbuilt? Subdivisions dominating previously rural countryside? Empty, deteriorating strip malls and vacant office spaces?

How many citizens really want such development?

“74 percent of Americans want NO NEW DEVELOPMENT crowding out their town,“ according to the national Saint Index poll taken in late 2008. The index, which tracks attitudes toward real estate, and other such statistics clearly demonstrates the need to approve the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment 4 on the November 2010 statewide ballot.

Have our community voices been heard throughout Florida when major development decisions would clearly impact and change the nature of a county or a town? “72 percent [nationwide] would grade their community a C or worse when it comes to deciding what does and does not get built,” the poll reveals.

The percentage may well be much higher in Florida, where there is widespread awareness of overdevelopment and the political corruption behind it.

According to Tom Palmer in the Lakeland Ledger, “Local officials were handing out building permits as fast as developers submitted them.”

Community comprehensive land-use plans, which are written for a 20-year framework using public input, and which are also prioritized and approved according to that public input, are instead being short-circuited when temporarily elected local officials respond to outside developer pressures.

Is politics-for-profit in play?  

Recent, upper-level growth decisions seem to keep a greedy eye toward campaign contributors rather than good statewide future planning. Corruption of publicly-elected officials has recently been proven, investigated, or suspected within numerous “growth” projects throughout Florida.  

According to Gov. Crist, “an apparent ‘culture of corruption’ calls for a statewide grand jury to take a sweeping look at honesty-in-government in Florida.”  

Again, the poll reveals, “69 percent believe the relationship between developers and elected officials makes the land-use approval process unfair.”

Who is influencing the growth decisions made by elected officials in YOUR town?

Amendment 4 is a new and important ballot opportunity that mandates local public input on community growth plans. It grew upward in the best grassroots style from petitions signed and collected by Florida’s resident-taxpayers.

Hometown Democracy’s Amendment 4 offers exactly what its hopeful name promises. “Yes” votes for Amendment 4 will help guarantee the opportunity for people in their own town to have a ballot-box say about the future growth someone else is proposing for that hometown.

Amendment 4 requires that growth-directed changes to the comprehensive land-use plans of local governments must be approved by the voters as well as by local elected officials. Citizens will then be heard on the future of their own communities.

When I ran successfully for mayor of the city of Carrabelle, local voters agreed with my campaign slogan: “The City Should Plan for Development; Developers Shouldn’t Plan the City.”

Small and big-business interests, developers, Realtors, big-time political contributors, and lobbyists are shaping the Florida of tomorrow.  

Such decisions made about Florida’s growth too often favor special interests. (I urge you to notice who is speak loudly against the Hometown Democracy Amendment. Could such organized voices have the most to fear if local voters are allowed to decide about development projects proposed for their own towns?)

Your “YES” vote for Amendment 4 will guarantee residents of your city and county the right to making the decisions determining the future of local growth.

Passage of Amendment 4 will help to assure that within communities in the Panhandle, the Atlantic and Gulf Coast, as well as the inland cities of our state, local residents can choose what “growth” will best fit their area.  

For my Carrabelle, and for all the beautiful Florida areas where you live, our “YES” vote will assure that the future decisions about “growth” through local development will be in our hands!

Isn’t that what the idea of “Hometown Democracy” really means?

Mel Kelly, was the proud mayor of the city of Carrabelle from 2005-2007.