Florida lawmakers are poised to vote on major changes to the state’s 25-year-old growth management law that would reduce state oversight over new development, which environmentalists fear will lead to unchecked sprawl and damage to the state’s waters and lands.
Some environmentalists say the changes to the state’s growth management law contained in a bill that is ready for a floor vote this week (HB 7129) are so substantial it amounts to a near-reversal of the 1985 growth management law that was intended to provide statewide oversight and a uniform approach to development across Florida.
“It puts the local government front and center on development approvals,” said Charles Pattison, the director of environmental group 1,000 Friends of Florida. Pattison said the state would no longer be required to review changes to comprehensive plans under the bill, which would also weaken the ability for the public to protest an unwanted new development.
The major changes to growth management laws are just one of several bills environmentalists are fighting this session. As Republicans in control of the Legislature push a generally pro-business agenda, many lawmakers are promoting bills that reduce environmental regulations.
Republicans maintain that reducing environmental red-tape will yield more growth and jobs.
“In 15 years, I’d say it’s the worst (session),” said Janet Bowman, a lobbyist with the Florida chapter of the Nature Conservancy. “What is unusual is generally in the past, you have had either a Senate President or governor that had some sort of environmental priorities who provided a backstop and you don’t have that here.”
The House growth management bill and its Senate companion (SB 1122), which has one more committee stop before the full Senate, apply statewide a pilot program started in 2007 that allowed for faster review of changes to local development plans by weakening the ability of the state’s planning agency to intervene in disputes.
Both proposals prohibit referendums or citizen’s initiatives on local comprehensive plans along the lines of the “Hometown Democracy” constitutional amendment that was rejected by Florida voters last year.
Florida’s 1985 growth management law established a system of statewide oversight and approval over changes to comprehensive plans – maps that describe what developments are allowed and where – created by cities and counties. Under the proposal lawmakers are considering, any changes to local comprehensive plans would have to be approved by the state planning agency, the Department of Community Affairs.
Critics of the current law say the process in place now has led to unnecessary bureaucratic delays.
Supporters of the proposed change say the type of in-depth state oversight created by the 1985 law is no longer needed as counties and cities have strengthened their planning departments and developed comprehensive land-use plans.
“Every city and county has a growth management expert on staff, and 90 percent of the amendments are approved by the state,” said Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne. “We haven’t taken away one green area or added one more layer of asphalt. We simply left the process up to the local governments. It’s a home rule issue.”
Workman said the state will continue to have oversight over projects that have a significant regional or state impact, such as developments near the environmentally sensitive Everglades or a new airport.
Though Workman’s bill would keep the Department of Community Affairs, but reduce the size of the agency, other proposals in the Legislature would eliminate that department completely. Gov. Rick Scott has suggested possible elimination of DCA, and merging its duties with the Agency for Workforce Innovation and the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development under a single entity called JobsFlorida.
Environmentalists say agencies like the Department of Community Affairs have been unfairly targeted as a job-killer.
“It’s all about the economy and unfortunately I think people have looked at the environment as something that is slowing the economy and I don’t think that is the case at all,” said Paul Johnson, a lobbyist for Reef Relief. “Florida’s environment really is its economy.”
Bowman said Florida is overbuilt, with thousands of vacant homes, and wondered whether a bill that makes new development even easier is the right approach. Many environmentalists would prefer urban development incentives.
“It’s not the regulatory scheme that is an impediment to economic development,” Bowman said.
Environmentalists worry the changes to growth management policies will re-create a Florida of the 1970s that struggled with uneven development standards, resulting in sprawl and congestion.”
“We need a consistent statewide set of standards,” Bowman said.
By Lilly Rockwell
