Growth Lobbyists have stuck their middle finger in the eye of the voters

Wonks Are Just Shocked That Anyone Supports Amendment 4.

The “Hometown Democracy” amendment is a terrible idea, and I’m voting for it .State and local governments have made an absolute mess of growth management.

This “management” consists mainly of a war of attrition between a developer and the nearby neighborhoods, and inevitably the developers, with their full-time professionals and pockets of capital, outlast the amateur citizens who have to dig into their own pockets to defend their interests.

The Chamber of Commerce and the real estate industry are running expensive PR campaigns to persuade people the economy will collapse if Amendment 4, “Hometown Democracy,” passes. Hey, guess what?

The economy collapsed BEFORE this thing passed — thanks to growth run amok.

The goal of the amendment is not to have people vote on all the changes to plans. The goal is to force governments to create good plans and stick to them. The Chamber says there are 10,000 changes to land-use plans every year, and they’d all need to be voted on. 10,000! That’s not a plan. That’s a developer playground.

That’s a reason to support Amendment 4, notoppose it.

Call me irresponsible. I expect the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Realtors and St. Joe and lots of others will. Under their Orwellian name of “Floridians for Smarter Growth,” they are just shocked, shocked that anyone can support this initiative.

All the wonky “policy” people I know are horrified that growth management may be taken away from, well, the wonky people who have been screwing it all up.

The environmental group 1000 Friends of Florida, which had opposed Hometown Democracy for a long time, has changed its mind. The polls say it’s close, but the business crowd has done its work and scared a lot of peopleaway. Every vote will matter.

Clear-cutting trees, backed-up intersections, flyovers, the ridiculous traffic patterns around our interstates, crowded classrooms, growing costs of keeping up with infrastructure — all have roots in bad growth management.

Slow down development, and our communities will be more livable and our property values will recover faster.

In Tallahassee, some one said we already have more public hearings than the law requires.

Repeated public hearings are stupid. It’s just another way to wear down citizens, who shout and scream and maybe get a “compromise” that the developers expected in the first place, while elected officials take a walk and avoid responsibility.

An army of well-paid professionals represents developers for as long as it takes to get the project through, while neighbors have to dig into savings and take time off from work or family to mount an opposition.

It’s not a fair system. It just isn’t.

The past four years, with Hometown Democracy chugging toward the ballot, gave those “Smarter Growth” developers plenty of time to produce a credible alternative. Tom Pelham, the head of the state’s growth-planning agency who knows what a mess we have, proposed one. But the Legislature, two-thirds Republican and enriched by campaign contributions from the real-estate industry, neutered what was left of state growth-man­agement after Gov. Jeb Bush and even refused to extend the life of Pelham’s agency.

The growth lobbyists don’t want “smarter growth.” They want growth, period. Instead of looking for “smarter management” of growth, they just stuck their middle finger in the eye of the voters.

So there’s only one last chance to bring them to heel: Amendment 4.

Yes, referendums on growth plans are a terrible idea. It’s not the way we should govern ourselves. But what else can you do?

Worry not: The system eventually will find a way to survive with Hometown Democracy. Nothing has ever thwarted the development industry in Florida, and this won’t either. Vote for Amendment 4?

Call me irresponsible.

I call it irresistible.

Neil Skene