Florida Hometown Democracy still fighting for, well, democracy
August 5th, 2008 by Kelly Cornelius in Environment, Suburban sprawl, What you can doThe citizen’s initiative to take growth decisions out of the hands of politicians and give the decisions to voters is fighting back get on the ballot this November. The group remains a few thousand verified signatures short of having enough to be on a ballot, a predicament it blames on ” a hostile Legislature, well-heeled corporate opposition, erratic counting procedures by supervisors of elections, questionable emergency rules from the secretary of state and inexplicably blasé (or non-existent) news coverage.”
What exactly is Florida Hometown Democracy? Basically, it is telling our elected officials that they suck and we no longer give them the right do make growth decisions for us. Sounds like the American way on the surface: Citizens — fed up with politicians who are permanently bent over for big developers with no regard to the environment or our quality of life — start a grassroots petition drive to get an initiative on the ballot. Get enough signatures and, bingo, citizens get to decide if they want to continue to trust the politicians or if they would rather have vote directly on land-use decisions.
FHD gathered the required number of signatures (and then some) and turned them in. Not so fast, said the building lobby (and the politicians that they buy up easier than rural land). The excuses made by the state for not putting it on the ballot were pathetic and seemed downright dirty. FHD did not give up and is now in court to decide whether it will make the ballot.
Opponents of the initiative say it will stop growth … NOT TRUE.
Growth is dictated by local governments’ Comprehensive Plans and will continue as those allow. What Hometown Democracy does is gives the power to decide on whether that plan is AMENDED to citizens. For example, that Comp Plan hearing I attended last week where 6 of our 7 Hillsborough County Commissioners voted to increase densities in rural areas — against the Comp Plan and against the advice of the Planning Commission thus creating more sprawl — I would have had an actual vote on that and so would you!
Only Commissioner Rose Ferlita voted against violating our Comp Plan. Team Sprawl (Jim Norman, Brian Blair, Al Higginbotham, Kevin White, Ken Hagan and — I am sad to report— Mark Sharpe) voted to violate it, making the perfect argument FOR Hometown Democracy. This isn’t about stopping growth; it is about stopping special interest, out-of-control growth. It is about telling our politicians that they clearly can’t be trusted so we will do it ourselves, thank you.
In my opinion, this is the best chance of saving what we have left of Florida for future generations to enjoy. I believe if the referendum is passed, our grandchildren will have Ms. Blackner, who started Hometown Democracy, to thank for saving Florida from certain demise (unless you live here for the concrete). She is a fearless competitor against a mountain of developers and their sea of politicians.
What can you do? Support Florida Hometown Democracy by signing the petition and spreading the word. Vote to approve it in November, providing the courts do the right thing and actually put it on the ballot.
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August 5th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
You go - Girl! FHD is the only way the CITIZENS of Florida and not the development industry will be able to decide our future. Growth is great - in the right places, but we’ve got to save some of the precious real Florida for future generations. At this time sprawl is the most inane way to bring progress to any area.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
The building lobby is scared to death of this thing getting on the ballot. That’s why they’ve spent millions to underminet this grassroots petition movement. And Team Sprawl (Norman,Hagan,White,Blair,Higginbotham) are scared s***less that if it passes they’ll lose the ability to keep the cookie-cutter-house-building machine running, and then the people that put them into power will get angry and not support them in the next election, and without the developer/powerbrokers funding their campaigns they will end up getting booted out and have to resort to selling used cars or becoming skycaps or something else that befits their skills.
We’ve got to contribute to the FHD effort with dollars and signed petitions. This battle is not over yet and we are close to succeeding.
August 5th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
There is a federal lawsuit pending that if all goes favorably for FHD it will be on the ballot this year.
The next step is educating our family, friends and neighbors so they will vote in favor of FHD this fall.
Ever the optomist!