Florida’s growth management agency dismantled in bill intro’d in Legislature
March 10, 2009 at 8:48 am by Wayne GarciaSpeculative real estate buying is what got Florida in this current economic mess. We’ve got an unsold inventory of an estimated 300,000 homes. So what is some lawmakers’ answer to this economic crisis? More unfettered, unfocused and unrealistic growth.
Craig Pittman at the St. Petersburg Times reports this morning on a new bill unveiled yesterday that would abolish the state’s growth-guiding agency, the Department of Community Affairs. Its responsibilities would be shifted to the unelected Secretary of State’s Office (which was once held by Katherine Harris).
Under Crist’s pick as secretary, Tom Pelham, the agency has blocked such controversial projects as the mammoth Wiregrass development off Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in Pasco County and a Taylor County development proposed by St. Petersburg surgeon J. Crayton Pruitt.
Pelham’s agency blocked the Wiregrass development – which promised 12,000 homes or apartments, three elementary schools and enough stores to fill two major shopping malls – because Pasco officials failed to nail down road improvements to accommodate all that growth.
And in Taylor County, Pruitt had proposed destroying 58 acres of wetlands adjacent to a state aquatic preserve in order to build 624 condominium units, an 874-unit hotel, 280,000 square feet of commercial space and a golf course. Pelham contended those plans went far beyond the state’s plans for how the coast should be developed and failed to protect the fragile environment.
Read the full story here.
