The Political Whore

Photo Credit: kwalk628 Flickr.com

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

No ceremonial photo-op for this signing, probably because nobody wants to see the Governor bending over for special interests but in my opinion that is exactly what he did by signing SB 360. This bill guts Florida’s growth management laws (yes, we had some) and everyone but special interests and their politicians are against it.

The only good news? This should be exactly what we need to get Florida Hometown Democracy approved by the voters in 2010.

Editor’s note: Weekend Rewind is a new feature of PoHo, republishing the best, longer posts about politics and public affairs from my blog and Daily Loaf as well, in case you might have missed them the first time around. Think of it as my version of a Sunday/weekend newspaper.

By Grant RImbey, CNU
Green Community contributor

A year ago I was doing microfilm research on local history at the John German Library in Tampa. Anyone who’s done this research knows how tedious it is; there’s no index for microfilm so to find pertinent articles one must scan each newspaper page on each microfilm roll. While doing this I was flabbergasted to discover a Tampa Tribune article from Nov. 25, 1924, that mentioned the work of the famous town planner John Nolen in connection with Tampa.

To my surprise, the City of Tampa commissioned Nolen to survey the city in 1924 in preparation for a master plan that he was to create for the city. I know a good deal about the planning and architectural history of the area but hadn’t heard that Nolen was working in our area. Tragically, Nolen created his survey but was never commissioned by the city to create his master plan for Tampa: 1924 was the height of delirium during the 1920s Florida real estate boom and the development industry of the time did not want to slow down the good times enough to allow the creation of a master plan and code to direct them. The great depression came early to Florida and by the end of 1926 the roaring 20s were over.

The discovery of John Nolen’s survey of Tampa is important as he’s arguably the finest town planner to have worked in Florida and is the namesake of the John Nolen Medal for Contributions to Urbanism in Florida, given by the progressive planning organization Congress for the New Urbanism, Florida Chapter. In Florida, Nolen was the genius behind the town plans of Venice, Sarasota, West Palm Beach, Clewiston, and Temple Terrace.

In 1924, the problems that Mr. Nolen identified in Tampa’s planning remain problems to this very day:

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Pam Iorio’s State of the City Address

During her first term in office, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio had the luxury of an up-market, sunny days and lots of people interested in building new condos and offices in her city. But for the past two years, in her second term, Iorio has spent her annual State of the City Address trying to reassure city workers that they wouldn’t be laid off and discussing how to live within the new boundaries that local governments in Florida are facing with the so-called tax reform measure taken two years ago.

On Monday, she stayed with that theme, but added a strong condemnation of Florida’s “boom-and-bust” growth mentality that if not aimed at county and state leaders should have been. And, she said, approving her rail transit plan that will hook up the airport with downtown with the USF area ushers in “an era of smart growth” that could just restore and grow our economy.

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Guest blogger Kelly Cornelius is a civic activist in eastern Hillsborough County:

And the winner for the best backpedaling of a public employee when his deaprtment is caught with its pants down goes to……….Bob Gordon, director of Hillsborough County’s Public Works Debt.

Recall the recent smackdown citizens gave the county and their paid consultants regarding their ill-conceived study to plow six lanes with a median through rural Lithia, which would devastate our little community and bring with it certain sprawl. We called them out on their lying to us and started our own investigation into the matter. The item was on the agenda for a County Commission meeting two weeks ago, but for discussion only, which means no public input on the issue.

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The movement that would put local land-use decisions directly into the hands of voters is fighting for its life again, this time against a developer-and-business-sponsored lookalike initiative that Florida Hometown Democracy says would “do nothing.” Organizers are asking for a rehearing at the Florida Supreme Court, a motion that is rarely granted.

This from the civic movement over the weekend:

Hometown Democracy to ask for rehearing on Florida Chamber of Commerce sponsored, “Vote on Nothing” petition.

In a close, 4-3 ruling, the Florida Supreme Court narrowly upheld the constitutional amendment proposed by “Floridians for Smarter Growth.”  That Chamber-backed petition was created to foil Florida Hometown Democracy, the people’s reform constitutional amendment that would allow local voters to approve or reject comprehensive growth plan amendments approved by their local elected officials.

In contrast, the Vote on Nothing proposal allows a referendum on a growth plan amendment only if 10% of the electorate travel to the office of the supervisor of elections to sign a petition within 60 days of the date of the first signature on the petition.  The Hometown Democracy sponsors predict that, because of those impossible logistical hurdles to clear, a referendum occurring under those circumstances would be highly unlikely, which, they assert, is the Chamber’s plan in the first place.

Florida Hometown Democracy will seek rehearing.

The full opinion is available at this link:

http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2008/sc08-318.pdf

It ain’t sexy stuff to write about Hillsborough County’s urban services boundary, but the imaginary line that is supposed to contain suburban sprawl around Florida cities is important nonetheless. Around these parts, it is under assault:

[Hillsborough County] Commissioners allowed a last-minute continuance of another bid to breach the county’s growth boundary, a move that angered 50 or more citizen activists who traveled from far-flung areas of the county to oppose the development on Lutz-Lake Fern Road near the Suncoast Parkway.

Developer Stephen Dibbs, who was not at the meeting, sent a letter this week to the commission asking for a delay on his proposal for a 36.6-acre development on Lutz-Lake Fern Road and Suncoast Parkway.

Dibbs wants to increase the density on his property tenfold, from one house per 5 acres to two houses per acre, and build a shopping center.

The continuance was the second granted by the commissioners this month after dozens of residents turned out to fight growth plan amendments that would push high-density development into rural areas.

“They’re making a mockery of this process,” said Kelly Cornelius, who then turned to the audience and asked, “Who else is tired of these continuations?” The crowd answered with a roar.

That’s the Trib’s account. The Times downplayed the vote and didn’t mention the dissension:

Commissioners were scheduled to vote on two other controversial amendments, but hours earlier, developer Stephen J. Dibbs withdrew his request to remove 305 acres from the Keystone-Odessa Community Plan, which governs growth in the northwest Hillsborough community, and asked commissioners to postpone until 2009 considering a proposed denser development near Lutz-Lake Fern Road and the Suncoast Parkway.

Dibbs is particularly well connected to the commissioners, raising thousands of dollars in commission races and serving on host committees for high-powered fund-raising events. He just missed making my list of 10 “Money Men” in 2006, raising a litle more than $10,000 for county candidates (including 6 of the 7 current county commissioners — Ken Hagan, Mark Sharpe, Jim Norman, Al Higginbotham, Kevin White and Brian Blair) since 2002.

The only person he didn’t give to was Commissioner Rose Ferlita:

Commissioner Rose Ferlita, who didn’t arrive at the meeting until after the vote to give Dibbs the continuance, asked chairman Ken Hagan to hold the vote again so she could record her disapproval.

The vote was held again, with Ferlita and Mark Sharpe voting no.

“I think this has been done before, and it … beats down our citizens,” Ferlita said.

Dibbs was also the driving force behind a move to gut the county’s environmental protections for wetlands.

So let’s face it; it’s hard to say no to a guy who has raised thousands of dollars for you. And that’s why our urban services boundary is susceptible to change and further sprawl.

On the upside, commissioners did vote 6-0 against extending the growth boundary out east of Tampa, along I-4, when they turned down a request by an Orlando company that wants to build an industrial park:

Orlando’s M.L. Carter development wanted a land use change on 94 acres near I-4 and McIntosh Road. Representatives of the developer said that was the perfect spot for an industrial park and could draw high-paying jobs to Hillsborough.

“The county’s missing many opportunities,” attorney Vincent Marchetti said.

But commissioners said they wanted to wait for the county staff to complete its study of the I-4 corridor.

About 20 people spoke against M.L. Carter’s proposal, which they said would jeopardize the county’s rural communities.

“This is absolutely outrageous that you would even consider this,” said Terry Flott, president of the Seffner Community Alliance.

The commission voted 6-0 against the land-use change. Commissioner Kevin White left before the vote.

I don’t find any record of the Orlando firm contributing to county commission races, but its attorney, Vin Marchetti, is a major local donor, contributing more than $12,000 in city and county elections. He has donated $7,000 total to all seven current county commissioners.

So is the lesson the Hillsborough County Commission can’t be bought with campaign contributions? Or that contributions from a developer carry more weight than those from a land-use lawyer?

(I’m going to post a spreadsheet of Dibbs’ and Marchetti’s campaign contributions and other documents about Dibbs’ request to push beyond the growth boundary over at Fix It Now Tampa Bay, our civic journalism website.)

If Tampa Bay has any hope of being liveable in 50 years, after absorbing another 3.2 million people from Brooksville to south of Sarasota, then the answer may lie in a stack of yellow and red Legos sitting on 30 tables in the Tampa Convention Center.

Business and civic leaders from seven counties are taking part in Reality Check Tampa Bay, a visioning and planning session put together by the Tampa Bay Partnership. The 300 participants included elected officials from all over the greater Tampa Bay region, including the “Big Three” mayors, Pam Iorio of Tampa, Rick Baker of St. Petersburg and Frank Hibbard of Clearwater.

The exercise put eight of the leaders at a table with stacks of children’s toys and colored ribbon. They had 90 minutes to plan the next 50 years. The Legos represented people (yellow) and jobs (red) that will come to this region during the upcoming half-century. The ribbons were road corridors (orange) and transit lines (purple).

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