Gunning for what’s left of growth management
Stew on this the next time your day is ruined by a commute that has mutated into a chronic traffic nightmare, or by sewer pipes in your city overflowing during heavy rains, or by your child’s school bursting at the seams, or any of the other rotten fruits of dismantling Florida’s system of managing growth: Some of your legislators in Tallahassee are trying to undermine what’s left.
Those legislators aren’t content with the crippling blows already dealt, such as abolishing the state’s planning agency and radically scaling back state and regional oversight of development proposals. They propose not only to further restrict the state, but also to hamstring local governments.
The leader of this year’s pack of bad bills might be SB 62, which would eliminate Florida’s 10 regional planning councils. Although RPCs lost significant authority in previous legislative attacks, they remain an important forum for neighboring county and city governments to address critical regional planning issues that cross their boundaries. RPCs are especially valuable for smaller local governments that can’t afford their own planning departments.
SB 62’s sponsor, freshman Senator Jennifer Bradley, invoked Ronald Reagan’s warning that “no government will voluntarily reduce itself in size.” But RPCs are an odd target for opponents of Big Government. They don’t have regulatory authority. They get by on grants and modest local dues. Eliminating them would do nothing to balance the state budget. But it would leave in limbo millions of dollars in grants already secured by RPCs to address such regional planning priorities as pandemic recovery, environmental protection, affordable housing, public transit, climate resilience and more.
SB 62’s supporters in committee insisted county and city governments could instead negotiate a series of interlocal agreements. But this is like trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. There’s no good reason to break RPCs — they don’t need fixing.
Here are just some of the other bad bills circling like vultures over the remains of growth management in Florida:
HB 487 and SB 1274 would quintuple the threshold for small-scale amendments to local comprehensive plans — community blueprints for growth and development — from 10 to 50 acres, or from 20 to 100 acres for sites within economically distressed rural areas. This would put more comprehensive plan amendments on the fast track to approval and pave the way for more development with less oversight.
HB 55 and SB 284 would take away most local government design review and authority for residential buildings. Local governments utilize this to maintain standards for compatible development within their communities and protect property values. Citizens unhappy with local standards can hold their local leaders accountable and seek changes; they don’t need Tallahassee to swoop in and blow up the process.
HB 403 and SB 266 would allow homebased businesses to operate in residential neighborhoods, preventing local governments from licensing and regulating them in categories other than noise, parking and waste. This could create a crush of customers, deliveries, nuisances and health and safety issues in residential areas, degrading the quality of life for neighbors.
SB 522 and HB 219 would nullify local ordinances passed since 2011 to regulate vacation rentals. This would impose a one-size-fits-all policy throughout much of Florida, preventing local governments from limiting this commercial activity in residential neighborhoods. It would push up rental costs, reducing the supply of affordable housing.
HB 421 and SB 1876 would strengthen the position of developers in disputes over proposals and land-use limits with local governments. Legislators in recent years have been stacking the deck against local governments striving to manage growth responsibly within their boundaries. This legislation would only worsen that trend.
There’s a mentality in Tallahassee that unfettered growth is good for Florida’s economy. That’s as far from the truth as Mount Dora is from Mount Everest. Failing to exercise any control over development inevitably damages our environment and quality of life, the pillars of our healthy economy. With hundreds of new residents still pouring into our state every day even amid the pandemic, Florida needs more growth management, not less.