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Monday, September 17, 2007
“Citizen input might curb haphazard development”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A developer proposes an 1,800-house subdivision.
Opponents cry foul to anyone who’ll listen. They protest.
The developer returns to the table with a scaled-back project. Instead of 1,800 houses, 1,500 will be built. And to show that he’s community-minded and dealing in good faith, he promises to plant a few more trees and shrubs and agrees to other changes that are cosmetic at best.
On the hot seat, county commissioners praise the project and the developer’s stellar reputation. This project, the elected officials say, will be an asset to the community. So they give it the green light, even if it doesn’t fit the comprehensive land-use plan.
In these here parts, it can happen. And in other states like Florida, the story typically ends no differently. There, practically anything goes when it comes to residential and commercial construction. Developments are seemingly allowed anywhere, built over any type of geographical terrain.
Well, there’s a grass-roots, nonpartisan group that’s trying to nip willy-nilly development in the bud, before the entire state gets paved over. It’s called Florida Hometown Democracy, founded by Florida natives Ross S. Burnaman and Lesley Blackner, according to the Web site www.floridahometowndemocracy.com.
Florida Hometown Democracy wants to put a referendum on the 2008 ballot that would require voter approval of changes to master growth plans. Say an entrepreneur wants to build a CVS Pharmacy in Ocala, Fla., at a location that’s inappropriate. If city leaders OK’d it, the people of Ocala would have to agree to it.
I lived in Central Florida for eight years, so I know and can tell you: Metropolises in the Sunshine State have got nothing on Gwinnett - and vice versa - when it comes to the mind-boggling proliferation of strip malls and subdivisions. Both locales are first-place contenders for the King of Sprawl award.
Burnaman grew up in Winter Park, Fla., near Orlando. Blackner’s a Jacksonville native. Both are attorneys. And like so many of us, both are sick of what sections of their hometowns and other communities have become.
A mess.
When I interviewed Burnaman Monday, we exchanged examples of the nonsense that goes on here and in Tallahassee, his home. Strip malls go up on one side of the road while another strip mall with vacant space sits across the street. Strip malls and storefronts sit right next to one another, yet are not connected by a road or walkway.
If the people had a stronger voice, Burnaman said, they’d be more protective of a community’s quality of life. His organization is trying to collect 611,000 signatures by Jan. 31 to qualify for the November 2008 ballot. So far, they’ve gotten about 500,000. He thinks developers would stop proposing outrageous projects that don’t fit land-use plans if they had to win over citizens.
“We simply want to have a citizen veto at the tail-end of the process,” said Ross, who once worked for the Florida Department of Community Affairs, the state’s planning agency.
“We’re not cutting out the politicians. The only way a [proposed project] would get on a ballot is if a majority of the politicians wanted to do it. If local planners and planning agencies and politicians want to go forward with a project, they have to sell it to the citizens. If people had a vote on these issues, then maybe [growth] would be more constrained.”
Naturally, the idea has its critics, namely the Florida Retail Association, the Florida Homebuilders Association and the state Chamber of Commerce, according to articles in various Florida publications. They say passage of the amendment would stymie the state’s economy and raise the cost of projects. The same concerns would be raised in our county, our state, against such a measure in our county, I suppose.
Yet it seems that more and more Gwinnettians are voicing their discontent with the growth pattern that has been allowed to proliferate. It’s a concern that gets aired routinely in the opinion pages of AJC Gwinnett News and one that I hear often in the community. True, property owners have the right to develop their property - as long as it fits zoning regulations and the growth plan. But let’s be real: Rules get bent all the time. How else can you explain so many situations where buildings sit out of character with their surroundings?
Surely, there’s a better way. We need a more balanced, sustainable approach to a decades-old pattern of development in this county.
Maybe Florida Hometown Democracy is on to something.
What do you think?
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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