US homebuiders and their multi-billion-dollar federal bailout contribute to campain to prevent Florida citizens from having the right to vote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/politics/28florida.html?hp

Florida Voters Enter Battle on Growth
By DAMIEN CAVE
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — Lesley Blackner drove through a maze of condominium towers, rarely seeing any curtains in the windows, or residents, and tried to contain her anger.

“They’ve crammed as much as they can in here,” she said this month, noting that just a few years ago cows grazed on the land west of I-95. “The people around here didn’t want it — they objected. But the City Commission did it anyway.”

Even now, with about 300,000 residential units sitting empty around the state, the push to build continues. Since 2007, local governments have approved zoning and other land use changes that would add 550,000 residential units and 1.4 billion square feet of commercial space, state figures show.

So for Ms. Blackner, a Palm Beach lawyer with a Mercedes full of paperwork, the real estate crisis is not just the fault of Wall Street, Washington or misguided borrowers; it is also the back-scratching bond between elected officials and builders — a common source of frustration in weak real estate markets around the country wherever developers are still fighting to add more housing.

In Florida, at least, Ms. Blackner hopes to put an end to the chronic oversupply with a ballot initiative she has labeled “Hometown Democracy.”

Amendment 4, as it is officially called, would give Floridians a vote on changes to state-mandated plans for growth in every county and municipality. Much of the potential impact of the measure is up for debate, with important details most likely to be decided by the courts.

But if it is added to the state’s Constitution — which would require 60 percent approval on Election Day — critics and supporters envision revolutionary change.

Leaders of the Yes on 4 campaign, including Ms. Blackner, say it would end a culture of freewheeling development that began when Hamilton Disston started dredging Florida swamps in the 1880s. Critics, led by chambers of commerce, say the measure would lead to lost jobs, chaos and expensive court battles.

Either way, the referendum is bringing into sharp relief the conflict surrounding real estate nationwide: while new homes, growth and the American dream are forever intertwined, many people are questioning why development often overwhelms other public priorities, even after it led to an economic crisis.

“Most planning advocates would love to have the structure we have in Florida, but most Floridians know that the structure doesn’t work,” said Michael Allan Wolf, a University of Florida law professor. “Amendment 4 suggests that, on the ground, this system is really broken.”

This is not an even fight. Ms. Blackner’s group has raised $2.4 million (with $800,000 from her own pocket), but most of it was spent on getting on the ballot.

The No on 4 campaign has raised nearly $12 million through a series of political action committees — enough for a glossy Web site, consultants and plenty of airtime. The Florida Association of Realtors is its largest single contributor, giving more than $2.3 million.

The nation’s biggest homebuilders, after receiving a multibillion-dollar bailout from Congress this year, have also been quite generous. Altogether, Lennar Homes, KB Home and Pulte Homes gave more than $1 million to No on 4’s main political action committee, Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy.

Ryan Houck, a spokesman for the group, said that developers were not the only opponents of the amendment, which he described as “overreaching and extreme.” The contributors’ list also includes community farm bureaus, which worry that it would make it harder to sell and rezone agricultural land for other uses.

Some county planners are also concerned about potential costs to government. “The litigation that ensues, no matter what happens, is really the potential fly in the ointment,” said Mark Satterlee, planning and development director for St. Lucie County.

Amendment 4 leaves open to interpretation whether every proposed change to a community’s development plan would need to appear on future ballots. In a sign of possible litigation to come, lawyers favoring the measure say that it would cover only major land use changes and that related proposals could be combined for votes by commissions.

Opponents say that under Amendment 4, each tweak of a development plan — which every county and municipality must have in place under a state law passed in the mid-1980s, and which requires updating every seven years — would have to appear on the ballot. Voters, they say, would have hundreds of items to digest each year.

That is not the typical situation. Annual figures from a half-dozen Florida counties and several fast-growing cities suggest that most voters in most years would decide on no more than 20 changes, usually fewer. (The No on 4 Web site says that the small town of Carrabelle would have had 617 proposed changes on its 2006 ballot under such a law, but records and interviews show only a handful of changes proposed that year.)

A more serious issue may be whether the ballot items, which are limited to 75 words or less, would lead to advertising campaigns, followed by misunderstandings and lawsuits. Larger development changes cover complicated issues including water supply and transportation, often with hundreds of pages of material. “Sometimes we take a hand truck to carry boxes down to the commissioners,” said Rick Burris, principal planner for Lee County.

However, Mr. Burris added, plan change approvals were not required for building. While developers claim that Amendment 4 would make construction impossible, current community plans around the state actually include robust expansion.

A rural area like Jackson County has room for 996 years of residential growth at current rates, according to a 2009 state analysis. Charlotte County has 162 years of growth in its plan, while St. Lucie County has the capacity to house its growing population for the next 212 years.

And that is what gets Ms. Blackner really fuming. “They could build until hell freezes over,” she said during a daylong tour of failed developments. “This isn’t about building. It’s about control.”

She drove past a row of empty condos on Route 1 called the Preserve, then past commercial and residential space, all vacant concrete floors and for-rent signs; then more examples of what she called the political class’s addiction to the next deal — apartment towers with few occupants, several stories higher than the plans’ original limits.

Finally she arrived at Tesoro, a golf community in the City of Port St. Lucie with a $48 million San Simeon-like clubhouse. The city’s mayor resigned and was arrested last Wednesday, on charges of pocketing campaign contributions, including money from developers. Tesoro — former scrub brush — is now an eerie ghost town of minicastles with fewer than 100 residents.

“This is bubble grandeur,” Ms. Blackner said, noting that Port St. Lucie’s taxpayers were left to pay for a new firehouse in the development.

“The commissioners were supposed to be protecting the community,” she said. “That’s their job, and they were asleep at the switch.”


Catharine Skipp contributed reporting.

Florida:The Vacant-home State?

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/print/2010/09/24/floridathe-vacant-home-state

Florida:The Vacant-home State?
By Douglas Kennedy
Created 2010-09-24 05:50

Earlier this month, Wayne Garcia walked across a stalled housing development in Land O' Lakes, Florida just north of Tampa. "It's an outrage," he said as he strolled past dozens of empty home sites. "This should never have been approved. This should never have happened."

Five years ago, architects promised "Connerton" would become the largest city in Pasco County. Today it looks like a graveyard of unfinished and unoccupied homes.

"There were supposed to be 15,000 homes here," Garcia explained as he stepped over the unhooked plumbing of one side street. "Today's there's 233." And Connerton isn't alone. Florida now has hundreds of stalled building sites. It also has a record 300,000 vacant homes.

"This is all because of unchecked development," said Garcia who represents Florida Hometown Democracy, Inc., an environmental group that's trying to control growth in Florida.

In fact, Hometown Democracy now has an initiative on the November ballot that some call the farthest reaching anti-growth measure in the country. "Amendment 4 will finally address the problem," he said.

"The problem," according to Garcia, has been the state's local community boards, which approve or deny large developments. He says these boards in the last ten years simply approved everything put before them, basically caving to the powerful construction interests. "It's because the public didn't have a vote and didn't have a say in the matter." Amendment 4, he says will give the public that say, mandating a local public vote for every proposed large development in the state.

Garcia calls it "Democracy." Developers call it a "nightmare."

"If you like the recession, then you will absolutely love amendment 4," says Ryan Houck, a spokesperson of Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy, the main opponent of the amendment.

Houck says Amendment 4 will create a bureaucratic blockade that will make it impossible of any future development in the state. And he doesn't stop there. "Amendment 4 is going to cost tens of thousands of jobs," he said, "raise taxes on working Floridians, and make it more expensive to live in our state."

Garcia obviously disagrees, "I say that the opposition and the system that they want to keep going, is what got us in this recession in the first place."

Florida law requires the amendment to receive 60 percent of the vote to pass.

Don't let corporations crush your right to vote

Do you trust the land use decisions your local representatives make?

For a decade, an average of 7 Florida politicians a month were arrested on public corruption charges, giving the state more corrupt politicians than any other in the nation, according to a Department of Justice study.

Decisions about new development are too important to leave to corrupt politicians. Amendment 4 on the Nov. 2 ballot gives voters a say when developers ask to change a community's future land-use plan, changes that can lead to higher property taxes.

Voters deserve a seat at the table. Vote Yes on 4!

Pd. Pol. Adv. By FloridaHometownDemocracy, Inc. PAC, P.O. Box 636, New Smyrna Beach, FL

1000 Friends of Florida statement on Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment 4

A million reasons why we need Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment 4.

The 1000 Friends of Florida put out a statement on Monday announcing their intentions to remain neutral on Amendment 4. The statement itself isn't as surprising as the the numbers they have included in their release.

"...the Board of Directors has been very mindful that the on-the-ground results of the state’s current growth management system are not as intended. Our state still faces sprawling, inappropriately sited development, degraded natural areas, overcrowded classrooms, and congested roads. In addition, over the last two years the state’s land planning agency, the Florida Department of Community Affairs, has approved approximately 90 percent of the plan amendments it has reviewed. This has impacted hundreds of thousands of acres, and authorized an additional 600,000 dwelling units and more than 1 billion square feet of non-residential office and institutional space, all of which remains unbuilt. Current estimates are that Florida’s built vacant housing inventory continues to hover between 300,000 and 400,000 dwelling units, and Florida is now leading the nation in outright numbers of foreclosures. Additionally, DCA is now reviewing numerous plan amendments that have been submitted with the intent of being approved before possible passage of Amendment 4 in November."

You can read the entire statement here:

http://www.1000friendsofflorida.org/reform/FHD%20statement%2010%2009%2013.asp

I hope taxpayers are connecting the dots: that reckless real estate speculation led to the housing meltdown, falling home values and rising taxes.

http://staugustine.com/print/17581

Guest column: Amendment 4 lets voter decide land changes
By St. Augustine Record
Created 09/05/2010 - 12:00am
LESLEY BLACKNER

Who's afraid of Amendment 4, the constitutional revision that will give voters more control over major projects and growth in their communities?

The opposition to Amendment 4 comes from politicians, real estate speculators and their lobbyists: the very folks who turned Florida into a real estate Ponzi scheme and crashed our economy for the past three years. The politicians want to keep their power, and the real estate speculators want to keep speculating.

Right now, politicians (influenced by campaign contributions and lobbyists who whisper in their ears) exclusively decide where development happens. Right now they have the exclusive power to allow change to your community's master plan, also called a comprehensive plan. Amendment 4 only adds one new step to this process: You, the voter.

Think of it this way: At a table where your community's future is decided, where major projects that could raise your taxes are discussed and approved, voters are not welcome. Voters do not have a seat at that table. It is marked with a "Reserved" sign for politicians, lobbyists and land speculators.

With Amendment 4, your city or county commission will study and vote as usual on changes to your local comprehensive plan. But, if a majority of the commissioners approve the requested change, the commission will have to submit that plan change to the voters in a referendum at the next regularly scheduled Election Day. You will either veto it or approve it. It's that simple. Amendment 4 doesn't require special elections. It would not clog the election system. It would not crash the economy. It is the overbuilders who have done that already and who now are fighting Amendment 4 so they can do it again.

Nearly $2 million of the $6 million raised by the opponents of the Yes on 4 campaign since April comes from Wall Street's biggest construction corporations -- companies that recently received billions in federal bailout money. Another $3.5 million funneled to the group opposing Amendment 4 during the past five months came from a who's who of lobbying groups that represent the over-builders/speculators.

Amendment 4 opponents will say just about anything to get you to vote no. In a column, Bill Lazar, chairman of the St. Johns Builders Council comes out swinging. He falsely claims that under Amendment 4 you will have to vote "200 or 300 times per year." Public records show that in St. Johns County there were just 13 comp plan changes put forward since the beginning of 2009. All but three authorized additional density, or greater growth. Most granted landowners the right to change from rural designations to residential, or in other words, turn farmlands into even more sprawling subdivisions. Under Amendment 4, you would have had a seat at the table on these decisions, a vote.

Lazar neglects to tell voters that the state issued a report finding that St. Johns County comprehensive plan has enough growth built into it for the next 34 years without changing a thing. Construction crews are idle because demand has evaporated in a recession fueled by overbuilding, not because of anything that Amendment 4 would require.

I hope taxpayers are connecting the dots: that reckless real estate speculation led to the housing meltdown, falling home values and rising taxes. Our homes and communities are just too important to be left solely in the hands of politicians and lobbyists. We deserve a seat at the table, a vote before our taxes go up to pay for even more overdevelopment.

On Nov. 2, Florida voters have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stop the Ponzi scheme economy that politicians and developers created. Vote Yes on Amendment 4.

*

Lesley Blackner is the president of Florida Hometown Democracy, the nonpartisan group sponsoring Amendment 4, that will be on the ballot in November.

Amendment 4 opponents' industry mobilization plan a recipe for workplace coercion

Hometown Democracy president Lesley Blackner today issued this statement after recent media coverage about an "Industry Mobilization Plan" being undertaken by the powerful opponents to Amendment 4, or Hometown Democracy:
"It is bad enough that major Florida employers are squandering millions of dollars to oppose giving voters a seat at the table, money that could instead go into growing their businesses and hiring new employees. Now, they have devised a plan to have those same employers lean on their workers to join their pro-overbuilding campaign and even provide lists of employees names to the anti-Amendment 4 campaign team.

"This is a recipe for coercion in the workplace. It is a full-court press that no Florida worker trying to keep his or her job will be able to resist and make a fully informed decision. Such politicking activity would be against the law in public agencies. It is merely unethical and disappointing in the private sector. We hope that employees who feel wrongly pressured by this plan will report any wrongdoing to our website, www.floridahometowndemocracy.com."
The Industry Mobilization Plan supplies a sample CEO letter that boldfaces the boss's "personal" request. What worker could turn this down? Here is an excerpt from that sample letter:
I’d like to personally ask you to take a moment to visit www.noamendment4.com and fill out the Industry Advocate form. Your information will be kept private and used only to educate you, your friends, family members and colleagues on Amendment 4.
The outrageous plan goes further, even asking employers to mail in "detailed" lists of employees to the opposition campaign, as shows in this e-mail to business leaders from Florida Chamber exec Adam Babington:

1. Encourage your employees and colleagues to register as an "Advocate" in opposition to Amendment 4. A high level of participation is critical in defeating Amendment 4 which will hurt Florida's working families. Visit www.noamendment4.com to register.

2. Even easier, provide the "Vote No on 4" campaign with a detailed list of your interested employees, organization members, friends and family. [highlighting added] This data will be handled with the greatest sensitivity and confidentiality and will not be shared with others. It will be used only to communicate the messages of "Vote No on 4."
Amendment 4 is the result of years of effort by Florida Hometown Democracy, a grass-roots, non-partisan citizens' initiative organized to put the voter-empowering amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot. The amendment would give voters the final say over large-scale development projects that want to change a community's comprehensive land-use plan. Yes on 4's website address is www.floridahometowndemocracy.com.

Pd. Pol. Adv. By FloridaHometownDemocracy, Inc. PAC, P.O. Box 636, New Smyrna Beach, FL.