We Support Amendment 4

On Nov. 2 Florida residents can vote for an amendment to the State Constitution that might preserve much of what remains of wild and rural Florida and the birds and other animals that depend on those habitats. Called the Florida Hometown Democracy amendment, it would allow voters to veto any change to county or city comprehensive land use plans. Publicity and debate in many forums is already ramping up, and Sarasota Audubon Society (SAS) members should be informed.

About a hundred environmental and citizens' organizations, including SAS and seven other Florida Audubon societies, Florida Sierra, Florida Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Everglades, Environment Florida, and local or regional organizations such as ECOSWF, CONA, Citizens for Sensible Growth, and Control Growth Now have endorsed and recommended passage of Amendment 4.

What is Amendment 4 about? Each county and municipality in Florida is required to have a long-term growth plan projecting what land will be developed and for what use (commerce, residential, industrial, etc.) and how densely. A State agency (DCA) must approve changes adopted by the county or city commissions, and Amendment 4 would add voter approval as the FINAL step. The amendment would not apply to zoning changes, which would, as now, be subordinate to the comprehensive plan.

Developers should find land in the proper use category under the comprehensive plan, request a zoning change as appropriate, and build accordingly. But some developers, particularly those with a mega project (like the recently-foreclosed over-5,000-acre Isles of Athena project in eastern Sarasota County), find cheaper land that the long-term plan designates at a density only appropriate for agriculture or natural habitat. Then they have the local commission, perhaps elected with their financial support, approve the requested change in the long-term plan, push it through the State agency (some legislators are even trying to eliminate the requirement for State approval), and there goes another mega-development blocking a wildlife corridor.

Polls of voters in many parts of Florida show that most citizens deplore the sprawl and overdevelopment of the State that is destroying much of what brought or kept them here. The theory behind the Hometown Democracy amendment is that allowing voters a veto on such plan changes will discourage developers from even making many such requests, thereby channeling development into urban infill already allowed by the comprehensive plans. If a really good, generally supported change in the long-term plan is proposed, then voters will presumably approve it.

The two main arguments against Amendment 4 are: First, that it would flood the ballot with complicated proposals, and second, that it would discourage job-creating construction. However, the complicating details would obviously be consolidated, as already happens with such measures on the ballot now, with the ballot language concisely referring to the project. Second, with 300,000 homes already vacant in Florida and commercial space rates in free fall, the last thing we need now is low-paying jobs building more dwellings and shopping malls in environmentally sensitive areas. Instead, we should channel jobs into clean energy and high tech manufacturing, and after the present building glut is absorbed, direct new housing and commercial work to urban infill.

-Wade Matthews, Conservation Chair, Sarasota Audubon Society