Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council Opposes Amendment 4/Hometown Democracy
On April 12, 2010 the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council adopted a resolution opposing Florida Constitutional Amendment 4 (also known as "Hometown Democracy") after hearing presentations by both supporters and opponents of Amendment 4.
During TBPRC's meeting on March 8, the Council heard presentations in opposition to Amendment 4 from Ron Weaver (an attorney with the law firm of Stearns, Weaver, Miller, Weissler, Alhdeff & Sitterson) and Ward Frisolowski (former mayor of the city of St. Pete Beach). During the April 12 meeting, a presentation was made in support of Amendment 4 by Robert Weintraub (see photo), Chair of the Florida Sierra Club's Growth Management Committee and an officer of the Nassau County Group of the Sierra Club. Mr. Weaver also voiced a brief rebuttal to some of Mr. Weintraub's arguments. The Council's resolution opposing Amendment 4 listed in detail its opinion that a variety of negative consequences would result from the passage of Amendment 4, and emphasized the Council's opinion of the importance of citizen participation in the current local government planning and approval process.
The council is in the hip pocket of developers so its no wonder they would resolve to oppose it. The developer lobby and the chambers of commerce are deathly afraid of having their loaded dice replaced in the game of growth management. They can get anything they want today with the local politicians following blindly. Mr. Weintraub made strong arguments for Amendment 4. What he said makes a lot of sense to me. I'm for it. The council, along with Ron Weaver, can keep carrying the developers bags for them.
Fix: Thanks for your comment. Which of Weintraub's arguments did you like/think were strong? I think he did a very good job of expressing the frustration that some folks are feeling about the development process, but I thought there were flaws/weaknesses in some of his arguments, particularly those involving St. Pete Beach. His argument about SPB seemed to be that SPB had absolutely nothing to do with HTD and isn't a good indication of the weaknesses of Amendment 4, and I think that's not accurate. While some of the lawsuits in SPB are unique to the dispute between the CRG/SOLV factions in SPB, other lawsuits raise issues that would definitely also affect other municipalities if Hometown Democracy/Amendment 4 passes in November. What arguments did you think were good?
The council is in the hip pocket of developers so its no wonder they would resolve to oppose it. The developer lobby and the chambers of commerce are deathly afraid of having their loaded dice replaced in the game of growth management. They can get anything they want today with the local politicians following blindly. Mr. Weintraub made strong arguments for Amendment 4. What he said makes a lot of sense to me. I'm for it. The council, along with Ron Weaver, can keep carrying the developers bags for them.
ReplyDeleteFix: Thanks for your comment. Which of Weintraub's arguments did you like/think were strong? I think he did a very good job of expressing the frustration that some folks are feeling about the development process, but I thought there were flaws/weaknesses in some of his arguments, particularly those involving St. Pete Beach. His argument about SPB seemed to be that SPB had absolutely nothing to do with HTD and isn't a good indication of the weaknesses of Amendment 4, and I think that's not accurate. While some of the lawsuits in SPB are unique to the dispute between the CRG/SOLV factions in SPB, other lawsuits raise issues that would definitely also affect other municipalities if Hometown Democracy/Amendment 4 passes in November. What arguments did you think were good?
ReplyDelete