An Editorial of The Tampa Tribune

Published March 18, 2011

Listen to Gov. Rick Scott and legislators prattle on about how growth management laws are job killers and one cannot help but wonder what Florida they live in.

It can't be the state where a firestorm of overbuilding resulted in some 300,000 vacant homes and condos across the state, depressing everyone's property values and making the recession far worse in Florida than most states.

It can't be the state that in the 1970s and 1980s created the need for billions of dollars of roads, wastewater, schools and other infrastructure throughout the state by allowing subdivisions to sprawl across the countryside. A staggering backlog of needs remains, and taxpayers at-large will ultimately pick up the tab.

It can't be the state where even Scott's appointee as Department of Community Affairs chief, Billy Buzzett, acknowledges that the planning agency approves 93 percent of local growth plans.

Yet, as if they lived in an alternative universe, Scott and lawmakers such as Sen. Mike Bennett of Bradenton accuse DCA of chilling the economy.

And the agency is slated for virtual elimination. Scott proposes to slash the number of DCA employees from 358 to 40 and cut its budget by more than 83 percent.

This distortion of reality should infuriate Floridians.

To be sure, there is nothing wrong with seeking to make the planning system faster and more efficient.

But it is evident the goal here is to gut development controls and return to the days when builders could do as they please without regard for the impact on others. Indeed, the planned overhaul will silence citizens, curbing their ability to challenge irresponsible projects. Under current state laws, residents can challenge planning decisions that will affect their property values and quality of life.

Under the proposed change, some development reviews would remain, but they would mostly be transferred to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Let's remember that growth laws were written to do more than protect natural resources. The laws also safeguard taxpayers, who end up paying the costs and suffering the consequences when development is allowed without the necessary roads and other services.

This is why comprehensive plans are necessary and why the system requires local governments to establish service boundaries where roads and other services are either available or are planned.

The growth management laws encourage major developments within those boundaries, so local governments — meaning taxpayers — don't end up paying extravagant costs to meet the needs of far-flung projects.

We don't doubt the planning process can be improved, but Scott and lawmakers seem intent on jettisoning it altogether, and that will return Florida to the days when scattergun development made a mess of the state.

Growth management simply prevents developers from shifting the costs of their ventures to taxpayers. If Scott and lawmakers genuinely want to ease taxpayers' burden, they would bolster growth management, not undermine it.