Nobody Changes Their Vote for No Reason

Novelist Carl Hiaason discusses county commissions in Florida vote on land use amendments and how Amendment 4 will change the process if passed.

Via Examiner.com

Outside the clouds of doubt about the Gulf oil spill, there is a ray of hope in Florida’s future. On the November ballot, voters will be given an opportunity to decide if they want to take the power of land development out of the hands of local governments, and put it in their own hands instead.

It’s called the Florida Hometown Democracy Land Use Initiative and will appear on the ballot as Amendment 4 to the Florida Constitution.

The concept is a simple one; if the amendment passes, developers will no longer be able to get permission to build or develop land from local planning boards for major projects. Their new ‘bosses’ will be the people.
For example; if a developer wants to change the zoning on agricultural land to build a residential subdivision, it will have to be approved with a majority vote by the people.
“Amendment 4, which would give citizens an up-or-down vote on changes to their local government’s comprehensive land use plan after those changes have been reviewed by the city or county commission, is universally opposed by developers in the state. It was originally to have been on the ballot in 2008,”according to Florida Hometown Democracy.

It should be no surprise that developers are against Amendment 4. They prefer to keep the decisions out of the hands of the public.

“Blackner, a lawyer by trade who has been trying to get the Hometown Democracy amendment on the ballot for more than six years, has been opposed by developers, and by extension the Republican Party, every step of the way. “If it’s true that the heart of our opposition is real estate developers, well, that’s the heart of the Republican Party in Florida,” Blackner says. “We’ve been opposed by John Thrasher, who ran a revocation effort against us and lied through his teeth saying it was developers who were behind the Hometown Democracy amendment,” said Florida Independent writer, Dan Sweeney .

Florida voters will have their chance to take back the power of land development with Amendment 4 on November 2, 2010.