Growth Management In Florida - Good or Bad?

By Ernie Padgett

Some very interesting and negative things are happening in the Florida Legislature this month relative to the best way to manage future growth in our state.
There is a bill being considered in Tallahassee that would do away with the state’s growth management agency, the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA).
Allow me to put a personal perspective on this very important issue.
In November of 1980, I was sworn in as a county commissioner in Jackson County. The DCA had already been established at that time. The agency had "review and comment authority" relative to county and city comprehensive plans for growth.
In 1985, the state adopted the Florida Growth Management Act. The Act gave the DCA "review and approval authority" over city and county comprehensive plans.
Local governments could still write and adopt their own plans, but the state had to give final approval before the local plan was effective. This was very unnerving to many local governments.
Needless to say, this 1985 Act met with considerable resistance from many cities and counties throughout Florida.
My position at the time was the same as many local elected officials. I strongly opposed the state having approval authority over our growth management plans.
Many (not all) of the planning staff at the DCA were very antagonistic and rigid when they were dealing with us "lowly" local officials. Of course, this played right into our hands in giving us another reason to challenge the terrible DCA.
After the Growth Management Act of 1985 was enacted and into the early 1990’s some of the DCA staff certainly left something to be desired. Sometimes their staff would rattle the sabers about the possibility of withholding state revenue sharing from a city or county if we didn’t do exactly what they wished.
I served as county administrator in Santa Rosa County from 1990 - 1995. Now that was an interesting era in dealing with the DCA. In 1991 or ‘92 some local residents paid for large billboards that simply said, "DCA……Department From Hell".
In the 1990’s, things started changing for the better. Local governments and the DCA slowly but surely began to develop better relations. Those of us in local government started to mature more and realize that the DCA was there to assist and not be an adversary. The DCA staff evolved also and started to realize they could not continue to be seen as the enemy.
DCA has been managed by some excellent department heads (Secretaries) such as Dr. John De Grove, Bill Sadowski, Linda Shelley, and Jim Murley.
Interestingly, the current head of DCA, Tom Pelham, served as its head in the late 1980’s. Tom was hard to like at that time. Looking back, he had a hard tour of duty during those early days. Today, I think Tom Pelham is doing an excellent job leading the agency.
Starting in 1987 and until I retired almost two years ago, I served as county administrator in three Florida counties. In twenty one years, I experienced a tremendous amount of interfacing between local and state government relative to growth planning.
I finished my career in Manatee County, population 320,000. We were one of the fastest growing counties in the state during the twelve years I was there.
Florida’s growth management worked. The DCA staff was responsive and assisted my planning staff every step of the way.
Overall, state and local planning officials have grown together through the years and things are working well.
Granted, there is definitely some streamlining that needs to occur and development permits need to by expedited.
It is nothing more than the Florida Legislature catering to a few special interest groups when some legislators are supporting the dismantling of the Florida Department of Community Affairs.
They are supporting this bad legislation under the guise of helping the state economy.
The Senate and House along with the Governor should exercise good leadership and put and end to this even being considered.
Enactment of this bad legislation most likely will result in developers being let off the hook when it comes to them being responsible to pay for the infrastructure that is required for their development.
Who would pay the infrastructure bill for their developments? You would!
Ernie Padgett
ELPLCP@aol.com (941) 224-6527