Posted on 06/02/2009 1:00:05 PM PDT by Lorianne
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist signed a controversial growth management bill that some say will stimulate the state's economy but others warn will increase urban sprawl. ___ Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday approved changes to Florida growth laws that supporters say will strengthen the economy and opponents predict will increase urban sprawl and traffic gridlock.
The bill rewrites Florida's 25-year-old growth management law, principally by allowing developers in the most urban counties to add more housing developments without expanding roads and by allowing counties and cities to designate new urban areas that also would be exempt from certain road-building requirements.
Sponsored by Sen. Mike Bennett, a Bradenton Republican and an electrical contractor, the bill passed both houses of the Legislature by wide margins.
Business groups such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida Association of Realtors hailed Crist's decision. The Chamber said the legislation ``updates Florida's growth laws without compromising environmental or land-use protections.''
In signing the bill (SB 360), Crist, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, acknowledged the divisions it has caused. He has noted that his growth management expert, Tom Pelham, who runs the state Department of Community Affairs, had misgivings about the bill.
''I'm trying to be balanced on it and I know that it's probably one of those bills where nobody's going to be overly happy on either side of the argument,'' Crist told reporters a few hours before he acted. ``So hopefully it's right down the middle, and we'll be able to stimulate our economy and not do harm to our beautiful state. That's my desire.''
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
marco rubio for state senate!!!!!!!
I hate sprawl, it’s soulless.
Every single reason I stayed here when I finished school is being destroyed.
6 1/4 people per acre is urban???
People need to have homes.
Ok...and?
They have to build them somewhere near where services are.
I think he's running for the US Senate. Anyway, he's a Bushie, so who cares?
and there are plenty already here empty and up for sale...
well at least he is a new face...lived here to many years watching the same old retreads trade jobs ...
i guess i should have said state senator....
Ah well, that it explains it then. Let's build more soulless sprawl.
I believe we should always let the government, at the highest level, regulate everything instead of letting the market decide. The government should make sure we eliminate “sprawl” and everone must live in high rise buildings in a downtown area.
Nice sarcasm but I never said anything close to that. Please try to pay attention. I said that I hate sprawl. I don't blame the lack of regulation or endorse the need for it, I blame mindless idiots and developers who deliver it for them. People have free will.
Put people in cages then is that what you recommend?
I have lived in old neighborhoods and new ones and once the people get there - there is pride in the community and they give it a soul.
That makes no sense.
I have lived in old neighborhoods and new ones and once the people get there - there is pride in the community and they give it a soul.
If you say so pardner. There is a reason people are moving back inside the loop into established neighborhoods, to smaller towns and planned developments designed to promote a sense of community.
It makes one wonder if some of these responders can even read and comprehend. This is about roads, not sprawl. Down here we had a law that said developers must provide roads to access their properties. The law prevented a huge tax increase for natives who had the misfortune to be in communities being swamped by developers. Florida developers don’t throw up a few houses like they do up North, they build the equivalent of small towns.
This bill will dump the road problem directly on the taxpayers and was approved by our buddy Charlie Crist who never he met a developer he didn’t like. He endorsed another disgraceful rip off of the taxpayer put forth by CSX and still another rip off put forth by U.S. Sugar.
We need to work hard to get Charlie elected to the U.S. Congress where he will be among kindred souls. In the meantime, we are working on a new beginning for the Republican party by electing a wonderful woman (if she will run) who has shown she is responsible to the people and not to special interests.
That makes no sense. “
Yes, I am aware that what you said makes no sense. I don't need the liberal platitudes of complaining and not solving the issue. I don't believe there is any soul less sprawl and don't like NIMBY's. I live in California, there is no way for me to live by my parents do to no construction and expensive housing. I have to take long trips to visit them. We are the first generation in history where children cannot live by there parents due to attitudes like yours in that we cannot build by are parents or you whine sprawl.
Wow, that was some comeback there sparky. Like I said, it's a free market. Consumers are turning against sprawl. Bringing up your parents is a strawman and the fact that you live in California is your problem. The trend is toward infill and urban growth, town centers, towns and planned communities....all solutions to the problem. Most sprawl is soulless with no character and it's metastasizing our cities. Not liking it is hardly liberal. The fact that you do speaks volumes.
Yawn.
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