By Barbara Wunder, FFVA communications manager

Should your neighbors be allowed to decide who gets to buy property your parents passed on to you? Do you want the folks down the block to have a say in whether you put in a pool or add a room for a growing family?

Florida Hometown Democracy is a movement that would like to bring decisions like those and hundreds more to a voting booth near you. The proposed Hometown Democracy amendment to the Florida Constitution would require voter approval for changes in all local comprehensive land-use plans.

Legislators in Tallahassee have already passed laws that will manage growth in Florida. Critics of Hometown Democracy say those laws should be given a chance to make a difference before other initiatives are introduced.

Feb. 1 is the deadline for signatures to be verified by elections supervisors so that the initiative can be placed on the November ballot. A total of 611,009 signatures must be verified statewide, and that includes 61,114 from voters in at least seven congressional districts for geographical balance. After a glitch in the Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections’ computer system was corrected, the total number of signatures collected statewide for Hometown Democracy was 501,530 as of Jan. 10. Backers of the effort need to collect 109,479 more. Even if Hometown Democracy falls short of collecting that number, all of its signatures would still be valid for the 2010 ballot. Petitions remain valid for four years from the date they were signed.

“They have now qualified in nine out of the necessary 13 congressional districts,” said Butch Calhoun, FFVA director of governmental affairs. “We expect their focus in the final days to be on congressional districts in the areas around Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale and Miami,” Calhoun said.

Hometown Democracy appeals to voters by emphasizing that uncontrolled development would kill the Florida way of life. However, the Florida Legislature recently enacted tough new growth management laws requiring “concurrency’ when new developments are planned, giving local governments the authority to control the rate of growth by delaying new development until adequate infrastructure is in place. It covers water supply, schools, roads and other classes of infrastructure.

THE KEY WORD IS "LEGISLATURE"

An organization called Floridians for Smarter Growth has responded with a more reasoned amendment that addresses growth. Representing respected environmentalists, business interests and others, the group’s initiative would let Floridians call for voter approval of changes to growth management plans through a citizen petition. If 10 percent of the voters in a city or county think something is important enough to vote on, this amendment would allow the city or county to put it on the ballot.

Will elected officials or Florida voters themselves approve every comprehensive land use plan change proposed in the state?

“We are the statewide coalitionof organizations opposing Hometown Democracy,” said Ryan Houck, political director for Floridians for Smarter Growth. Speaking to FFVA’s board of directors in January, he called Hometown Democracy’s efforts a case of the right problem and the wrong solution. “This is throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and at the end of the day it’s going to cause more sprawl,” said Houck. “These people hate growth so much in the State of Florida that they will do anything to stop it. What we’ve realized about voters is that voters don’t want that. They want smarter growth, not no growth.”

For information about Floridians for Smarter Growth, click here.

Florida Hometown Democracy’s amendment would not only be cumbersome, it would be expensive, Houck said. It would raise taxes, increase spending and force local governments to hold expensive referenda. Also, if the results of these referenda slow development, the supply of real estate for people who continue to move to Florida would decrease, resulting in an increase in the price of housing, higher assessments and higher property taxes, critics say.