Back, by popular request (of at least one person):
My 2 Cents’ Worth by Pat Hatfield
Governmental officials and developers seem to want to get together and make decisions about our future, without consulting the public.
Take recommended changes to Volusia Growth Management Commission (VGMC) rules. Developers and municipalities angry at having their plans thwarted proposed these changes.
According to one proposed change, members of the public will no longer be able to request a public hearing before the VGMC OKs a land-use change.
Arguments that citizens can ask their city commission or the County Council to request a hearing are ridiculous. The land-use change would be approved long before a citizen could get a council member’s attention.
The VGMC is not for the public, according to the argument. It’s for governmental use to approve development requests, it would seem.
Another proposed rule would shift the burden of proof from the person or entity requesting a land-use change, to the person challenging such a change. This would make it easier to overcome objections to development.
At least the VGMC will hear public comments about the proposed rule changes, when it meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 27, at Daytona Beach City Hall, 301 S. Ridgewood Ave. (U.S. 1).
If the VGMC is rendered toothless — which it mostly is already — then perhaps Florida Hometown Democracy’s proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution is what we need, to protect our communities from overdevelopment.
If that amendment gets on the ballot and is approved by voters, land-use changes, which generally allow growth and higher density, would have to be approved by the voters.
Orlando-based Floridians for Smarter Growth, described by Orlando Business Journal as “a coalition of business interests,” opposes the amendment, and has launched a publicity campaign to keep the measure from passing, claiming it would “permanently freeze economic growth.”
Sounds like the amendment would give the public a voice in opposing unbridled growth.
The public was kept largely at bay when the St. Johns River Water Management District Governing Board heard arguments about the Yankee Lake project, which will allow Seminole County to pump water out of the St. Johns River.
E-mails from concerned citizens were blocked from board members. Instead of finding a location large enough to accommodate the crowd, people were shuttled off to different rooms in the building where the Governing Board meets. Others were barred from the building.
"Are you authorized to enter this meeting? May I see your papers?"
Here’s what one of those people, Peggy Bellflower, wrote about it: “I was one of the citizens locked out of the hearing for several hours, until we charged in at the break, when folks came out the locked doors. It was nightmarish out there. But, yes, I did get in and was allowed to speak. I witnessed at least 50 other citizens, some of them senior citizens 80-90 years old, leave for home after standing in the hot sun at the locked doors for quite some time.”
DeBary officials could tell the Water Management District where to get a big tent, large enough to hold the public. They used one for the second reading of the DeBary Downs proposal.
Public say about the public good is being discouraged. Sometimes subtly, sometimes obviously, sometimes obliviously. If we don’t speak up now, the chance may disappear.
(originally published in the May 21-24 print edition of the newspaper, without the artwork and snazzy headline)