This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about “Smart Growth” initiatives that never took root.
For instance, does anyone remember the sense of excitement we felt in the lead-up to the “Smart Growth Summits” of 2003 and 2004?
And who can forget the Smart Growth PowerPoint of November 2008, with its ominous conclusion, “Where do we go next?”
Unfortunately, hindsight tells us the answer to that question was a “cram 10 pounds of s*** in a 5-pound bag” growth management strategy that continues to allow our elected dullards to ensure their political benefactors can squeeze every dollar out of our decimated natural places…
Here’s a few more “Smart Growth” teases that were ignored.
How about that collective feeling of anticipation we all had ahead of the “Smart Growth Policy Review Committee of 2013-2014,” when a past iteration of the Volusia County Council commissioned a blue-ribbon political insulation committee charged with recommending a host of planning and zoning policy initiatives?
No?
Oh, I know! How about the “Smart Growth Policy Review Committee of 2015-2016”?
Just me? OK.
Wait, I’m certain you’ll recall Director Ervin’s patented Dog and Pony Show at the Knights of the Volusia Elected Officials Roundtable conclave in June 2019, to “…explore the idea of ‘smart growth’ within the county, with the input from municipalities and other community stakeholders.”
Anyone see a pattern here?
If it sounds like “déjà vu all over again,” that’s because it is…
The same rehashed bulls*** from Chef Clay Ervin, now served au gratin.
With the specter of 23,000 new homes set to blanket Southeast Volusia (for reference, the City of Ormond Beach has 21,295 residential units) rather than mandate protections, our elected dullards have established something called a “voluntary ordinance” that permits developers to follow smart growth and low-impact development practices in exchange for incentives – or not.
Why do you think that is?
— Barker writes a blog, usually about local government, at barkersview.org. A retired police chief, Barker says he lives as a semi-recluse in an arrogantly shabby home in coastal Central Florida, with his wife and two dogs. This is excerpted from his blog, lightly edited (he swears a lot) and reprinted with his permission.
