At UF, Crist official rips latest growth management law

He labeled new laws that open up land for easier development as "hasty hit and run."

By Nathan Crabbe
Staff writer

Friday, November 20, 2009

Making his second run as secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs, Thomas Pelham said the process of regulating growth has taken a turn for the worse.

He said growth management regulations had previously been passed overwhelmingly with a broad consensus of support.

He contrasted that to "hasty hit and run" laws passed during his current tenure.

"I don't think it speaks very well of us that we can't deal with issues of this magnitude in a more rational manner than we have been doing," he said Thursday to an audience of more than 60 people at the University of Florida.

Gov. Charlie Crist appointed Pelham to oversee the state land-planning agency in 2007. Pelham previously served as secretary from 1987 to 1991, helping implement the 1985 Growth Management Act.

Crist signed a law in June that relaxed government oversight over development.

It exempted builders in many areas from a "transportation concurrency" requirement that they pay for road improvements if traffic generated by their projects exceeds local capacity.

Pelham said the department must submit by Dec. 1 a plan to lawmakers for a new mobility fee to replace that requirement. He expressed skepticism that the fee would be embraced in the next legislative session, which comes during an election year, and suggested such a plan should have been crafted before scrapping the concurrency requirement.

"It was 'let's throw the baby out first and come up with a replacement later,' " he said.

He said term limits have changed things for the worse in the Legislature, getting rid of experienced lawmakers. Development lobbyists now have greater influence on the process and lead to the passage of legislation that lacks support from a broad group of interests, he said.

"It's every interest for itself," he said. "No one wants to give anything."

Pelham spoke as part of a lecture series created in honor of the late Ernest "Bart" Bartley, a planner and UF professor emeritus who played a role in writing the 1985 growth management act.

In going through the history of state growth management legislation, Pelham said one constant was that the law was routinely being tweaked.

"Growth management is a never-ending process."

"Literally," he said. "It never stops."