VIEWPOINT: New airport a good reason to adopt Hometown Democracy amendment
TALLAHASSEE The opening of the St. Joe Airport (formerly known as the Panama City/Bay County International Airport, also known as the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport) came about against the wishes of the people it was supposedly designed to serve, and stands now as an excellent example of why Floridians should pass Hometown Democracy’s Amendment 4 on Nov. 2.
The majority of Bay County citizens voting in a March 2004 referendum voted not to build the airport. That vote was preceded by thousands of petitions being gathered to demand that the referendum be binding. But because the vote remained non-binding, the local politicians and other development oriented leadership effectively denied the public’s right to have a seat at the table on an issue directly affecting our quality of life and taxes.
Ignoring the public’s vote, our politicians have now committed upwards of half a billion dollars — of our local, state and federal tax dollars — on a development project for the St. Joe Co. that masquerades as an airport.
The airport was and is unneeded. The “Airport To Nowhere” is a white elephant, underutilized for at least the foreseeable future, and perhaps always. There was and is a perfectly adequate existing airport in Panama City, now threatened with closure. Local citizens are still attempting to save it from closure by relegating it instead to municipal-airport status, given most of the area’s traffic historically has been for general (non-scheduled, non-military) aviation. Citizens have gathered 1,356 signatures to date, and have gotten the county commission to ask the FAA whether municipal status is still possible to obtain at this date.
Much of the environmental damage predicted by local citizens from the destruction — for this “Airport Under Water” — of thousands of acres of wetlands and heavy silt runoffs (from flooding) into the nearby creeks and West Bay, is already coming to pass.
More future potential damage to people’s pocketbooks and the environment is still coming from the anticipated surrounding sprawl development by St. Joe Paper, the major landowner in the area. The economic damage to Bay County taxpayers is certain because residential development does not pay for itself: it costs local taxpayers anywhere from $1.35 to $2.40 for the required new municipal services and infrastructure for every $1 in revenues collected from residents of new developments.
Because outrages like the St. Joe Airport have been occurring for years all over Florida, Floridians have taken it upon themselves to gather over 1 million signatures to put Amendment 4 (Florida Hometown Democracy) on this year’s ballot. Amendment 4 will require binding votes at the ballot box on any changes to a community’s comprehensive land-use plan before these changes could go into effect.
If Amendment 4 had been in effect at the time the airport would not have been built, at least not in its present location and not at this time. With Amendment 4, citizens will now have that seat at the table. Taxpayers will have a vote before taxes go up to pay for development. Development will be better controlled, and Florida’s unique quality of life will be better protected, once Amendment 4 is adopted.
If the election were held today, Amendment 4 would pass. As supporters of Florida Hometown Democracy’s Amendment 4 say, “It’s Our Homes, Our Communities, Our Vote.” Everyone concerned about soaring taxes, and interested in preserving Florida’s unique quality of life should vote YES on Amendment 4 Nov. 2.
John Hedrick is chair of the Panhandle Citizens Coalition, a managed-growth advocacy group.
