spidey
06-21-2007, 06:53 AM
The Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club gave their view of growth management, sprawl, and citizen initiatives in a letter to the editor in today's TU....they're asking the Governor to veto several bills passed by the Florida Legislature in the 2007 session.
The Florida Times-Union
June 21, 2007
Floridians' rights are trampled
The Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club urges Gov. Charlie Crist to oppose the following bills: HB 985, HB 7203, SB 900 and SB 1920.
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These bills will weaken growth management, encourage sprawl development and limit citizens' rights to propose amendments.
HB 985 would weaken financial feasibility requirements for building turnpike toll roads, thus allowing roads to be built solely to encourage sprawl development in rural areas.
We would have transportation and roadway planning setting the direction for future growth and development patterns in the state, rather than the citizens determining these themselves as part of the local and regional planning processes.
Likewise, HB 7203 would allow communities to change their growth plans without effective state oversight, would weaken concurrency requirements that facilities be in place as growth occurs, weakens review of larger projects (developments of regional impact) and makes review of small-scale comprehensive plan amendments even less restrictive.
SB 900 would set strict requirements that signed initiative petitions be turned into the supervisor's offices within 30 days of signing or they will be invalid.
This bill likely would have the effect of discouraging volunteer-driven constitutional amendment campaigns and instead favor paid signature gatherers, making it cost-prohibitive for many groups to get an issue on the ballot.
SB 1920 would allow businesses and owners to select what people and issues may be allowed to collect signatures outside their doors and in their common areas, such as malls and shopping centers.
Again, this is a heavy-handed attempt to suppress citizens from exercising their constitutional rights.
All these bills are related to the Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment proposal, which has already gathered over 400,000 signatures.
The first two bills show why the Florida Hometown Democracy amendment is needed - the Legislature is not being responsive to the wishes of the people.
The last two bills are related in that these were proposed mainly to try to stop Florida Hometown Democracy from reaching the ballot.
In the process, these bills will trample on your constitutional rights for all measures.
Don't let them succeed. Not only should you urge the governor to veto all these bills, but sign a petition and become otherwise active in Florida Hometown Democracy.
Please go to www.floridahome-towndemocracy.com for further details.
JOHN HEDRICK,
chairman,
growth management/sprawl,
Florida Chapter, Sierra Club,
Tallahassee
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/opinion/
The Florida Times-Union
June 21, 2007
Floridians' rights are trampled
The Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club urges Gov. Charlie Crist to oppose the following bills: HB 985, HB 7203, SB 900 and SB 1920.
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
These bills will weaken growth management, encourage sprawl development and limit citizens' rights to propose amendments.
HB 985 would weaken financial feasibility requirements for building turnpike toll roads, thus allowing roads to be built solely to encourage sprawl development in rural areas.
We would have transportation and roadway planning setting the direction for future growth and development patterns in the state, rather than the citizens determining these themselves as part of the local and regional planning processes.
Likewise, HB 7203 would allow communities to change their growth plans without effective state oversight, would weaken concurrency requirements that facilities be in place as growth occurs, weakens review of larger projects (developments of regional impact) and makes review of small-scale comprehensive plan amendments even less restrictive.
SB 900 would set strict requirements that signed initiative petitions be turned into the supervisor's offices within 30 days of signing or they will be invalid.
This bill likely would have the effect of discouraging volunteer-driven constitutional amendment campaigns and instead favor paid signature gatherers, making it cost-prohibitive for many groups to get an issue on the ballot.
SB 1920 would allow businesses and owners to select what people and issues may be allowed to collect signatures outside their doors and in their common areas, such as malls and shopping centers.
Again, this is a heavy-handed attempt to suppress citizens from exercising their constitutional rights.
All these bills are related to the Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment proposal, which has already gathered over 400,000 signatures.
The first two bills show why the Florida Hometown Democracy amendment is needed - the Legislature is not being responsive to the wishes of the people.
The last two bills are related in that these were proposed mainly to try to stop Florida Hometown Democracy from reaching the ballot.
In the process, these bills will trample on your constitutional rights for all measures.
Don't let them succeed. Not only should you urge the governor to veto all these bills, but sign a petition and become otherwise active in Florida Hometown Democracy.
Please go to www.floridahome-towndemocracy.com for further details.
JOHN HEDRICK,
chairman,
growth management/sprawl,
Florida Chapter, Sierra Club,
Tallahassee
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/opinion/