Fighting for Florida's Unique Quality of Life

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The so‐called "Hometown Democracy" amendment, a statewide "Vote on Everything" initiative, is a grave threat to Florida’s future. The proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution would imperil Florida’s prosperity and quality of life. The amendment—requiring that all local comprehensive land use plan changes meet voter approval—subverts a well‐established, open, accessible and democratic planning process. With the Vote on Everything amendment, citizens, not the representatives they elected, are forced to regularly decide thousands of intricate land‐use planning issues.

Much is at stake for every citizen, family and business in Florida:

  • The disruption to local communities and the daily lives of Floridians will be extraordinary. Cities and counties will be required to hold elections for each proposed comprehensive plan change – not just major projects, but even minor technical details. It will not be unusual for voters to grapple with 300 individual comprehensive plan changes every year. In the last four years alone, this amendment would have required an average of 10,599 additional local referenda per year in Florida. Were this law today, the voters of Carrabelle, a small town in Franklin County, would have been confronted with 840 separate questions on their 2007 ballot!

  • The disorder will further disenfranchise Florida's already‐fatigued electorate. Voters will be deluged with highly technical background materials prepared by the local government planning staff. The legalese of proposed comprehensive plan changes, often puzzling for expert engineers and attorneys, will further dampen voter turnout. Lines at voting booths will grow as Floridians attempt the virtual impossibility of voting on hundreds of separate and often confusing ballot questions.

  • The cost will be astronomical. Every city and county in Florida will be burdened with the time and cost of holding additional elections to vote on proposed changes to comprehensive land use plans. Each of these elections will be expensive, and local taxpayers will be stuck with the bills.

  • The result will be a system that is far worse, not better. That’s why respected environmental leaders refuse to support the amendment. They know this amendment will not stop all development, but it will make well‐planned, smarter growth impossible – thereby encouraging sprawl that reduces green space and makes effective growth management unachievable.

The extremists promoting this amendment have certified over one‐third of the signatures required to place the amendment on the November 2008 ballot. A diverse group of Sunshine State leaders founded Floridians for Smarter Growth to fight the extreme special interests bent on destroying Florida’s constitution and unique quality‐of‐life. Your help is needed now to raise awareness of the Hometown threat in your community. To get involved, please contact Ryan Houck at rhouck@tlsmartergrowth.org.

Pd. Pol. Adv. Paid for and Sponsored by Floridians for Smarter Growth, Inc.
P.O. Box 532018, Orlando, FL 32853‐2018