BE THE
CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD:
Local Citizen Initiatives to Protect
Our Hometowns
An essay about voter
accountability on land use decision-making by Lesley Blackner.
The arrival of Florida Hometown Democracy has sparked
interest from Floridians who want to know “how you do this at the local
level.” The nuts and bolts of taking
back your community are varied. This
essay serves as a brief overview and introduction to putting local citizen
initiatives on the ballot.
A Little History
Having watched bad growth shoved down locals’ throats for
my entire adult life, and having gone to law school and understanding just how
pro-growth state and local “laws” are, the realization slowly sunk in over the
past few years that the paradigm has to change. What paradigm you ask?
The paradigm of citizens going about their daily lives, trying to keep
body and soul together, only to come home bone tired and see a funny colored sign
posted in the field across the street or a complicated notice in the paper that
shows their neighborhood under the heading “Proposed Change to the Future Land
Use Map.”
The fear rightly sets in…this land use stuff is
complicated, controlled by a tight cabal of lawyers and other
“professionals”…how can the average guy fight it?
The old paradigm: fighting costly, expensive,
exhausting often losing defensive battles on an unfair playing field in which
new construction is automatically presumed to be good for a community; the
rules are rigged to facilitate unceasing development; the government officials
charged with controlling the permitting process have never seen a proposal they
didn’t rubberstamp; and worst of all, local elected city and county
commissioners elected to protect their constituents quality of life, continue
to exercise their political discretion to authorize bad growth.
The new paradigm:
take control of the playing field, and remake the rules to suit the
community. Put the onus of fighting the
status quo on those who want the change.
How do we do that?
At this point, the only one place we can—the ballot box.
How do you get something on the ballot? What can go on the ballot?
What you haven’t been told these many years that you have
watched local government “step-and-fetch-it” for the construction industry is
that the power to regulate land use derives from the power
inherent within local government to protect the community from harm. It’s called the police powers…they
give local government the right to regulate what’s going on within the
community in order to preserve the community’s well being. The police powers are what give local
government the authority to zone property, to prohibit certain activities from
certain areas (like an ordinance to ban porn shops from nearby schools), to
enact tree preservation ordinances, protect open space, etc. As long as an ordinance is reasonably
tailored to a proper implementation of the police powers and does not result in
the full deprivation of a landowner’s right to use his property, chances are
the ordinance will be upheld against a legal challenge.
So for example, a town can adopt an ordinance protecting
wetlands, or certain species, or water supply, or forbidding porn shops to be
within 500 feet of a school. The police
powers are broad in their scope and application. Pretty much anything related to a community’s well-being comes
within the purview of the police powers.
Of course, ordinances can be quickly and easily changed;
variances can be granted. Presto…the
ordinance is changed before you can scream due process!!
What
if you want to lock something in to protect a community…like wetlands
protection or height limits or force your local government to implement urban
growth boundaries? What if your city or
county commission just doesn’t give a damn about anything but feeding the
developers? What do you do?
Pretty much anything within the police powers can be the
subject of a voter referendum or initiative.
Most ballot initiatives are put up by the local governments
themselves…they deal with bond issues (increasing sales tax for roads, schools,
land acquisition, etc.) You need to
find out whether your local government allows you, John Q. Citizen, to get
something on the ballot by collecting a sufficient number of petitions from
local, registered voters. Here’s how.
THE POWER OF THE CHARTER
·
What is a Charter? It is the “constitution” of the local government. Not all
counties in Florida have charters, but all cities do. A charter provision cannot be overridden by an ordinance or variance.
·
What does a
charter do? It defines and codifies how
we choose to be governed at the local government level. It binds the local government to do the
charter’s bidding. In legalese, a
charter “(p)rescribes the form of
government and clearly defines the responsibility for legislative and executive
functions.”(*) If a charter
addresses a particular subject, that issue is settled law and cannot be
changed, (for example by variance or ordinance) without a vote by the
electorate to remove that particular subject.
Example: The charter of Jacksonville Beach limits the
height of all buildings to a maximum of four stories. The local government can grant no variance or exemption to that
restriction. If someone wants a
variance from that height restriction, he must propose a charter amendment to
repeal the provision and get it on the ballot.
·
Can a charter be
changed?
Yes, if you live in a charter city or county, your charter can be amended.
·
How can it be
changed? The charter can be changed by amendment. An amendment can be proposed by the local
elected body or by the local citizens by petition.
·
What role do
citizens play? Citizen involvement in the
establishment, review and amendment of the local Charter is “authorized and
encouraged” by the Florida Constitution and laws…to provide broad citizen
involvement in both initiating and developing their local government is
specifically authorized and encouraged. (**)
To ensure that this does in fact happen, periodic citizen review of
the charter is mandated.
·
How can citizens
amend the Charter? Specifically
…by petition of …the qualified voters in the area… (***). Each charter either gives specific
guidelines for a petition campaign including the number of signatures required,
or refers to general Florida law for the process(****).
CHARTER AMENDMENTS CAN IMPLEMENT VOTER
ACCOUNTABILITY ON LAND USE DECISION-MAKING.
The
voters in Jacksonville Beach don’t want their town Manhattanized. So they amended their charter to cap the
height of buildings at four stories.
Going forward, any new buildings must conform to that requirement. There will be no variances, no ordinances
“transferring development rights” from here to there to allow a skyscraper on
the beach. The voters have spoken
definitively.
A petition
is now being circulated in Edgewater to put a charter amendment on the ballot
to raise the number of “yes” votes needed on the Edgewater City Council to
approve a rezoning, a comprehensive plan amendment or a new comprehensive plan
from a simple majority (3 out of 5) to a super-majority (4 out of 5). These citizens want to raise the bar on land
use decisions. This structural change
will help ensure compliance with the legal principle that harmful land use
changes should not be approved.
The
super-majority requirement is already enshrined in the charter of several other
cities and counties throughout the state, Cocoa Beach for example.
With your hard work and help, Florida Hometown Democracy
will be on the statewide ballot…a landmark opportunity to expand democracy and
put the citizens back in charge of their hometowns. However, FHD is not an end in and of itself. It is hopefully part of a larger movement
for citizen control and accountability that will put the people back in charge
of the places where they live. We cannot expect local government to protect
us—local government is a big part of the growth machine. We must enact the
changes ourselves. As Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the
world.”
For more information about
making a lasting contribution to the long-term protection of your community
through the use of charter amendments like the Edgewater petition, contact: info@FloridaHometownDemocracy.com
For more information about
Florida Hometown Democracy, please visit www.floridahometowndemocracy.com
Footnotes:
2005 Florida Statutes
Title XII MUNICIPALITIES
Chapter 165 FORMATIONS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
165.61 Standards for incorporation, merger, and dissolution.—
* (1)(e)1
165.41 Incorporation; merger
** (2) (b)4(c) and *** (3)(a)…
Chapter 166 MUNICIPALITIES
**** 166.031 Charter amendments.--