Monday, November 20, 2017

A brief history of rational planning in Florida and its demise

The Community Planning Act of 2011 broke Florida's regulatory structure that had for more than 20 years attempted to review development plans and foster an orderly, sensible approach to the construction of homes, commercial centers, roads, and much more.

The Act, for example, makes it possible for a developer to ignore existing road deficiencies, says Nancy Stroud, writing for the John Marshall Law Review:












How has the disruption of regulatory measures impacted Florida? We have this benchmark for the period leading up to the Community Planning Act:
Former DCA Secretary Tom Pelham has pointed out that from 2007 to 2010, the state approved 1.5 billion square feet of commercial development in addition to nearly 600,000 new housing units and nearly 1 million acres of land use changes. FloridaEnvironments.com
What about since 2011? Has any study looked at what's happened in the past 6 years?

In her conclusion, Stroud speaks of Florida's "retreat from meaningful state or regional authority":




Ironically, says Stroud, the state's abdication of rational safeguards in the face of rampant growth might, quite illogically, rely on the advocacy of regular people who happen to care:



The complete text of Stroud's article is here.




1 comment: