by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
New growth management laws passed in May by the Florida Legislature take some important steps to help state infrastructure catch up with growth, said the chair of the mayor’s Growth Management Task Force. But it’s too soon to tell to what extent the “Pay as you grow” act will be successful in legislating self-sustaining growth.
Land use attorney Bob Rhodes has spent much of his last 20 years poring through the state’s latest attempt at legislating growth management. He chaired the state committee that developed much of the legislation. As former head of the Downtown Development Authority, commission member on the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and now chair of the mayor’s task force, Rhodes has acted as one of the City’s top analysts and advisers on growth management law.
The recent legislation is the first major change since the Legislature passed the 1985 growth management act that has since acted as the foundation for Florida’s approach to smart growth.
Working of counsel for Foley & Lardner, Rhodes produced one of the first attempts to make sense of Florida’s new growth laws. His three-page white paper boils down the legislation to its essentials and is intended to translate the mind-numbing land-use legalese for the layperson.
“It’s a very technically-based area of public policy,” he said. “Wonks like me have been toiling in the fields for decades trying to make sense of it, so I know it can be hard to understand for the common folks.”
Florida’s explosive population growth — more than 4 million newcomers arrived from 2000 to 2004 — made the issue a priority during the last legislative session. The overhaul passed behind Gov. Jeb Bush’s strong support.
Rhodes’ initial impression of the legislation is that the package succeeds in putting money aside for infrastructure improvements and expands state and local enforcement authority. But the legislation is scheduled for a slow phase-in. Some aspects don’t go into effect until late 2008 and Rhodes is taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the package as a whole.
“We have some time to understand the effect of these amendments,” said Rhodes. “It’s certainly meaningful legislation, but right now people are looking at it from a fix-up and clean-up perspective. It gives the legislation an opportunity to be understood before we start looking at making changes.”
Calls to change the 1985 legislation began almost immediately after it was signed into law. Rhodes called it “classic ready, fire, aim!” legislation. Although the state created much tougher requirements for adding infrastructure, it failed to provide a means to pay for the schools, utilities and roads needed to keep up with development.
Rhodes credits the current legislation for finally designating significant state money — $1.5 billion — to help fill the infrastructure gap. But the funds should only be seen as a first step, he said. Rhodes estimated the state’s infrastructure deficit in the neighborhood of least $36 billion and possibly as much as $50 billion.
Without state money in place, the burden to pay for infrastructure improvements falls too much on developers. They, in turn, often choose to build in areas with adequate infrastructure already in place. The bypassed neighborhoods are often poor, urban areas.
“Basically, they unintentionally subsidized suburban sprawl,” said Rhodes.
Beside the funding, Rhodes credited the legislation with “sharpening the teeth” of the the state’s ability to enforce growth laws. But he worried some of the new requirements might be too restricting. For instance, the state shortened the timetable provided to developers to build new roads supporting development.
Rhodes said the previous five-year timetable was already tight. The new three-year deadline could be hard to meet, he said.
“There are certainly a number of areas where practical implementation looks to be very difficult,” said Rhodes.
Rhodes said Jacksonville should be well-positioned to respond to the new policies. The mayor’s task force is already examining how to put the new legislation to the City’s best use.