Guest column: Amendment 4 gives citizens land use control
There are thousands of approved unbuilt commercial and residential sites.
It will be many years before even a small dent is made in this supply.
Yet the developers keep coming and asking for more supported with phony figures of need. This behavior is what has gotten us into the current mess of not having sufficient infrastructure to support current needs, much less what has already been approved but not yet built.
The naysayers scream that jobs will be lost. When? In 50 years?
They say politics will be introduced into the approval process. Do they mean the "sunshine laws?" We have politics now.
They say projects will be delayed and approval put in the hands of "know nothings" otherwise known as citizens.
For the past eight years the politicians in Tallahassee, who were put in office with developer money, have chipped away at the growth management laws and gutted most of them. In fact Rick Scott, who wants to be governor, states he wants to do away with the Department of Community Affairs and scrap all growth management rules and many other regulations. It's called "build baby build." It's a government of the developer, by the developer and for the developer.
They have also placed developers, large landowners, and the like on the boards of the Water Management Districts. These people were supposed to over see the water supply.
They did this by approving every development that came along. Now, they tell us we are running out of water. Stop watering your lawns, they say so we can build more houses.
Question: Can the citizens do better? You bet. They can't do worse.
Some of our own commissioners have said, "Trust us." Come on. I don't think so. The current conditions on the ground, "your track record," sucks.
Just look at the money behind the "No" vote. It's developers, real estate interests, builders, chamber of commerce, lawyers and financial backers. Notice it is not the citizens.
Amendment 4 says to the county and the commissioners, you can continue to review and approve changes to the comprehensive plan. But, then we the citizens get to take a look and say, "yes or no." Sounds good to me.
Vote "Yes" for Amendment 4.
Take control before you are left with nothing to control as well as no drinking water.
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Mary F. Kohnke is a former St. Johns County Commissioner and commission chair. She is an environmentalist.
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