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Growth Management
Working on Commission
Armed with data, pie charts and determination, yet another commission attacks growth issues.
 As executive director of the Century Commission, Steve Seibert must come up with a growthmanagement plan that looks ahead 50 years. |
Steve Seibert's job is different from just about anybody else's in state government: As executive director of the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, the former Pinellas County commissioner and secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs has to see that Florida 50 years from now is a great place to live and can continue to be. "I like to say that if we don't change direction, we're going to wind up where we're going," says St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, the commission's chairman. "You ask if Florida is sustainable now. It's probably not, which is why the Legislature put this commission together. Our job is to make sure it is. We need to change the way we do things to make it sustainable."
There's one big problem, though: The politicians themselves. "Sometimes you've just about got to hold a gun to a politician's head to get him to do the right thing," says state Sen. Mike Bennett, a Sarasota Republican who midwifed the Century Commission into existence in 2005 after years of effort.
Bennett's choice of weapon, alas, is not a gun.
Another commission, like a second marriage, is a triumph of hope over experience. How many commissions have we had in this state? Yet Bennett says, "Thirty years after the first environmental laws were passed, Florida does not have a vision for the future and the ability to pay for growth."
Shortly after he became governor, Jeb Bush appointed a Growth Management Study Commission headed by Mel Martinez, then the Orange County Commission chairman and now Florida's junior U.S. senator. It was packed with landowners and developers and focused heavily on reducing the state's role in regulating growth and boosting the economy. The impact on Florida growth patterns was inconsequential.
It's not that commissions are always fruitless. It's just that time, lobbyists, campaign contributions and political distraction erode even good outcomes. So is it different this time? Maybe. Besides, nothing else is working.
A measure of quality
When you think about the next 50 years, think about the changes in Florida since 1956, before interstates and the Daytona 500 and Disney World and astronauts. Elvis was cutting-edge, and our favorite desperate housewife was Lucy Ricardo. Florida had just over 4 million people. The flow of newcomers is starting to look like that Sorcerer's Apprentice segment in Walt Disney's "Fantasia," where more and more broomsticks keep bringing more and more buckets of water until Mickey nearly drowns -- except new Floridians don't bring water with them. They bring cars, along with demand for all government services, ranging from schools, parks and healthcare to roads, electricity and sewers.
The legislation creating the Century Commission speculates that 17 million more people -- twice the current number -- will live here in 50 years. Others figure it will take just over 25 years to get there. Either way, where are we going to put them? Will Ocala become another Orlando, Pensacola-Destin another Broward- Palm Beach, Jupiter another Jacksonville? How will the state plan for all that?
