Florida easing government oversight on developers. Bill will give developers free rein.

MIAMI — More than 300,000 residential units sit empty across Florida, 64,588 properties were in foreclosure last month, second only to Nevada, and real estate prices are still plummeting.

Nonetheless, state lawmakers are making it easier for developers to add even more.

Gov. Charlie Crist now has a bill on his desk, which he said Wednesday he “probably will” sign, that would ease government oversight and exempt many areas from a requirement that says builders must pay for road improvements if traffic generated by their projects exceeds the local capacity.

Supporters of the measure — which passed the Republican-controlled Legislature with a wide majority — say it would streamline the permitting process, concentrate development in cities and add construction jobs. Environmentalists describe it as a gift to builders that would make Florida even more vulnerable to the boom-bust real estate cycles that have already shriveled residents’ incomes and dreams.

More than a dozen groups, including the Florida Association of Counties and Audubon of Florida, are demanding that Governor Crist, a Republican, veto the bill. Their opposition focuses mainly on one formula: 1,000 people per square mile. This is the bill’s definition of urban.

In communities that fit that description, developers would no longer have to pay if local roads could not handle the impact of their projects. The law would also let individual municipalities or counties designate areas for large-scale development — an outlet mall, a sprawling subdivision — without being subject to regional planning boards that currently analyze how such plans would affect communities nearby.

If you think Florida's best answer to the economy is to open our state to developers wider than we have in decades …Then you're in luck, because a growth bill passed by the state House on Wednesday does those things. This is probably the biggest thing the Legislature will pass in 2009.

If, on the other hand, you remember that Florida choked on wild, sprawling construction from World War II until the 1980s … That it wasn't until the Growth Management Act of 1985 that we finally lifted a finger to require the roads, schools, water and other services to build a decent state …Then you should be horrified.

What the state House did Wednesday was essentially to gut the Growth Management Act for big chunks of the state.

Big cities and counties could allow growth without worrying about whether roads and other services can handle it. Small counties would be laid open to entire "new towns" of big development without the usual review.

The name of this bill, the House's revised version of Senate Bill 360, is ironically titled the "Community Renewal Act." It would be better titled the "Katie Bar the Door and Strip Mall Act of 2009."

Crist signs economic-development bills into law
By Jim Ash • Florida Capital Bureau Chief • May 21, 2009

Beginning a whirlwind tour of the state a week after he announced his U.S. Senate campaign, Gov. Charlie Crist signed three economic development bills at the Capitol on Thursday, saying he was striking a blow for recession-weary Floridians.

"It's been my goal to make Florida as business-friendly as possible," Crist said.

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One of the measures (HB 227) makes it easier for developers to challenge impact fees charged by local governments. Instead of proving that the need for the fee was "fairly debatable," local officials would have to defend it with a "preponderance of evidence."

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The second bill (HB 7031) includes an incentive that gives non-residents who buy a boat in Florida twice the time, 180 days instead of 90, to avoid user fees.

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The third bill (HB 485) would give corporations a $17 million tax break beginning in 2011, and $20 million for each of the following four years, for investing in low-income neighborhoods.

Tied to a federal tax-incentive program, the move will create 1,600 jobs in the first year and 2,900 a year by the 10th year, Crist said.
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20090521/CAPITOLNEWS/90521004/

TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Charlie Crist signed new laws Thursday intended to boost Florida's economy, including measures to reduce impact fees on new development and provide tax incentives for businesses to locate in low-income communities. Crist, also a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, signed three of the bills in Tallahassee before flying across the state to promote the legislation in St. Augustine, Naples and Ocala, where he planned to sign a fourth bill authorizing a local enterprise zone.

"We need to do this for the people of Florida; they are struggling," Crist said.

State economists say the impact fee law (HB 227) is expected to cost city and county governments, but they are unsure exactly how much. It puts the burden on local governments to prove their fees meet all requirements of state law and legal precedents.

Impact fees are assessed on new construction to pay for new infrastructure such as drainage and roads required by development.

It's been almost impossible for developers and property owners to win challenges against impact fees under the previous state law that directed judges to lean in favor of upholding them. The new law will make it easier to win challenges by removing that provision.