"They want a developer-friendly planning commission to run interference for them."

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/nov/29/activists-fear-developer-bias-on-planning-commissi/news-breaking/
Activists fear developer bias on planning commission

By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 29, 2010

TAMPA - When the Florida Legislature created the Hillsborough City-County Planning Commission in 1959, the idea was to have an independent board, free of political pressure, to make recommendations on land-use changes.


But recent appointments to the commission and a new chairman have tilted the board toward a pro-development bias, neighborhood activists and environmentalists say.

Recommendations by the planning board under its current make-up, the critics say, will encourage county commissioners to approve sprawling development in remote rural areas, burdening taxpayers with costly infrastructure and paving over more of the county's rural land.

"We need an extra-independent, objective planning commission to vet changes to the comprehensive plan and zoning changes before they come to the county commission," said Mariella Smith, growth management chair for the local Sierra Club. "But the system has been hijacked to service developers and gives cover to those commissioners who are in the developers' pockets."

The two most recent appointees to the planning commission, Brian Hollands and Ray Young, are a case in point, Smith and other activists say. Hollands is business development manager at Hillsborough Community College, but was formerly in commercial real estate. Young is a Plant City contractor.

Community activists had hoped county commissioners would pick either Vivian Bacca, a Brandon resident active in United Citizens Action Network, or Barbara Dowling, a member of the of the Keystone-Odessa Civic Association. Both U-CAN and the civic association have resisted developments outside the county's urban service area, the limit beyond which water, sewer and other urban services are unavailable.

However, commissioners didn't discuss candidates in the meeting.

Further fueling the activists' ire was the revelation last week that county commissioner Al Higginbotham used developer attorney Vin Marchetti to interview planning commission hopefuls, including Hollands and Young.

Marchetti is considered one of the most powerful and influential land-use attorneys who regularly appear before the planning commission, Smith said, and is often hired by developers when their projects face strong neighborhood opposition.

Marchetti said he saw nothing unethical about his interviewing potential planning commission members. But former planning board chair Jan Smith said Marchetti's involvement is further proof the planning commission is now gliding down a "growth at any cost" path.

Hollands, who has a marine biology degree, said he doesn't share the activists' view of a planning commission split between developers and environmentalists.

"I think the whole us-versus-them mentality is really counter-productive to begin with," Hollands said. "We all live in houses and those houses have to be built by developers. We all eat food that's grown on farms. We need farms and we need open space."

Nevertheless, Hollands and Young, the other new appointee, were part of the 6-4 majority that three weeks ago elected developer Edward Giunta II as the new planning commission chairman. Giunta replaced five-term chairman Bruce Cury, considered by neighborhood groups as a "smart growth" advocate who opposed expanding the urban service area.

Of the remaining seven commission members, three are developers or engineers.

Asked if the planning commission has grown more pro-development, Giunta sidestepped the question, saying instead the board is more fiscally conservative. The commission's budget for fiscal year 2011 is $4.25 million, down from $5.9 million in 2008.

But the new chairman said the commission spends too much paying consultants to write studies on transit, sustainability and other issues having nothing to do with the commission's core duty of overseeing the comprehensive plan. The studies can cost as much as $25,000.

The new chairman vowed to reduce the $29,000 the commission spends on the annual community design awards banquet to $5,000. The difference will be covered by ticket sales and corporate sponsorships, he said.

He also wants to end the planning commission's role in shepherding community based planning, the process by which residents develop rules for guiding growth and protecting the character of their neighborhoods. Giunta would hand the process over to the county's Planning and Growth Management Department.

The plans are popular with activists such as Mariella Smith, who won an award from the American Planning Association for her work on the Ruskin Community Plan. But to Giunta, they are a waste of money. A typical community plan takes two years of planning commission staff time, he said, while less than a dozen residents participate.

"We shouldn't call them community plans," he said. "They're activist plans."

Ken Hagan, often regarded as a development-friendly county commissioner, said his votes in favor of development projects were often based on recommendations by the planning commission.

"The planning commission recommended every one of the developments that the board is being accused of approving and creating sprawl," Hagan said. "I don't know if it's really possible for the planning commission to be more pro-growth than it already is."

In some cases, such as the proposed Mill Bayou development on the Little Manatee River, county commissioners rejected the project despite a recommendation for approval by the planning commission staff.

Hagan's point is well-taken, Mariella Smith said, but she points out that county commissioners appoint four of the 12 planning commission members. The other six voting members are appointed by the cities of Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace.

Giunta is a Tampa appointee and Frank Chillura, also a developer and property manger, was appointed by Temple Terrace.

So politicians, whose campaign war chests are brimming with developers' dollars, appoint developer-friendly planning commissioners.

"Then the politicians can say, 'We're only approving what the planning commission approved,'" Smith said. "They want a developer-friendly planning commission to run interference for them."

Mike Salinero

(813) 259-8303