Beware of Home-Grown “Smart Growth” Activism
December 6, 2011 by Laurie Newsom
Filed under Environment, Hot Topics, Local Info
We can be successful in revoking the stifling regulations that are keeping our community from being prosperous. Citizens need to BE INVOLVED and make sure the right candidates are elected to local office. Gov Rick Scott has paved the way for our local government to reduce and repeal the burdensome land use and environmental restrictions currently keeping business from developing here.
“Radical environmentalists, local business groups, and the ever-present Not in My Backyard crowd have been trying for decades to reshape American communities to conform to their preferred “smart growth” policies. These advocates work to impose land use regulations that would force Americans into denser living arrangements, curtail freedom of choice in housing, discriminate against lower-income Americans, and compel people to pay more for their houses and give up their cars in favor of subways, trolleys, buses, and bicycles.”
“In recent years, however, many smart-growth opponents working at the local level have shifted their focus toward opposing the 1992 United Nations voluntary initiative called Agenda 21, which advocates many policies that reflect smart-growth principles. They should recognize that Agenda 21 is simply another facet of smart growth and not allow it to divert them from opposing the more ubiquitous, overarching agenda of homegrown environmental extremists.”
“Opponents of these policies have been very effective in their work. A good example is the state of Florida, where Governor Rick Scott (R) and the state legislature repealed a 25-year-old smart-growth law a few months ago.[12]”
Nicely said Laurie.
Locally there are so many examples where the new urbanists have thwarted growth it’s difficult to name all of them. One of the worst examples is the MTPO failure to four lane the portion of Archer Road between Tower Road and the end of their jurisdiction which is less than 2 miles. The state will four lane Archer Road all the way to the county line and beyond as soon as that small section has four lanes. The project is on the MTPO list of top priorities but they have failed to fund it.
Until the road has four lanes there can be no further development out that way. But more importantly to many of us are the safety issues caused by the heavy traffic on that two lane road.