Legislature overdue to focus on growth

The Florida Legislature opened its annual regular session Tuesday with an agenda as long as the peninsula.

Our first thought, with the House of Representatives and Senate convening for 60 days, is to invoke the phrase “primum non nocere,” otherwise known as “first, do no harm.”

That sentiment applies across the broad ranges of issues, especially to education and environmental protection.

The unprecedented longevity and intensity of, and attention paid to, the recent blue-green algae and red tide outbreaks has finally placed a focus on the environment, pollution and the related topic of growth management — or, rather, mismanagement.

When Jeb Bush and Rick Scott were governors of Florida, the state steadily reduced its role in growth management and limited the ability of local governments to establish and enforce meaningful policies to ensure that adequate forms of infrastructure — from storm-water management to transportation to emergency services — would be provided to accommodate new development and its impacts. Court rulings and subsequent legislation gave property owners and developers the upper hand in planning negotiations with cities and counties.

The effects of these trends have caught up with Florida, and legislators and Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared prepared to respond — to some degree, at least.

Senate President Bill Galvano, a Republican from Bradenton, has proposed expanding the state’s north-south system of tolls roads — citing the need to enhance evacuation routes in the event of hurricanes.

Yet neither the state nor local governments have rules in place that prevent development from occurring in low-lying areas if there is a lack of hurricane shelters. (Consider this: In Charlotte County on the southwestern coast of Florida, there are no Red Cross-approved shelters.) Local governments need the ability, expressly granted by state law, to reject development plans in areas subject to flooding unless shelters are available in their jurisdictions or in nearby counties.

Various bills have been filed to reduce nutrient-laden runoff from reaching streams, rivers, bays and the Gulf of Mexico. If the Legislature really wants to be helpful, it will devise methods that encourage and enable local governments to create systems that help control flooding and reduce the volume of polluted runoff.

Galvano told Zac Anderson of GateHouse Florida that he didn’t want to return to the days when the state Department of Community Affairs had provided substantial oversight of local land-use plans. Indeed, the department at one time meticulously reviewed the details of city and county plans and, too often, failed to focus on big-picture management issues that affected entire regions. And, as Galvano noted, many local governments have created relatively sophisticated growth-management strategies.

But the state could, and should, provide greater oversight of growth-related decisions that have broad implications — on transportation, the environment, public safety and the like — across local-government borders.

Florida has the capacity to re-establish links between development approvals and infrastructure availability, without a reliance on overbearing oversight.

The question is: Do the Legislature and governor have the political will to strike the appropriate balance?