FLORIDA GOVERNOR LOOSENS REGULATION ON BUILDERS

Governor Scott continues to follow up on his promise to make Florida business friendly and with the latest move, it will continue to be. With massive growth in the panhandle of Florida because of the aerospace, defense, and tourism growing exponentially, this latest move will definitely help our local governments make way for them to help provide the things our present and future residents need. So, Developers and Builders, we await you. We not only await you, we desperately need you.

State loosens regulations on builders
By LAUREN SAGE REINLIE
Northwest Florida Daily News 315-4445 lreinlie@nwfdailynews.com  
Local officials will bear more responsibility for overseeing new development projects after state lawmakers made sweeping changes to growth management laws during the last legislative session. Lawmakers loosened state regulation of builders and repealed a major piece of a 1985 growth management law that required them to help pay for roads, sewers, parks, schools and other infrastructure to support new development. The laws were put in place when Florida was growing rapidly to require builders to support local communities and protect sensitive environmental areas. Lawmakers who support the changes say they no longer are necessary in today’s economy and that they will remove duplicative government regulations. Now county and city officials will have more responsibility over regulating developers, and perhaps more responsibility to find funding for the infrastructure required to support new development. “The ball is really in local government’s court,” said Elliot Kampert, director of Okaloosa County’s Growth Management Department. Sen. Don Gaetz said with the changes builders no longer have to seek approval from both state and local governments, a process he sees as duplicative and unnecessary. “If businesses or individuals can satisfy their local community that growth and expansion are good, that ought to be enough,” Gaetz said. “My view is that the people in Walton and Okaloosa counties know better about what kind of growth and development they want than bureaucrats in Tallahassee.” Linda Young, director of Clean Water Action Network, said she is concerned local officials are pressured by developers to pursue growth regardless of infrastructure or environmental concerns, and now local officials no longer will be able to pass regulatory authority off to the state. “It’s pretty hard for anybody to get elected in the Panhandle if you’re not in with the builders,” Young said. “If you don’t have the support of the builders, you’re not going to get elected.” The new laws only require builders to help pay for potable water and solid waste, Kempert said. Funding for the remaining infrastructure needs will rest on local governments. Young said she is concerned that when the economy turns there will be a renewed pressure to develop property, and she fears officials will allow builders to avoid paying for infrastructure costs. “Then they’ll come back and ask for the money from taxpayers” when roads and sewer systems are overburdened, she said. Kempert said Okaloosa County commissioners have approved a growth plan that follows the prior state laws, and in some cases exceeds them. Commissioners now will have to decide if they want to repeal any parts of it, he said. “(The commissioners) are all there because they want to do what is right for the community,” Kempert said. “Hopefully, here in Okaloosa we’ll try to keep on going with what we have been doing.”