Having seen the Tampa area featured in The New Yorker as America’s prime example of greedy, wrongheaded leadership driving us off the cliff of economic disaster, let’s take a look at how our county commissioners propose to lead us out of this mess shown in this New Yorker video as “ground zero of the foreclosure crisis.”
Near the end of their meeting last Wednesday, the commissioners discussed their ideas for how to get us out of the hole they helped dig. Four of them think the solution is to keep digging. Faster.
Incredibly, four of the seven commissioners — Jim Norman, Ken Hagan, Kevin White & Al Higginbotham — see the solution to our housing glut as MORE housing. And all the new strip malls and office buildings sitting around vacant? Yep, they want to see MORE of that commercial stuff built, too. And fast.
They want to deregulate development. It’s what they always want to do. When the housing bubble was booming they used that as an excuse to push for less oversight, and now that the bubble has burst, they’re trying to declare an “economic state of emergency” as a way to toss out the rules that manage growth and protect the environment. They claim that deregulation will stimulate more building.
The deregulation push has 3 major goals:
So when we get MORE vacant buildings dragging our property values down, those new buildings will be less carefully reviewed—and possibly built to lower standards.
Commissioner Norman led this charge on Wednesday, with panicky fear-mongering. In one rant, calling for county government to get out of the way of developers and “streamline things beyond belief,” Norman used the phrase “state of emergency” SEVEN times in 14 sentences.
Hopping on the developer-giveaway bandwagon, Commissioners Hagan & White both brought up the complaints they received during the boom years that developers weren’t getting their building permits fast enough. They joined Commissioner Norman in demanding that staff push new building permits out faster, apparently clueless that the boom years are over, and now hundreds of permits are laying around already approved, waiting to be picked up by developers who no longer want to pay for those permits to build more stuff that nobody wants to buy anymore.
Peter Aluotto, director of Planning & Growth Management tried to explain:
“WE LOOKED AT THE NUMBER OF BUILDING PERMITS THAT WE’VE ALREADY APPROVED AND ARE WAITING TO BE PICKED UP. APPROXIMATELY 236 ARE RESIDENTIAL AND 20 ARE COMMERCIAL. WE REGARD THESE AS APPROVED INVENTORY, WHICH AT CURRENT ABSORPTION RATES REPRESENTS A TWO-MONTH SUPPLY. … LACK OF DEMAND HAS CAUSED MANY DEVELOPERS TO SUSPEND THEIR PLANS INDEFINITELY. INDEED, THE NUMBER OF REQUESTS FOR PROJECT TIME EXTENSIONS ON UNSTARTED PROJECTS IS INCREASING. THIS INDICATES TO US THAT BUILDING ACTIVITY IS NOT LIKELY TO IMPROVE ANYTIME SOON.”
The commissioners completely ignored the fact that the efficiency of our permitting process is not a real issue at this time.
Sounding like a genius among lunatics, Commissioner Sharpe said we can’t keep following the same failed policies that got us into this mess:
“I WENT TO A CONFERENCE NOT TOO LONG AGO AND I HEARD THAT, YOU KNOW, DON’T WORRY, THE OLD FLORIDA WILL BE BACK, WE’LL BE BACK TO BUILDING, YOU KNOW, THE SUBDIVISIONS AND STRIP MALLS. THAT’S NOT THE SOLUTION. … IF WE JUST RUSH THROUGH PERMITS AND WE START BUILDING EVERYWHERE AGAIN, BUILDING WHERE THERE’S NO DEMAND OR BUILDING WHERE WE’RE NOT PLANNING ON FOLKS TO GO, THEN WE’RE GOING TO CREATE NEW PROBLEMS …
“… WE ARE IN A CRISIS. WHAT I AM SAYING, THOUGH, IS THE SOLUTION IS NOT GOING TO BE MORE OF THE SAME. WHAT’S SO FRUSTRATING IS WE KEEP DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND THINKING WE’RE GOING TO GET A DIFFERENT OUTCOME, AND WE’VE GOT TO DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY.”
Sharpe has long stressed the need for us to diversify our business base so that we are not so economically dependent on the building industry. His vision for future growth includes building infrastructure and focussing growth efficiently around transit systems:
“WE’RE GOING TO PROVIDE A SOLUTION, WHICH WILL HOPEFULLY BE TRANSPORTATION ALONG WITH AN EMPHASIS ON EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE, AND THE AREAS BEING ALONG WHERE YOU’LL HAVE THE MOBILITY SYSTEMS, WHETHER IT’S THE BUS RAPID TRANSIT OR POTENTIALLY, IF THE ALTERNATIVE ANALYSIS BEARS OUT, A — AN ACTUAL RAIL LINE. THAT’S WHERE THE GROWTH IS GOING TO GO”
Norman dismissed Sharpe’s vision as too long-range, launching another panicky rant and bullying Sharpe by claiming the Governor as an ally in a “State of Emergency” relief package of deregulation for developers.
Concurrency rules say there must be sufficient infrastructure capacity—enough roads, water, schools, police, etc.—before developers can build more stuff.
Norman, who has filed to run for state Senate in 2010, is intimately involved with the state legislators who are right now trying to repeal concurrency rules statewide, claiming this will “stimulate growth.” Our county commissioners are setting us up to toss out our growth controls so developers can build whatever, wherever, even if their projects will overwhelm our roads and schools.
In the new Gang of Four, Higginbotham is the new Blair. Having stepped into former Commissioner Brian Blair’s role as chair of the Environmental Protection Commission (EPC), Al Higginbotham is already calling for further “streamlining” of our wetlands protections. Last Wednesday he directed County Administrator Pat Bean to “expedite” EPC permitting.
Although Higginbotham declared he was satisfied at the time with the compromises recently handed to special interests in the contentious Hybrid “streamlining” of EPC permitting processes, he now seems to feel we did not give developers enough of the deregulation they incessantly clamor for.
Earth to commissioners: Deregulation of the building industry can’t stimulate any more building in a market that is already insanely overbuilt. And even if it worked, the cure would be worse than the disease.
If they really wanted to come up with local solutions to our local economic woes, commissioners would talk to other industries in addition to the building industry—talk to bankers to figure out how to get cash flowing through local banks again; talk to local business owners to come up with ways to encourage local spending in their markets, and encourage them to hire. But these commissioners only seem to listen to the same handful of developer-cronies who helped get them elected. And those guys just want to get all our pesky concurrency rules and environmental protections out of the way now, so they’ll be ready for the day they can crank up the bulldozers and concrete mixers and re-start the sprawl machine.
Last Wednesday, our commissioners voted unanimously to direct staff to work with developers and find ways to deregulate their industry.
If you don’t agree with that “solution” to our economic mess, tell them. And tell your governor, too.
Hillsborough commissioners envision more, easier-to-develop housing as solution to housing glut | The Political Whore
1 year ago
[...] can read the full story here. Bookmark [...]
drinklime
1 year ago
check out the new google earth, it has a timeline button and you can see just how ridiculous the builders are
Denis Baldwin
1 year ago
This is insanity. When I left Lakeland, there were 25 houses on my street and 17 of them were vacant. It seems less bad in my neighborhood in Tampa, but I live in a lower end neighborhood now. A friend of mine over by 301/75 lives in a nice, new (about 5 year old) subdivision and more than half the houses are empty. How is building more houses going to help in any way?
Kelly
1 year ago
It is a state of emergency if you are a politician backed by the development industry with an upcoming run for saaaay state Senate or a district wide seat! What needs to be streamlined is the developers control over our elected officials. Hilarious that the New Yorker article refers to Beckner’s win over Blair.
Great job exposing the grease monkeys of the sprawl machine!
Dixie
1 year ago
Same stuff, different day. More accommodations for more sprawl. Building more in a glutted area is stupidity at its best. Why do you think there are so many “approved” permits sitting there waiting to be picked up. No one is building because no one is buying. Deregulating the building industry will only serve to weaken our comp plan and allow building to occur wherever land is cheapest, reaping more congestion on our already suffering roads. Gang of four – when will you get the message – “Who’s next”?
Kelly
1 year ago
You know I was thinking….I am really tired of being fat….what can I do about that? I know, a steady diet of pork ribs and chocolate should jump start my weight loss! Hellooooo that is the same rationale the Gang of 4 is using on this one. Earth to Commissioners is right Mariella!
GKR
1 year ago
I am a practicing local architect, the growth model the county is continuing to use is obsolete. The attraction to mindless sprawl peaked in the 1980s. Today, mixed-use medium density walkable New Urban redevelopment that replaces one of our many blighted and abandoned strip malls (greyfields) is where it’s at.
Yes, sprawl is easy, developing on former pasture is easy, redeveloping already built land is much harder, and building mixed-use is harder still, but THAT is where future growth of this county is at.
The local land development industry must learn a new way, and a new place, to develop.
Clyde
1 year ago
What do you bet these gentlemen will be reelected? We get what we deserve.
BG
1 year ago
Please support Florida Hometown Democracy.
This is a citizen led effort to get a referedum on the next ballot, that if approved, would add one additional step to the existing process regarding changes to our comprehensive plans (long range plans for how our cities and counties will grow). If commissioners approve a change, it then goes to the voters (you and me) for a final up or down vote at the next regular election. Example: If the applicant requests to build a subdivision in the rural area and commissioners approve it, the final decision would rest with the voters. This won’t solve all of our problems but would slow urban sprawl.
Anonymous
1 year ago
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair
“We are bought and paid for by developers and we should burn with shame for how we aid and abet the destruction of Hillsborough County. Leave us in office and we’ll ruin your future to enrich ourselves and please our masters.”
- Jim Norman, Ken Hagan, Kevin White & Al Higginbotham
Ed
1 year ago
Workforce and population decreasing, due to jobs disappearing, the answer they are using is the vain hope that what worked 20 years ago will work today. That sunshine and retirees will pave the way to paradise.
There is a lack of vision even comprehension from these bought off useless politicians we must not tolerate.
Jim
1 year ago
What other jobs would you all propose for the 7+% unemployed?
MenckenJr
1 year ago
What other jobs? Look on CraigsList:
http://tampa.craigslist.org/jjj/
There are pages and pages and pages of jobs in lots and lots of fields. They don’t all pay as much as construction jobs do/did, but not working brings in $0/hr.
Meredith
1 year ago
What employer in their right mind would relocate to an area that is so visibly corrupt? Who would move their business to a place with poor schools, cancer-like overdevelopment, no mass transit and no apparent plan for the future except to build more houses that no one needs?
Denis Baldwin
1 year ago
Meredith – Can you think of any area that doesn’t embody those qualities these days? I can spot corruption in all levels of government, from community organizers through the highest branches of the national government. Local tends to be amongst the most corrupt because they are rarely challenged. It’s going to be a problem no matter where someone wants to work.
Anonymous
1 year ago
“What other jobs would you all propose for the 7+% unemployed?”:
They can start by trying to be a part of the solution, not the pollution. Perhaps something in the green sector. Fostering more sprawl (because its easy) is not the answer.
Denis, there are plenty of more progressive cities in the country that do not get featured in The New Yorker because of its particular dysfunction.
Meredith
1 year ago
I’m not saying other places are free from corruption. I’m saying Florida’s most obvious corruption is tied to development, and the result is decreased quality of as well documented above. Major employers don’t want to relocate here for many of these reasons. The ‘brain drain’ of talent is documented as well, and business leaders have tried to address it. Until Hillsborough County actually stands up to the developers and whatever puppets they place in county govt, the cancer will continue to consume the host (and your tax dollars). It will haev to get pretty bad, apparently, before people are motivated to pay real attention to local politics and take action.
Mariella
1 year ago
Meredith makes an excellent point. Superbowl visitors complained about our traffic because it’s worse than where they come from. The New Yorker featured our area because it’s a poster child for terrible growth management and small-minded, shortsighted local leaders. When businesses consider relocating here, they will be turned off by our bad qualities which are becoming nationally known.
Patricia
1 year ago
The name of thge article in “THE NEW YORKER” is called “THE PONZIE STATE” It is a 4 star Article. They call it like it is, “Greed and Stupidity” Maybe we should send a copy to all our Tampa Politicians.
visitor to Tampa
1 year ago
Repeating the same behavior,expecting different results, is what I see in your Tampa Town.
GKR
1 year ago
Check out SB 360, this will effect Hillsborough if it can not be stopped!
http://www.1000friendsofflorida.org/reform/09session.asp
Linda Lowe
1 year ago
It has already been eloquently said, so I will only add that the most logical solution would be for this to be stopped dead in the legislature. Write your congressman in Tallahassee.
Linda Lowe
1 year ago
It has already been eloquently said, so I will only add that the most logical solution would be for this to be stopped dead in the legislature. Write your congressman in Tallahassee.
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » Blog Archive » state moving to deregulate development
1 year ago
[...] State Legislators (just like some Hillsborough County Commissioners) are working to “streamline” — i.e. deregulate — the development industry. State lawmakers [...]
Mariella
1 year ago
The Times mentions this post today.
Glad to see such a good discussion here.
Is that grass growing in Hillsborough County’s reservoir? | The Political Whore
1 year ago
[...] should really break the news to Team Sprawl that should their wet dreams come true regarding restarting the building boom, the truth is they would be dried up before the [...]
March Madness at the circus | Daily Loaf
1 day ago
[...] assaults on the wetlands that we have left, name awards after deceased pardoned ex-felons, or even figure out ways to relax what little growth management laws we do have. Now that I think about it, I hope Commissioners keep the Greatest Freak Show on Earth [...]