Land Use Policies debated at Growth forum

SARASOTA, FL (May 28, 2009) – With Florida’s growth machine stalled following the bursting of the real estate bubble, many feel that current growth management legislation didn’t accomplish the intended goals. Some, led by Sen. Mike Bennett of Bradenton, want to streamline the rules to help the development industry get back on its feet. Others see this as an opportunity to reinvent growth management and in the process transform the state’s economic model.

Whether impending or proposed changes will produce the kind of Florida we want is the topic of a public forum from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16 in Selby Auditorium at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. The forum, entitled, “Smart Growth/Dumb Growth: How Land-Use Policies Must Change,” is presented by the USF Sarasota-Manatee Institute for Public Policy & Leadership (IPPL) and Biz941 Magazine and sponsored by Neal Communities. The free program will be followed by a reception from 5:30-6:00 p.m.

The keynote speaker will be James F. Murley, one of the architects of the state’s growth management rules. As director of Resource Planning and Management for the Department of Community Affairs in 1983, he helped draft and gain passage of the then-landmark Growth Management Act. Later he went on to become DCA secretary in the administration of Gov. Lawton Chiles. He currently serves as director of the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University, and in January was named by Gov. Charlie Crist as chair of the Florida Energy and Climate Commission.

Other panel members will include Sen. Bennett, who led a successful effort to ease growth management rules in the recently concluded session of the state Legislature, and Peter Katz, Director of Smart Growth and Urban Planning for Sarasota County. Katz is a founding member of the Congress for New Urbanism, a national organization that promotes walkable, compact urban neighborhoods. Panel moderators will be David Klement, director of IPPL, and Susan Burns, editor of Biz941.
The forum is free, but advance registration is requested. To register, go to www.sarasota.usf.edu/ippl, or call the USF Sarasota-Manatee hotline at (941) 359-4602.