1000 Friends Smart Growth Questionnaire Results Are In

by Anthony LaColla, Planning Intern

As the Legislature sets out to revise Florida's 1985 Growth Management Act, 1000 Friends asked Foresight readers to express their views on how growth management is working and what can be done to improve it. The responses and opinions will help 1000 Friends of Florida develop recommendations on promoting smarter growth in the state. The following is a brief synopsis of the questionnaire results.

Although some survey participants feel the quality of life in their communities is about the same (17 percent) or worse (16 percent), the majority (59 percent) feel their quality of life is better than if there were no state-mandated comprehensive planning for the last decade. Most indicate that local comprehensive plans have been effective in protecting the general quality of life (79 percent), the environment (56 percent), the character of established neighborhoods (60 percent), and significant historical resources (61 percent), as well as encouraging downtown revitalization (55 percent).

Further results, however, show that respondents generally feel city and county governments enforce the provisions of their comprehensive plans poorly (41 percent for city and 56 percent for county) or just adequately (28 percent for city and 27 percent for county). The overall belief is that local comprehensive plans have been ineffective in dealing with sprawl issues (66 percent), traffic congestion (70 percent), affordable housing (45 percent), protecting agricultural lands (60 percent), and protecting the rural character of communities (54 percent). Very few respondents feel the city (12 percent) or county (11 percent) governments thoroughly enforce their comprehensive plans.

Asked to comment on the oversight provided by the DCA in the implementation of city and county comprehensive plans, respondents generally agreed that oversight has not been extensive enough (49 percent for city and 65 percent for county). The majority of respondents favor strengthening state oversight of local comprehensive planning (60 percent) and increasing technical assistance (73 percent). A vast majority express the need for increased state funding and incentives (92 percent) to encourage better planning and make local comprehensive plans more effective.

Most respondents also agree that local comprehensive plans would be made more effective by strengthening regional planning and coordination (86 percent), allowing for greater citizen participation (82 percent), and including provisions for natural preservation (79 percent), historic preservation (93 percent), affordable housing (98 percent) and improved/multimodal transportation planning (90 percent). In addition, an overwhelming majority (98 percent) are convinced that there should be an agreement on how a community will pay for schools, roads, and other public services prior to approval of new development.

1000 Friends would like to thank everyone who completed a questionnaire. Thanks to your responses, we will be able to improve our understanding of growth issues in Florida and develop recommendations for smarter growth. Compete results can be found on-line at www.1000friendsofflorida.org/GrowthAlert/FOFSurvey.htm.