Six Principles of Unity for Smarter Growth in Florida

The public interest organizations at the bottome of the page believe in strong and effective growth management for Florida's future and have agreed to work collectively in support of our shared vision as follows:

Florida is a special place, blessed with a diverse population, distinctive communities and a rich and irreplaceable natural environment. Tens of millions visit our state every year to experience what we are able to enjoy on a daily basis. It is our responsibility to protect and preserve those qualities that make Florida unique, and work to resolve the challenges that face us as we continue to grow as a state.

Collectively, our nonprofit organizations work to protect the quality of life in Florida. We are stewards of the environment, advocates for children and the family, supporters of the spiritual realm, and proponents of robust neighborhoods and well planned communities. We want to pass on to future generations a Florida that is economically vital, environmentally sound, and spiritually enriched. While we represent diverse interests, we are all united in the belief that sound growth management is essential to ensure a better future for our children and theirs. Florida's population will grow by 5 million people over the next 20 years to a total of 20 million people. We must deal responsibly with this growth, making sure that we are wise stewards of our human and natural resources. We must ensure that there will be clean air to breathe and water to drink, energy to power our cities and cars, protected natural areas, strong neighborhoods, affordable housing, and healthy communities. These are essential to our quality of life and without them, we cannot have a vibrant economy.

We recognize that it is time to begin evaluating and refining Florida's landmark growth management process. However, we are uniformly opposed to a rushed process to rewrite current policies and any process dominated by special interest agendas. We advocate for an open and reasonable approach that allows for thoughtful analysis, constructive dialog and reasonable consensus on these critical issues that will affect each of us on a daily basis.

Furthermore, we agree that any proposal to revise growth management should encompass the following principles:

1. Increase the ability of citizens to help shape the future of their communities. Citizen participation is at the foundation of a true democracy. We must work to strengthen the ability of citizens to have meaningful input into the planning and design of their communities, and to assure that adopted plans are followed. We must also work to increase the role of those citizens traditionally under-represented in the process.

2. Create stronger, healthier communities. Healthy communities provide the foundation for healthy families and individuals. We must do a better job of promoting vital downtowns, strong neighborhoods, and affordable housing. We must pay better attention to how our communities are designed so that more people can walk or bike to schools, shops, and parks. We need to welcome diversity within our own neighborhoods.

3. Reduce the amount of sprawl. Over development destroys our natural environment, decimates our cities, breaks down our sense of community, increases air and water pollution, and wastes taxpayer dollars. Because of sprawling development, we spend untold hours stuck in traffic instead of devoting time to our families and communities. We must stop subsidizing inefficient development that destroys our quality of life and wastes valuable resources.

4. Protect rural areas, green spaces, and natural resources. Reducing sprawl is one tool for better protecting our rural areas, while also protecting the environment. We must continue to be proactive in our efforts to acquire and protect significant green spaces, including wildlife corridors and other natural connectors. We also must tap other tools and techniques to safeguard our precious environmental resources. In addition, we need to develop realistic strategies to save productive farmland and bolster rural economies.

5. Recognize that transportation, land use and water management decisions are interrelated and regional in nature. Our traditional jurisdictional boundaries are obsolete. Poverty knows no boundaries, nor do wildlife, waterways or pollution. We must manage growth and development from a regional perspective, taking into account the many complex interrelationships between transportation, land use and water resource management.

6. Maintain a state presence in managing growth in Florida. It is naive to think we should return to the days when each of Florida's 476 local governments were individually responsible for the future of our state. Growth management was initiated because this approach was a dismal failure. As Florida catapults toward becoming the third largest state in the nation, the state must continue its leadership role in helping to manage and direct growth and development.

American Planning Association, Florida Chapter

1000 Friends of Florida

League of Women Voters of Florida

Florida Consumer Action Network

Florida Council of Churches *

Sierra Club, Florida Chapter

Florida Public Interest Research Group

Florida Wildlife Federation

Save the Manatee Club

American Lung Association of Florida

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida

Florida State Council of Senior Citizens

Environmental Confederation of South West Florida **

Alliance for Florida's Future

Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund

Citizens for a Scenic Florida

Broward County Planning and Environment

Florida Bi-Partisan Civic Affairs Group

League of Conservation Voters of Florida

Environmental and Land Use Law Center

Citizen Planner Institute

Florida Catholic Conference

Florida Legal Services

Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation

Florida Housing Coalition

* Multi-denominational entity composed of 31 organizations ** Composed of 32 independent organizations