Voters to say if roads should be built first

Collier County voters will be asked in November whether they want adequate road capacity to exist before development can begin.

On a 4-1 vote Wednesday, the Collier County Commission approved putting the referendum on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. Commissioner Tom Henning cast the dissenting vote.

If the referendum is approved by voters, it won’t have the force of law. But Collier officials want to be able to insist that they are following the will of the people when they push to keep their system of having growth pay for growth intact.

“The goal is to get citizen opinion on when infrastructure should be available,” said Commissioner Fred Coyle. “This should give us a good idea of what the citizens want.

“It will also give the state Legislature a good idea about what the citizens want,” Coyle said.

Collier officials want this on the ballot as a way of fighting back against Florida’s new growth-management law. County officials worry this law will devastate their current growth-management system, which requires roads be built before development occurs.

The ballot language will read:

“State growth management law permits new development to proceed under certain circumstances even if adequate road capacity will not exist for 3 to 5 years. Should this law be changed to require adequate road capacity before new development can begin?”

Voters can vote yes or no to the question. The county wants the word “before” to be in bold or underlined on the ballot.

The county attorney’s office is checking with the supervisor of elections office to see if this can be done.

Henning said he couldn’t support putting the issue on the ballot because the commissioners aren’t saying what they’d do if a majority of people voted in favor of adequate road capacity before new development can begin.

“We need to tell the public how we’re going to proceed after they vote yes,” Henning said. “Right now I don’t know what the message is.”

The other commissioners said they needed the citizens to vote yes on the issue, then they’d come up with a plan to change the law.

“I don’t think we can come up with an action plan now,” said Coyle. “Once the vote is in, we’ll develop a plan.”

Commissioner Jim Coletta said if the voters supported them, they could go to the Florida Association of Counties and push for similar ballot referendums throughout the state.

Henning said he questioned this action because the commissioners can’t change state law. He believes the county is better off trying to work within the existing state law.

Officials with the Florida Department of Community Affairs had told the county that its system, known as checkbook concurrency, still can exist because it was around before the growth-management law passed.

But under the new law, Collier will have to pass a proportionate fair share ordinance by the end of 2006, and county officials are dubious that concurrency can survive under that ordinance.

A proportionate share policy defines the responsibilities of government and private industry in managing growth.

It spells out what both have to do in terms of paying for public services and utilities before a development is built.

Under proportionate share, it’s difficult for a county to stop a development. Once the developer has paid its share, its obligation has been met and the developer can move forward, even if the county hasn’t yet paid for the public services for the development.

Commissioners pushed the local state legislative delegation to get the growth management law repealed or amended. But those efforts were opposed by DCA and the leadership in the House and Senate.

At one point during the debate Henning asked the other commissioners if they plan to raise taxes. The other commissioners immediately said no.

Henning is expected to take up that argument again today at the county’s budget hearings. The commissioners are expected to propose keeping the county’s millage rate the same, and Henning wants to see a millage rate reduction, and argues that keeping the millage rate neutral is a property tax increase because property values increase every year.