July 2001

By James Lawlor

Kentucky: Smart growth derby. Gov. Paul Patton announced formation in mid-May of a Smart Growth Task Force to analyze and suggest solutions for the state's sprawl problem, chapter vice-president Kevin Costello, AICP, reports.

The 35-member task force has already established committees on agriculture; wildlife and the environment; planning; transportation and corridor management; community development and design, and economic development. Former chapter president Marshall Slagle, FAICP, is a member of the task force, and other chapter members are serving on committees.

At the press conference announcing the task force, Gov. Patton noted that Kentucky grew 27 percent faster than the national average between 1980 and 1997. USA Today's sprawl index rates the Louisville metro area ninth among cities of comparable size in excessive use of land, followed by Lexington and the northern Kentucky-Cincinnati metro area. "We aren't just growing fast, we're growing inefficiently," the governor said. "This issue can't wait another year."

In the session just ended, Kentucky legislators made continuing education mandatory for both professional planners and citizen planners, Costello says. H.B. 55, signed by the governor March 15, requires planning staff to complete eight hours of training within four months of employment; members of planning commissions and boards of adjustment must complete four hours of training within four months of appointment.

Citizen planners must attend an additional eight hours of training within two years, and professional planners must complete at least 16 hours.

The chapter supported the legislation, Costello says.

Florida: Not much left. By the time the legislative session ended just before midnight May 4, most of the growth management reform package proposed by Gov. Jeb Bush and members of the house was all but dead, chapter executive director Marcia Elder reports. Both the house and senate passed growth management bills, but in the end the two bodies could not resolve the differences between them.

Two elements of the package, relating to a rural land stewardship pilot project and exemptions to the development of regional impact process, did pass as part of other bills. Interests that had lobbied unsuccessfully last year for exemptions from the DRI process for airports, marinas, and petroleum storage facilities got some of their wishes this year, Elder says. Exemptions for airports and petroleum storage were added to the house and senate transportation bills, along with a proposal to ease billboard regulation.

In addition, a proposal by a major landowner in the Florida Panhandle to eliminate DRI review of certain large-scale developments in rural areas passed the senate by a voice vote and was then adopted unanimously by the house. The chapter had opposed lifting the DRI threshold on the ground that it was bad public policy to enact special-interest legislation to benefit one large developer.

Texas: Whew! A bill that would have limited cities' ability to rezone property passed the senate but died in a house committee, reports chapter legislative tracker David Gattis, AICP. S.B. 1398, which was opposed by the chapter, would have required owner consent before municipalities could make a zoning change that would reduce the value of a parcel by more than 25 percent.

Also killed: H.B. 25, which would have removed the municipal exemption from the requirements of the Private Real Property Rights Preservation Act. The result would have been to subject all municipal actions to takings assessments.

The legislature did, however, pass a bill limiting a municipality's right to impose a development moratorium. Under S.B. 980, local officials must schedule two public hearings on the moratorium and issue written findings that the moratorium is required because of a shortage of public services. The bill also limits moratoriums to 120 days.