Gov. Scott signs planning bill

Gov. Rick Scott signed the Community Planning Act June 2, a broad growth management reform measure that shifts a large share of responsibility for city and county planning from the state to the local level.

Sen. President pro-tempore Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, says the reform became necessary as a result of “mission creep,” meaning a slowly expanding authority of the state's role in managing growth in cities and counties during the past several decades.

The 349-page bill, HB 7207, allows developers to apply to extend permits set to expire between Jan. 1, 2012 and Dec. 31, 2013 for two years. Previous permit extensions authorized by earlier legislation may also be extended up to a maximum of four years for those meeting qualifications.

The measure also makes road concurrency optional for local governments, but it retains numerous provisions to discourage urban sprawl. Criticized for encouraging sprawl, concurrency regulations were intended to require additional roadway capacity to handle traffic generated by new development, but the costs to comply often encouraged developers to build in outlying areas to cut costs.

A section of the bill also prohibits comprehensive planning by referendum, such as would have been required by Amendment 4 defeated last November.

The state's growth management laws, previously administered by the Department of Community Affairs, will now become the province of the Department of Economic Planning.