Hometown Democracy president Lesley Blackner wants to regain control of Florida before it 'goes down the drain.'
By JOHN NELANDER
Special to the Daily News
Monday, October 19, 2009
Daily News Photo by Lee Hershfield
(enlarge photo)
Lesley Blackner, president of Hometown Democracy, holds her dog, Astor. She is pushing for the passage of Amendment 4, and said there needs to be limits to development. 'I have no doubt in my mind. They want to build over every square inch of private property,' she said of developers. Lesley Blackner Occupation: Environmental lawyer and president of Hometown Democracy, the organization that has been promoting Amendment 4 on the November 2010 ballot. The amendment to the state constitution would require voter approval for changes to municipal and county comprehensive land-use plans. Quote to live by: 'Be the change you wish to see in the world.' â€" Gandhi Most admired person: Harry T. Moore, an early civil rights activist and NAACP organizer in Florida. He was killed when his house was bombed in Mims. 'I've read everything about him I could find. It's tragic he didn't live to see the change.' Favorite books: Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond; Hope Against Hope and Hope Abandoned by Nadezhda Mandelstam.
Daily News Photo by Lee Hershfield
(enlarge photo)
'I'm lucky to be in a position to do this,' said Hometown Democracy President Lesley Blackner. 'How many people get to work on something they think is really important?'
Photo courtesy of Lesley Blackner
(enlarge photo)
Lesley Blackner at 1 1/2, with her grandmother's dog, Cindy.
Rural Jacksonville, circa 1970. The banks of the St. Johns River, an undeveloped slice of paradise for a 10-year-old to run wild. A picture postcard, perhaps, of the way things used to be.
This was home base for Lesley Blackner as she was growing up, an impressionable young girl who watched deer bound through the woods and manatees cruise the warm river waters.
"Lots of wildlife," recalls Blackner, who is now 48 and waging an often bitter, controversial battle to give voters the ability to approveâ€" or nix â€" changes to comprehensive land use plans.
Opponents say Amendment 4 to the Florida Constitution, which she co-authored, will create chaos. But to Blackner, a 12-year resident of Palm Beach, it's a way for people to regain control of their state before it "goes down the drain."
To be clear, here's her definition of going down the drain: "Just paving over everything, cramming as much development in as possible with no concern about any kind of balance. You go down to Broward County and there's very little property left to do anything. And that's the goal for the whole state of Florida, I have no doubt in my mind. They want to build over every square inch of private property."
It's a viewpoint that accumulated over the years. It had its start in Blackner's childhood, was nurtured in college and law school, and culminated in her career as an environmental attorney.
A very free childhood
To a certain extent, people are products of their time. They do change, but their goals and philosophies are often built on foundations established in youth. They are influenced not only by family and friends, but also by events that define the era.
In the late 1960s and '70s, the country was dealing with hot-button issues such as civil rights, environmental threats and equality for women.
They touched everyone, especially someone growing up in the deep South.
Blackner, however, was actually born in Japan. Her father was a Navy pilot and the family moved around a bit before settling in Jacksonville. Their home on 6 acres on the St. Johns River, she says, was considered "out in the sticks.
"I had a very free childhood. In the '70s people didn't really worry about their kids. We ran wild. Now parents seem to micromanage their kids. I could be gone all day and nobody would worry about me.
"Jacksonville wasn't as built up and I was outside all the time. I always thought Florida's natural beauty was spectacular. It's a beautiful place."
She was drawn to books more than TV or movies. She plowed through all of the Nancy Drew novels in one year and adds: "I read some of the Hardy Boys books, but I didn't like them. I liked the girls in charge."
Blackner was an academic enthusiast and earned her undergraduate degree at Emory University in Atlanta. The next stop was the University of Florida law school. She says she opted for law school because she was a good student, and her mother told her: "You'd better get a profession where you can support yourself. Because don't think some man's going to support you."
A nonpartisan debater
She moved to Palm Beach in 1996 with her husband, Richard Stone, also an attorney. They have two children, one 13 and one 5. Between the family and the Hometown Democracy project â€" into which she has poured $1 million of her own money â€" Blackner's days are filled up. And she makes regular trips throughout the state trying to drum up support for the amendment.
Today, Blackner calls herself a "registered nonpartisan" who is happy to blast either Republicans or Democrats. Her main opponent in this battle is Floridians for Smarter Growth, based in Orlando. She has had several debates with its executive director, Ryan Houck, whom she describes as smart and well-spoken.
Houck says he looks forward to debating Blackner every chance he gets, "because the more people learn about Amendment 4, the more likely it is that they'll oppose it."
He adds: "I do appreciate her willingness to engage in all of these forums around the state."
Blackner says she's been vilified "a little bit" by her opponents. She complains she's been painted as "a radical environmentalist. My response to that is, don't we all have a stake in saving the planet? I mean, where are we supposed to go?"
She adds: "Ryan calls me a rich Palm Beacher, but I don't really consider that an attack. It's true, I mean compared to other people. I'm lucky to be in a position to do this. How many people get to work on something they think is really important?"
Would Houck characterize Blackner as a radical environmentalist?
"I would characterize her policies as radical," he said. "They are so far out of the mainstream that they have alienated groups within the environmental movement."
Florida's civil rights era
The Blackners' home is vintage 1924, Spanish architecture that is a block from the beach. Stone has an office in the house; Blackner has an office in another building behind the house. They are both avid newspaper readers and the kitchen table is piled with reading material.
She's proud of her yard, which is low maintenance.
"We use a lot of native plants," she said, and points out example after example with an easy familiarity.
Upstairs, she talks about the latest book she's reading, an intriguing civil rights story about a guy who claimed to be black so he could marry a black woman.
"I've been very interested in the civil rights era in Florida," she says.
"Martin Luther King said that of all the places he'd been to, St. Augustine was the most lawless. Which is very interesting to me. I was a kid in the '60s, and my mother was from Atlanta. But growing up in Jacksonville we didn't speak about any of this. That's stunning to me, in retrospect.
"The civil rights era shows that society can change rapidly when it wants to â€" and for the better. It doesn't have to stay stuck in a rut. That the South was able to transition away from segregation is a remarkable tribute to America's ability to transform itself."
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/news/2009/10/19/ProfileBlackner1020.html
Lesley Blackner Occupation: Environmental lawyer and president of Hometown Democracy, the organization that has been promoting Amendment 4 on the November 2010 ballot. The amendment to the state constitution would require voter approval for changes to municipal and county comprehensive land-use plans. Quote to live by: 'Be the change you wish to see in the world.' â€" Gandhi Most admired person: Harry T. Moore, an early civil rights activist and NAACP organizer in Florida. He was killed when his house was bombed in Mims. 'I've read everything about him I could find. It's tragic he didn't live to see the change.' Favorite books: Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond; Hope Against Hope and Hope Abandoned by Nadezhda Mandelstam.
Please don't fall for this amendment. St. Pete Beach has tried this on a local level and it has been a miserable failure. While I agree that the current system is flawed, Amendment 4 is not the answer!
Here is an editorial from St. Pete Beach:
ParadiseNEWS, May 24, 2009
Editorial: Florida must defeat "Hometown Democracy" or suffer the fate of St. Pete Beach
By Peter Roos
With the so-called "Hometown Democracy" amendment virtually certain to appear on the 2010 ballot, Floridians need to hear what has happened to the small town where this idea was first tested. In St. Pete Beach, "Hometown Democracy" has quickly proven to be unworkable, expensive and dangerous. At first, the "Hometown Democracy" rhetoric appealed to many voters. "Take back control of development from the greedy politicians" the petition-gatherers said. "Let the people vote" was a common catch-phrase used by the so-called Citizens for Responsible Growth (CRG), a political action committee that represented FHD locally. However, it soon became clear that "Hometown Democracy" was a Trojan Horse ploy to end all growth in St. Pete Beach.
Prior to "Hometown Democracy," St. Pete Beach had been planning for its future. A progressive city commission led by a forward-thinking mayor held the first community-wide visioning forums with help from the University of South Florida. These were followed by public workshops led by nationally- recognized planners that ultimately resulted in an award-winning plan for the new millennium. The new plan had barely passed all of its regulatory hurdles when CRG sprung into action. Using fear tactics aided by exaggeration and outright deceit, petition-gatherers obtained sufficient signatures to put a number of referenda on the local ballot that would derail the city's plans. This momentum also propelled some of the CRG officers onto the city commission, making St. Pete Beach the poster child for Florida Hometown Democracy's statewide aspirations.
After suffering under the economic side-effects of this measure, many of our citizens began to see "Hometown Democracy" for what it truly is: Not an attempt to "let the people vote" but instead a carefully- crafted effort to stop all growth, regardless of the will of the people. Our residents discovered that it was virtually impossible to condense a 500-page comprehensive land use plan into a meaningful 75-word ballot summary and, without expecting it, St. Pete Beach soon became a battleground for lawyers and political action committees.
In the end, it was a group named Save Our Little Village (SOLV) that opted to play by "Hometown Democracy" rules and put their own petitions out for referendum. The SOLV plan asked citizens to vote on a new comprehensive plan designed to revitalize our town's flagging economy. SOLV's core group was made up of mostly longtime St. Pete Beach residents including professionals, business owners, retirees and folks just like "Joe the Plumber."
Hometown Democracy's CRG supporters did their best to prevent a vote from happening. In spite of the fact that their mantra had been "let the people vote", it took a judge's order for the special election to take place on June 3, 2008. Not surprisingly, the SOLV plan was approved by a large majority of voters. Nearly a year later, the plan is still not in effect because Hometown Democracy leaders have repeatedly challenged the election results in court. The CRG and FHD war cry should have been "let the people vote, "as long as they agree with us." To show how closely Florida Hometown Democracy (FHD) was involved in St. Pete Beach, one need only have watched Tallahassee lawyer and FHD co-founder Ross Burnaman take the lead position in the lawsuit in the St. Pete Beach Commission Chamber two months ago.
After half-a-million dollars in taxpayer-funded legal battles, the court has now cleared the way for the city's new comprehensive plan to take effect" unless Hometown Democracy leaders file yet another legal challenge. The city has been forced to lay off many needed employees because of the cost of frivolous Hometown Democracy-generated lawsuits. Many of these lawsuits have yet to be resolved. Meanwhile, Florida Hometown Democracy is paying petition-gatherers to get Florida's voters to put their initiatives on a statewide ballot in 2010. After several prior failures, it looks like they may finally reach the ballot. Paradise NEWS has covered the St. Pete Beach experiment in "Hometown Democracy" since the measure was adopted in 2006. The St. Pete Beach case study is ample proof that the motives of Florida Hometown Democracy are not honorable. Moreover, the aftermath of this idea has demonstrated that "Hometown Democracy" actually disables the planning process, resulting in blight, decreasing property values, and an environment of failure for local business.
If you want to see Florida retain some vestige of the Paradise you remember, VOTE NO on "Hometown Democracy."
Here's an editorial in today's Tampa Tribune regarding what has happened in St. Pete Beach since the voters approved a similar concept a few years ago.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/oct/20/na-hurting-towns-and-democracy/news-opinion-commentary/#
There are some things to consider regarding HTD act. One, it only affects future land use: it will not affect current zoning and the limits that are described in the code. For example, under the code, no more than 36 acres of commercial development should be developed at a node (arterial intersection). However, "should" does mean "shall" or must and there is nothing in the code that says it cannot go to 100 acres if its concurrent with infrastructure, etc. Seen it happen.
So, with nearly all the land in Duval county zoned, with future land use something other than agricultural, HTD may have little affect on slowing growth. But, what's more, HTD may increase density/growth in Duval because it will be costly and laborious to change the future land use in surroundings counties like Baker and Nassau where much of the land is still FLUM agriculture.
Politically there are consequences as well. Now every FLUM change becomes a political campaign and that opens up new money from sources that generally support conservative and/or Republican candidates. Key Republican strategy is to "get your people out to vote" and conservatives do a much better job at this than do liberals. After all, Duval is a Democratic County - but not at the polls. And, "property rights" is frequently a conservative appeal point to voters. Long story short, more money to get conservatives out to vote, more conservative voters in the poles, Leslie Blackner being a liberal, just blew up her own world and a lot of other people's.
I have to admit, I am not a fan of Leslie Blackner's political philosophies. She is not a big supporter of beach access - I am. She likes to file a lot of law suits that are at the expense of everyday citizens to support pretty shaky environmental positions -- many she has lost. And, when it suits her, she will team up with developers and right wing property rights groups to support her position. I find her passion and courage admirable and it is debate that makes our nation strong, but I am not comfortable with amendment 4 or the methods of its creators.
My experience mirrors Blackner's to a small degree.The experience has been enough to consier Hometown.
Upper level board member with mainstream,widely admired conservation organization. Championed establishment of full time Northeast office.Mimi & Lee Adams award recipient.Public workshops.Planners & Consultants. Sector Plans.Water Management District council.Freedom Commerce.Nocatee.That's the short list.I long ago agreed with Blackner's approach,even when many others viewed without warm embrace.Of course, that eventually did change for many.
I find that the on the ground awareness by the area "environmental" community is lacking.Little predictive capability- mostly 'response' mode, reflecting a 'technique';local governmwent joined at the hip with ardent development."Growth management" mitigation creates relaxed outlook.None of the present models of public policy development provide the continuity,wide responsiveness and regard for all relevant information.
The all too late recognition of the thirty year old "Beltway" process,Mayor Delaney's promotion of surface waters use at River Summit # 2, our focus on evil central Florida's water use proposal, over growth without any real awareness of the yet unseen but vesting transformation in our own back yard.This too is a short list, not intended as a negative outlook on the enviros- but rather further argument for Hometown.In fact,expect some of these revelations to emerge when things get spirited.(Even John Thrasher will have some explaining to do...)
The more one understands the more one can be inclined to the Hometown initiative.