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Highlands Today

DCA Could Be On The Chopping Block

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: March 27, 2009

SEBRING - Jim Polatty has fought for decades with the Department of Community Affairs. But Highlands County's chief planner doesn't want the state agency dismembered.

The state planning agency is hated by developers. "And DCA has generated some of these problems," said Polatty, who has resigned but remains a county employee for another month.

"Jeb Bush was elected on a promise to abolish DCA. There has always been a group of people in Florida who wanted them to be abolished," Polatty said.

Their wish may finally come true. Denise Grimsley is chairing the Government Accountability Act Council, which voted 12-5 last week for an unnumbered House bill that would move the growth management function of DCA to the Department of State. Currently, the agency reports directly to Gov. Charlie Crist.

DCA's Division of Emergency Management, Florida's FEMA counterpart, would remain under the governor's control. The Florida Building Commission would be parceled to the Department of Professional Regulation.

Three DCA programs will be eliminated under the PCB: Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, the Special District Information Program, and the Homeowners Covenant Revitalization Program.

The Military and Local Affairs Policy Committee has also voted 12-3 for the bill.

Agency Mission

DCA is the state's land planning and community development agency. When developers want to build a suburban mall or a subdivision, they ask permission from a city or a county, which then must submit large scale comprehensive plan amendments for DCA's final approval.

Then the waiting begins, and that's what has frustrated developers.

Four years ago, Terry Crutchfield's family planned to develop Crossroads Mall, at the intersection of U.S. 27 and S.R. 66. She also represented other developers who planned subdivisions and commercial projects. They also languished for years, and now the boom is over.

"We missed the opportunity," said Crutchfield, a broker with TLC Realty. "We eventually did get approval on other projects, after we got through answering all their questions, adding more paperwork and adding more expense. But by then, the market had already turned to where it wasn't viable."

Sen. J.D. Alexander doesn't think the House legislation will pass the Senate, where a companion bill hasn't been introduced.

"I don't really think that will fly," Alexander said. Even if it does, he doesn't think it will fly past the governor.

"I would be shocked if he would sign that bill."

If the Legislature is successful, Crutchfield won't shed a tear over DCA's demise.

"But does that change the laws?" she asked. "If it does, then are the new projects going to get approved in a few months?"

DCA Secretary Thomas Pelham was perceived as arrogant and difficult to deal with, Polatty said. It was the final straw for some state representatives that Pelham refused to appear before the House committee that wanted to sunset his agency.

Grimsley said the bill is not a veiled attempt to fire Pelham, but his job and 11 others would be eliminated, which would save the state $1.3 million.

"The 12 positions are senior management positions that will duplicative if a merger occurs," Grimsley said. "However, the governor still has the authority to choose the person in charge of the new combined agency."

That's a bad idea, Polatty said. "We butted heads all the time, but there ought to be someone in the state who knows something about growth management."

Actually, one reason why DCA took so long to approve projects was that it was understaffed, Polatty said.

Merging the state's land planning agency with others would be counterproductive, Pelham told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "It suggests that it is not an important function, that Florida doesn't need to be concerned anymore about planning and growth management."

Environmentalists seemed united in their opposition. A letter signed by the Nature Conservancy and the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club said the merger will cripple growth management in Florida.

"We will not see an increase in responsible growth, but a continued and severe diminishment of it," Debra Harrison, a lobbyist for the World Wildlife Fund told the Sarasota newspaper.

Highlands Today senior reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at 863-386-5828 or gpinnell@highlandstoday.com

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