Darn radicals are local, too

As conservatives come to power in Tallahassee with a de-regulation agenda, Edward Giunta II, the new chairman of the Hillsborough City-County Planning Commission, has good reason to expect big changes in the offing for the state's growth management act.

And he's not slow to get things started.

Giunta, a real estate broker with L.E.G. LLC in Tampa, shot off an email to long-time planning commission Executive Director Bob Hunter Nov. 10. The email lists as examples Giunta's top three goals for 2011 — things like “Reduce overall work load” and “Simplify Overall Process,” the latter a heading over “Remove Community Plans from the Comp Plan” and “Elimination of DCA.”

To Coffee Talk, those sound like good things to talk about — even more so given the county's 11.5% unemployment rate. The door opened a bit further with the announcement Tuesday that DCA Secretary Tom Pelham will resign Jan. 3.

Giunta had also asked that other commissioners draft their own set of goals “so we as a Board can set an agenda as a Board and start to move in a direction to accomplish those goals.”

While they're at it, Coffee Talk suggests that planning commissioners take a whack at the 2,567 paragraphs, 5,805 lines and 67,855 words that make up Ch. 163, Part II of Florida Statutes.

That's the section that includes a big chunk of the state's growth management laws not counting the development of regional impact laws or all the administrative rules that go with all those regulations. (The administrative rule for preparing local comprehensive plans is nearly 35,000 words long.)

That the Florida Department of Community Affairs, which administers the state's planning laws, is also in the final phase of a legislative sunset review, makes the possibilities for change that much more possible. One previous proposal had community affairs being put under the department of state.

“I know we can't eliminate DCA,” says Giunta, who adds that he just wants the planning commission to do something it should be good at it, that is to plan. But this time, he hopes it will be for a more limited budget requiring the commission “to adapt to the uncertain economic and political times” and avoid staff cuts.

“We are indeed in for a very interesting year that I am very much looking forward to,” writes Giunta.