Image courtesy Pixabay..

Growth is a hot topic in Sarasota social media these days. If you explore social media community groups, it is very common to find complaints about growth within the same or successive social media posts about infrastructure, traffic, affordable housing and other concerns. Many times posts will ask for the stoppage of growth until affordable housing, infrastructure, and traffic are fixed. In reality, growth is the answer to these problems.

I have lived in Sarasota long enough to remember when Ringling Bridge was a two-lane draw bridge, when Honore was non-existent in south county, when North Port was a desolate area you drove through to get to Murdock in Charlotte County to shop, and when the strip mall north of University at today’s UTC was a vacant eye sore. These things needed built, or rebuilt, to improve our quality of life.

It was due to growth that we have our icon of a bridge, a north-south connector reliever that parallels I-75, a promising southern city with destination shopping and restaurants and a wonderful northern shopping center full of restaurants, shopping and things to do on University. All of these projects increased our quality of life and occurred due to the catalyst of growth. 

Growth is necessary for a community to improve, provide opportunities for infrastructure and economic expansion and it is equally necessary for affordable housing. You cannot stop, or even slow, people from moving here without very bad consequences to our economy, and especially, housing. 

For those of you not here during the Great Recession, you missed experiencing the perils of a declining population and our economic deterioration. Unemployment was in the double digits for a sustained period, foreclosures proliferated due to lack of jobs, and legacy businesses shut down; it was terrible to experience and our quality of life suffered. We were begging people to move here and bring or start businesses. Growth was our way out and it has led to our quality of life today.   

Today, we haven’t developed enough housing product to meet demand and this has increased the cost of housing. This has been universally recognized across the country as the main obstacle to providing affordable housing. The biggest barrier to providing more product is NIMBYism, or “Not In My Backyard” sentiments, from those existing residents complaining about growth. 

NIMBYs are the existing residents, many of whom moved here, but don’t want anyone else here. They claim to want affordable housing but will suggest it is a better fit for somewhere else not near them so it doesn’t change the “character” of the area. This is code for not wanting “those” people here. Make no mistake, it is classist, and sometimes even worse than that, but not explicitly said aloud.

The Florida Legislature zeroed in on this problem and the local government paralysis that occurs when dozens, or even hundreds, of people show up in the same color shirts to oppose rental housing or more density. To avoid this, the legislature recently completely bypassed NIMBYism, and therefore local government, when affordable housing is going to be built. 

Florida’s Live Local Act provides for automatic approvals, administrative approvals, and height similar to other building within one mile of the development. This is the most significant affordable housing legislation in several decades and provides regulatory incentives and money to encourage development of housing, that combines affordable and market housing.

We are hopeful this is just the start of housing reforms in the legislature that combat NIMBYism. We are encouraged that the state understands the necessity of growth and housing to helping to solve important quality of life issues and therefore makes sure that “those” people are welcome here.

Christine Robinson is Executive Director of The Argus Foundation.

Image courtesy Pixabay..