Wanna have a chance to voice your opinion about future growth in the Bay Area? Now's your chance! "One Bay is a diverse partnership of public and private leaders spearheaded by five regional organizations: Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, Southwest Florida Water Management District, Tampa Bay Partnership Regional Research & Education Foundation and the Urban Land Institute Tampa Bay District" (One Bay website). One Bay is asking for citizen input into four alternative growth scenarios. It is important that we not leaving our regional planning to chance but to choice. As populations grow and resources become more scarce, we have to go into the future better prepared. It's important. Go to their website, take a look at the different scenarios, and give them your feedback. Click here to go the the One Bay website: http://www.myonebay.com/
1 comment:
Unfortunately, this feels like another instance of a "plan" being shoved down the throats of the citizenry! Having taken the time to participapte in the lego exercise and reading the 4 options let me just cut to the chase. I do not really think public input is wanted. This is all a charade that duplicates existing functions of local MPOs. It transfer those members' power to another without any assurances whatsoever that information is being shared or that local governments approve of the plans (if they even know about them). That being said, the Pinellas MPO Executive Director is also Planning administrator for Pinellas County. Can you say "conflict of interest" in discussing funding of city vs. county transportation projects. Now local MPO members may not even get that chance. There is no reason to believe that a "regional" board would be familiar with the "local" transportation issues. The new regional authority is admittedly prodevelopment meanwhile comprehensive plan concurrency (horribly gutted by the Bush administration and no recovery under Crist despite Mr. Pelham's experience) specifically addressing the region's critical potable water shortage is ignored. If our local governments cannot and will not address the public's critical need for potable water, then why are we planning to make it easier for more people to move here? Secondly, we have done a poor job of planning for hurricane evacuations and post disaster management. Luckily, we in the Bay area have avoided "the big" one. However, that does not obviate the need to be prepared. Will the new regional transportation plan ensure efficient evacuation or just bring more people to a crowded region with traffic that is not so bad during off peak hours?
Post a Comment