Sent to the Florida Senate Community Affairs Committee on March 15, 2021
Hello All, this proposed SB 284 / HB 55 is very unsettling to me. Design standards are a fundamental tool needed for a sustainable future. Compact urban forms are well-known and accepted as essential to lowering our carbon footprint. They are also essential to contain our infrastructure and municipal services expenditures (i.e., taxes). Higher densities and urban infill in existing cities help create the compact forms – but this creates conflicts with existing residents concerned about losing their neighborhood character. I agree that design is difficult to “regulate” but there should be every other vehicle, tool, and opportunity for local governments to work with citizens to maintain quality community character – with good design – while also enabling higher densities and urban infill.
Furthermore, what we do in Florida and the USA matters very much and resonates around the globe. I lived in developing countries for 15 years and saw time after time the American lifestyle copied – not because we intentionally exported it but because, simply, they want what we want. I saw great swaths of Thailand turn into mega-Los Angeles suburban sprawl – for no other reason than a Thai man visited California and liked what he saw.
If we want to ensure quality of life on this, our only planet, we have to start setting better examples. Design matters – very, very much – please do not support this threat to our collective future.
Thank you for reviewing my mail.
บริษัท แลนด์ แอนด์ เฮ้าส์ จำกัด (มหาชน) (lh.co.th)
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—– Forwarded Message —–
From: Elizabeth Hollister <bethholl@yahoo.com>
To: bradley.jennifer@flsenate.gov <bradley.jennifer@flsenate.gov>; Garcia.Ileana@flsenate.gov <garcia.ileana@flsenate.gov>; baxley.dennis@flsenate.gov <baxley.dennis@flsenate.gov>; brodeur.jason@flsenate.gov <brodeur.jason@flsenate.gov>; cruz.janet@flsenate.gov <cruz.janet@flsenate.gov>; hooper.ed@flsenate.gov <hooper.ed@flsenate.gov>; hutson.travis@flsenate.gov <hutson.travis@flsenate.gov>; polsky.tina@flsenate.gov <polsky.tina@flsenate.gov>; powell.bobby@flsenate.gov <powell.bobby@flsenate.gov>; ryon.elizabeth@flsenate.gov <ryon.elizabeth@flsenate.gov>
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2021, 09:10:40 PM EDT
Subject: Design Matters for a Sustainable Future – Fw: ALERT: Oppose SB 284