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People’s ChoiceEditorial A movement that began with one woman could soon capture the attention of tens of thousands of Jacksonville residents. What's at stake is nothing less than the future health and well being of the city. When Suzanne Jenkins surveyed the devastation at the intersection of I-95 and J. Turner Butler Boulevard in the spring of 1997, she wanted answers. She wanted to know how developers could turn acres of woods into a barren moonscape in the blink of an eye - without a word of warning to the public. Not only had they destroyed trees for their massive used car lot, they had also chopped down most of the trees in a state-owned buffer zone located between the developer's property and the highway - all so that giant AutoNation USA signs would be visible to motorists on I-95. Jenkins, a community activist who now sits on the Jacksonville City Council, started asking questions - and quickly got a lesson in how the city does business. She learned that overwhelmed city inspectors had neither the time nor the inclination to confront illegal clearcutters. She learned that city fines aimed at "mitigating" the damage were rarely collected. She learned that even when fines were levied, savvy developers were returning the funds to their own spurious "escrow" accounts. And, perhaps most importantly, she learned that average citizens were utterly powerless to stop the environmental assaults endemic to this sprawling city. Jenkins' probe also uncovered the now-infamous loophole in the city's 1991 tree ordinance that gave builders and developers carte blanche to destroy any and all trees encountered in the course of building a residential subdivision. She traced the mistake to a 1992 memo from former Building and Zoning Inspection Division Chief Claude Bagwell that "reinterpreted" the unambiguous language of the original ordinance. Though Bagwell's opinion was clearly in error, it took a group of dogged activists years to force city government to admit its mistake - and even that wasn't enough. Mayor John Delaney and the City Council kept "Bagwell's loophole" alive until last December, when they essentially made it the law of the land. All tree ordinance supporters wanted was for the city to enforce its own laws. They tried to work with the system, but got nowhere. Now they've settled on a different course - a strategy that bypasses city government and takes the issue directly to the people. If they gather the necessary signatures, their petition for a charter amendment setting "minimum standards for tree protection, conservation and mitigation during development" will go before the voters this November (Briefcases, page 6). The referendum's advocates, led by Attorney Bill Brinton and former City Councilman John Crescimbeni, are guided by a simple belief: Jacksonville residents appreciate the value of trees. They believe healthy trees are an important part of what makes a city beautiful and livable. Given the inevitable environmental compromises posed by development, they believe the city has a stake in the preservation of older, larger trees. The referendum's backers also believe that it's time for average citizens to regain their voice in the legislative process. Last fall's tree ordinance fiasco was the product of, as Brinton puts it, "a daily barrage of pressure from lobbyists" that completely ignored the public will. Though not a single signature has yet been gathered, the referendum's backers already face a couple of key issues:
The debate over tree preservation in Jacksonville deserves the kind of grand stage that only a public ballot initiative can provide. Thanks to the efforts of a few, the many have been given an unprecedented chance to influence the city's environmental future. |
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