Governor Jeb Bush signed 3 new growth management laws recently creating the “pay as you grow” plan. The new laws aim to ensure roads, schools and water will be available as demand grows. Lee County’s Smart Growth manager Wayne Daltry says the new laws will embellish local comprehensive planning and attempts to pay for visionary growth.

“Regional entities are to refine the state vision further and build on local visions and it’s supposed to be interactive. The local government without vision would have share in the regional vision – the local governments with vision would help drive the regional vision which would feedback and help refine the state vision – the state comprehensive plan chapter 187 Florida statutes has not been updated or seriously looked at for two decades. Without a state vision… separate local governments are hard to pull together.”

The legislation builds upon the 1985 Growth Management Act requiring local governments to be financially feasible, with the goal of helping communities as they plan for the future. The new laws provide 1.5 billion dollars this year for transportation, water and school infrastructure, with 700 million dollars expected each year thereafter.