Gov. Rick Scott appoints St. Joe executive to lead Florida growth management agency

[seafan]

Source: St. Petersburg Times

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott has appointed an executive of one of Florida's largest land development companies to oversee the state department charged with managing growth.
Billy Buzzett, vice president of the St. Joe Co., will take over the Department of Community Affairs, the state's land planning and community development agency that Scott is eager to overhaul.

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Environmentalists see the appointment of Buzzett as another sign that Scott — in his quest to create jobs and spur Florida's economy — will allow developers to run rampant over the state's natural resources. On Monday, Scott appointed a shipbuilding executive as his top environmental regulator.

Buzzett led the master planning of more than 100,000 acres and entitled more than 30,000 residential units during his eight years at St. Joe. The North Florida real estate company gave the maximum $25,000 contribution to Scott's inauguration.

.....

Headed by former St. Joe Co. executive Chris Corr, the regulatory team also recommended that local governments be stopped from enforcing restrictive regulations protecting wetlands and that permitting decisions weigh "job creation and economic development" as important as having clean water and air.

Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/gov-rick-scott-appoints-st-joe-executive-to-lead-florida-growth-management/1143830

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Florida will not survive this fraudster ramrodding these steroid-fattened ruthless policies of Jeb Bush.

[naaman fletcher]

1. St Joe is a scam company

They have no business they just sell off land and pocket most of the money in administration fees, in my opinion.

[Angry Dragon]

2. He plans to make the whole state into Disneyworld

A state of make believe

[starroute]

3. I've seen a lot of dirt about St. Joe

Unfortunately, much of the dirtiest comes from Wayne Madsen, which means it has to be taken with a grain of salt -- but even discounting all that, they seem fairly questionable.

There's a webpage at http://www.whoseflorida.com/great_northwest.htm which hasn't been updated in a few years but has snippets of a lot of stories about St. Joe. Among other things, it looks like they had some deal going to get low-interest government loans to build charter schools as part of their developments.

[Turbineguy]

4. Cut down all those fuckin' trees

pave, pave pave.

[1monster]

5. We're screwed.

[Mojorabbit]

6. This just breaks my heart

This is a beautiful state and with some care could be managed to preserve our natural resources without sacrificing some growth. It is just sad. Years of fighting for wetland protection down the drain.