Mike Bennett, chairman of the Senate Committee on Community Affairs, was by no means pleased this month when state Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham told Bennett’s panel that a new growth management law hadn’t freed urban-area developers from transportation concurrency rules as lawmakers had expected.

In Pelham’s professional opinion, the new law—formerly known as SB 360, sponsored by Bennett—exempted developers only from state-imposed mandates. It did not, the DCA secretary said, restrict local governments’ ability to enforce their own growth management rules.

In a recent letter, the outspoken Bennett—a developer who also proposed last session to abolish Pelham’s entire agency—told the secretary that that his interpretation is wrong-headed, and gave him a talking-to about the limits of his role:

“While it is clear that the Department has a limited role in the interpretation of the growth management provisions of Senate Bill 360 through its power of implementation, the Department has no special insight or responsibility for interpretation of the Constitutional provisions governing home rule authority. Similarly, the Department is accorded no special deference on the issue of legislative intent.”

That intent, Bennett concluded, was “clearly” something other than to reinforce the status quo for local governments.

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