Solid theory and soft implementation in policy design: Florida compact development policies

Florida's 1985 Growth Management Act (GMA) was amended with three policies in the 1990s: the 1993 Transportation Concurrency, 1996 Sustainable Communities Demonstration Project and the 1999 Urban Infill and Redevelopment. These policies seek to restrain urban and suburban developments that spread towards agricultural and natural systems and, instead, to direct growth to urban areas and to increase compact development. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the legislation of Florida's three compact development policies and its potential impact on local communities. Evaluation is conducted along three elements of policy design: causal theory, implementation tool and intergovernmental implementation process. The conclusion is that the three policies display sound alternative theories and unique intervention modes to alleviate and manage the sprawl problem through a distinct compact development solution; albeit the design of implementation tools and processes is problematic. Discretionary tools are too flexible and lack specific prescriptions for implementation. Intergovernmental planning processes and state-level coordination are overly decentralized and state power is gradually transferred to local governments. To sum up, Florida compact development policies offer solid theories and soft implementation tools and processes. Hence, the relation between theory and implementation also seems weak. These shortcomings in policy design may lead to implementation breakdowns and limited outcomes. To increase effectiveness in implementation, comprehensive policy design should correct these problems in advance. In addition to sound theories, design should offer feasible implementation mechanisms and link them to theories.