Florida

As the region faces a drought and local residents are forced to comply with water-saving regulations, the South Florida Water Management District will reconsider approving a new golf course that will use up to a million gallons of water per day.

In Miami, many plans are brewing for major highway facelifts -- including the creation of a four-level highway interchange. In the meantime, the region looks to deal with congestion by thinning highway lane widths to create more room for traffic.

The Florida State Department of Environmental Protection is moving forward with plans to reclassify many of its waters based on their potential harm to humans. Some say the reclassifications open the door for corporate and agricultural polluters.

A large loss of mobile home parks in Florida has legislators asking whether the state or the municipalities should take responsibility for the thousands of misplaced low-income residents.

The new wave of residents in downtown Orlando are helping to resurrect long-time churches that never fled to the suburbs.

The proposed Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment calls for citizens to vote directly on whether to make changes in local comprehensive plans, instead of elected officials advised by professional and citizen planners.

People who own land within a southern Florida urban development boundary reap high prices for their developable land. But with land cut by the boundary, many farmers are pushing for its extension, and the resulting increase in land values.

With a federal takeover of the city's housing authority underway, the fallout from the investigation into the agency's misdealings is expected to call for dramatic changes in government policy towards low-income housing.

Responding to concerns over the state's rapid growth, the environmental group has pledged to support a proposed measure that would allow voters to decide questions regarding planning and growth.

Slate magazine offers a photographic slideshow of the influential New Urbanist community of Seaside, Florida.

Sarasota County, Florida, is looking to gain greater control over planning from cities in an upcoming vote. This move is in response to a recent report that outlines how city planning in the county has encouraged sprawl over the last 50 years.

More common sense is needed in creating and managing the litany of federal, state and local policies intended to create more affordable housing.

Walt Disney's utopian dream forever changed Orlando, Florida, and laid the blueprint for the new American metropolis.

Rising property costs and the threat of hurricanes are pushing more and more people out of the Florida Keys. The area experienced a 4% decline in population between 2000 and 2005, a trend expected to continue.

To the dismay of many residents, plans have been submitted for a housing development of more than 12,000 units in western Palm Beach County, Florida. Zoning and building guidelines would have to be changed to allow the development.

As another highrise condo development towers in Miami, local historic preservation advocates complain that the historic Vizcaya Museum's garden views will be permanently damaged.

A measure has been passed in South Miami that places a moratorium of construction of new two-story houses -- a measure aimed at preventing development of oversized homes, or McMansions.

Through the creation of 5 new mixed-use business districts, the low density and auto-oriented Miami suburb of Hialeah is looking to create new growth and economic vibrancy.

After 15 years, a university president's ambitious plans to improve his school have made an equal -- if not bigger -- impact on the surrounding region.

A unique regional organization is inviting thousands of today's Central Floridians to determine the future living pattern of 3.5 million new residents projected for the area by 2050.