SFRPC e-Highlights & News You Can Use...

Isabel Cosio Carballo

Executive Director

AUGUST 2022

Senator Steve Geller

SFRPC Chair

We continue to anticipate great things for the years to come

by enabling our region with the tools and support they need to succeed and help make

South Florida a more vibrant and beautiful place to work and live.

Welcome back to the Council

Frank Caplan

Village of Key Biscayne Commissioner

In 2011, Commissioner Caplan was appointed by the Miami-Dade County League of Cities to serve as their representative on the SFRPC. He went on to serve as the SFRPC Chair from 2017-2018 and represented the SFRPC as a Florida Regional Council Association Policy Board member over several years.

Thank you for your service!

Jordan Leonard

Town of Bay Harbor Islands Councilmember

We would like to wish the very best to outgoing Councilmember Jordan Leonard in his next endeavor and thank him for his continued support of our mission. It has been a pleasure to work with him since his appointment to the Council in April of 2019.

IN THE KNOW...

SOUTH FLORIDA REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL CONVENES REGIONAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT CONVERSATION

Hosted by the Miami-Dade County Transportation Planning Organization

On July 18, 2022, the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) hosted the South Florida Regional Planning Council (SFRPC) at its offices in downtown Miami. SFRPC Council Member and Miami-Dade Commission Vice Chair / TPO Chair Oliver Gilbert III welcomed the Council Members to Miami-Dade for the meeting. Miami-Dade County Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Morales also welcomed the Council and offered opening comments in support of enhanced regional collaboration and shared solutions.

Earlier this year Councilmembers identified solid waste management as an issue which is at a critical juncture for Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties and directed staff to convene a regional conversation to better understand the connections between the counties and opportunities to enhance solid waste management. At its July Council Meeting, the Council met with each other and key staff from Monroe, Miami-Dade, and Broward counties to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the counties and region with respect to Solid Waste Management. Special guests included Achaya Kelapanda, Deputy Director of Miami-Dade County Solid Waste Management; Kevin B. Kelleher, Broward County Assistant County Administrator; and Cheryl Sullivan, Director of Monroe County Solid Waste Management. The main topics of discussion were the disposal of solid waste, landfill capacity, issues involving recycling and reuse, and opportunities for enhanced efficiencies and collaborative solutions.

This three-county conversation is a step toward a seven-county conference on Solid Waste Management this fall that will be held in partnership with the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. Please “Save the Date” for this conference currently scheduled for October 21, 2022 from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. More information will follow shortly.

Thank you again to the Miami-Dade County and especially the Miami-Dade County TPO and Executive Director Aileen Bouclé and her outstanding staff for welcoming the Council to their offices and hosting us so well. We look forward to visiting again in the near future.

MEETING MATERIALS

MEETING RECORDING

SOUTH FLORIDA MILITARY INSTALLATION RESILIENCE REVIEW

Site Military Installation visits are currently underway!

To date Council Staff and its Consultant Team, the South Florida Defense Alliance and Jacobs Engineering have conducted site visits at the Homestead Air Reserve Base (HARB) in south Miami-Dade County, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division’s South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility in Broward County, and Naval Air Station - Key West in Monroe County. The Council’s next visit is scheduled for U.S. Southern Command in Doral in Miami-Dade County next week.

The project launch was held at the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), where Commander Four-Star General Laura Richardson welcomed senior military and civilian leaders from the region’s defense installations from Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties, the U.S. Department of Defense, and county and municipal resilience officials to the Doral headquarters.

The U.S. Department of Defense Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation has awarded the SFRPC $1.1 million to conduct a regional Military Installation Resilience Review (MIRR) of four key military installations during the next 18-months. The SFRPC, with its consultant team consisting of the South Florida Defense Alliance and Jacobs, and with the assistance of the counties, adjacent municipalities, and military installations will study “outside the gate” resilience issues facing:

Homestead Air Reserve Base (HARB), Miami-Dade County
United States Army Garrison-Miami (USAG-Miami), Miami-Dade County
USN Naval Surface War Center South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility (SFOMF), Broward County
United States Naval Air Station Key West (NASKW), Monroe County

Project Goals:

identify the risks, hazards, and vulnerabilities of concern as it relates to the ability of the military to carry out its missions on the base that could be mitigated through investments and solutions outside of the fence line in the surrounding communities;
identify and recommend actions or investments to mitigate risks of highest concerns and enhance military resiliency through increased communication and collaboration between South Florida’s installations; and
Seek to coordinate with TBRPC, Emerald Coast, and other RPCS to create a statewide framework for resilient military installations.

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS

ON THE REGIONAL CLIMATE ACTION PLAN

We want to hear from YOU!

Public comment and opportunities for

stakeholder feedback are now open for the

Compact's Regional Climate Action Plan (RCAP) 3.0!

Throughout 2022, the Compact is undertaking the third update to its Regional Climate Action Plan (RCAP 3.0). Last updated in 2017, the RCAP is the Compact’s guiding tool for coordinated climate action in Southeast Florida to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build climate resilience. It provides a comprehensive set of recommendations and supporting strategies across 11 chapters to allow local and regional entities to act in line with the regional agenda.

The Compact’s update to the RCAP is supported by significant input from subject matter experts across various chapter topic areas. We anticipate the RCAP 3.0 to be released in early December 2022.

Extensive opportunity for verbal and written stakeholder and public comment is critical to the RCAP development process – and NOW is the time.

SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK ON THE DRAFT

The written public comment period will be open from August 2 - August 23, 2022.

The Compact will also host hour-long virtual open feedback sessions from August 8th - August 17th for every RCAP chapter to facilitate additional verbal input. These sessions are open to the public. However, registration is required.

SOUTHEAST FLORIDA CLEAN CITIES COALITION

DRIVE GREEN FLEET EXPO 2022

Thursday, May 26, 2022, the Southeast Florida Clean Cities Coalition hosted the first Drive Green Fleet Expo at the Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood, Florida. It was a well-attended event for government officials, commercial and municipal fleet managers, corporate sustainability officers, and clean-tech and clean-energy professionals, who wanted to learn how to use cleaner, low and zero-emissions fuels and technologies, while saving money.

SOUTH FLORIDA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FUND, INC.

Broward County Commission Awards $1 Million Loan to SFCDFI to Expand Affordable Housing Program for First-Time Homebuyers in Broward County

The Southeast Florida Community Development Fund, Inc. (SFCDFI), is proud to announce that on June 7, 2022, the Broward County Commission voted and approved a new $1,000,000 line of credit to assist in our affordable housing initiative for first time homebuyers in Broward County. This is in addition to our existing $1,000,000 revolving line of credit, which was approved by the Housing Finance Authority of Broward County in late 2019.

The SFCDFI has financed the construction of fifteen (15) single-family homes for first time homebuyers in Broward County with a focus on first time minority home ownership as a result of the affordable housing crisis in Florida severely impacting minority households. As of March 2022, Broward County single-family home prices increased 20% compared to last year, selling for a median price of $519,000 as a result of a combined record homebuyer demand and lowest inventory of single-family homes.

DON’T BE A VICTIM OF

INSURANCE FRAUD!!!

Unfortunately, the state of the property insurance market in Florida has put some consumers in the position where they are non-renewed from and/or cannot find alternative homeowners’ coverage in the private market. If this happens to you, there are some resources in place to try and help.

FDOT - D6 RESILIENCE DATABASE AND SURVEY

The SFRPC is providing professional services on resiliency issues in support of FDOT D6 within Miami-Dade and Monroe counties (FDOT D6). The purpose of this task is to generate a regional resource for collaboration efforts by local, regional, State and Federal Agencies, on resilience and improve adaptation to emerging hazards in the District 6 Region.

The intent of the work is to provide staff support by creating a database of resilience efforts internally within FDOT D6 and externally, with other districts, central office, local governments, State and Federal Agencies and community partners. The objective is to have a one-stop resource for FDOT District 6 of ongoing, future or planned efforts with the goal of achieving greater regional collaboration and consistency with the Climate Change Compact 2019 Unified Sea level Rise Projections and subsequent projections and projects that are published. Policies and coordination will be assessed with a particular focus on transportation planning and adaptation strategies to ensure a collective approach that maximizes the municipal, county, and state efforts.

The work will involve gathering facts and background information, identifying key resilience personnel within local D6 municipalities, forming a Resilience Team, collecting and consolidating relevant data, plans, and documents, conducting initial individual interviews with identified resilience officers engaged in the conversations, reviewing, and drawing conclusions from all documents and data gathered, and reporting on the findings and outcomes of these efforts. This work began in 2021 and it is anticipated that services will be completed by February 28th, 2023, and then updated quarterly and annually. All tasks will be continuously updated through June 2024.

DATABASE & SURVEY INFORMATION

TAKE THE SURVEY

REVOLVING LOAN FUND PROGRAMS

The Council works with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration to provide low interest rate loans to small and medium-sized businesses in the counties of Monroe, Miami-Dade, and Broward. The Council’s Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Program is designed to meet the needs of businesses that are not met by conventional lenders.

To date, the CARES RLF has funded

$6.37 million dollars to 31 businesses in the Region, and we continue to have funds available to assist other organizations.

Are you in need of financial assistance to help your small or medium-sized business recover from the COVID-19 pandemic? Please take a few minutes and tell us how we can help you.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT UPDATES

COVID-19 ECONOMIC RECOVERY ASSITANCE

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on South Florida’s economy. It changed the labor market, caused a significant impact of economic sectors with the leisure and hospitality sector losing the largest number of jobs since March 2020, and effected demographic groups disparately. Likewise, due to the heavy reliance on tourism to fuel local economic activity, small businesses directly and indirectly related to the leisure and hospitality industry closed. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically exposed the region’s economic inequality and the underlying weaknesses of the economy.

The South Florida Regional Planning Council (SFRPC) with funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) to support economic resilience efforts across the region directly related to the coronavirus pandemic, has created an action-focused, outcome-oriented Economic Resilience Plan (ERP) framework to help our region recover from the unprecedented impacts COVID-19 is having on our region’s businesses, workers, and families, especially in communities of color.

COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

As part of the Council’s responsibility to maintain the region’s CEDS, Council staff hosted joint work group meetings for the Economic Diversification and Business Attraction / Workforce Development and Mobility, Access and TOD and Environment and Infrastructure focus groups in February and April and the CEDS Strategy Committee meeting on March 14th.

Staff welcomed back the returning CEDS Strategy Committee members and new work group members, and explained their role in updating the region’s CEDS. Staff finalized the projects aligning with the CARES Act element’s goals, objectives, and strategies and requested additional ones if applicable. Staff also presented the draft COVID-19 Economic Resilience Strategy report to the CEDS Strategy Committee meeting on March 14th. Furthermore, staff discussed with the strategy committee and work group members the CEDS evaluation framework and its performance measures, established a formal Vision Statement, Goals, Objectives, and Strategies in accomplishing them for 2022-2027 CEDS for South Florida.