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Dear 1000 Friends,
As you may know, next week the Tallahassee-Leon County Local Planning Agency is holding a public hearing on proposed updates to the Future Land Use and Mobility Elements of the Tallahassee-Leon County Comprehensive Plan. This is the first step in the process toward formal adoption. We encourage you to participate in the process and share your thoughts.
Urge the Tallahassee-Leon County Local Planning Agency (LPA) to support slowing down the review process to allow time to address technical issues and provide more opportunity for meaningful citizen input into our community’s long-range plan!
Attend the LPA Meeting on Tuesday, April 1 at 6:00 p.m.
Tallahassee-Leon County Local Planning Agency (LPA)
Public Transmittal Hearing on the Comprehensive Plan Update to the Future Land Use and Mobility Elements
Frenchtown Renaissance Center, 435 N. Macomb St.
2nd Floor Conference Room
Submit Comments (scroll down for individual City and County Commission emails and phone numbers)
Tallahassee-Leon County LPA
Tallahassee City Commission (see information below)
Leon County Commission
See the Most Pertinent Documents
Proposed Updated (March 26) Goals, Objectives, and Policies
Proposed Land Use and Mobility Element Addenda (March 26) also up for adoption
Proposed Detailed Updated Future Land Use Map
April 1 LPA Agenda and Support Materials (Direct link is not available. Please click on April 1 LPA meeting, click on view agenda, go to item E, under Public Hearing, click on item 2, and click on attachment to access the documents)
1000 Friends of Florida’s Comments to LPA
A community’s comprehensive plan is the legal document that codifies community vision on where and how our community will develop over a specified timeframe. It provides the legal foundation for zoning and land development regulations in our community.
We strongly support the overarching stated goal of keeping urban lands urban and rural lands rural in the proposed update. If carefully crafted, this can be a strong tool to protect sensitive natural lands, limit sprawl, create more vibrant urban areas, and limit the cost to taxpayers for costly infrastructure expansion into rural areas.
But we do have a series of concerns we would like to bring to your attention. These are outlined in greater detail in our comments to the LPA.
As we stated in our comments on March 11, the rush for adoption at the tail end of this process remains a major concern. We urge that the transmittal process be paused until at least the fall to allow time for needed revisions and conduct one or two citizen workshops to allow more robust citizen involvement in the adoption process.
While the update process began in 2015, the full set of documents were only released in mid-March, with a series of additional updates on March 26, including the 90-page Proposed Land Use and Mobility Addenda which is also up for adoption. The result is that citizens and LPA members have only been able to review many of the documents in their entirety for about two weeks before the April 1 LPA Transmittal Hearing, and this does not include the additional policy changes and voluminous data released on March 26. With this process starting a decade ago, why is it now so rushed?
Other areas of concern include:
Technical Considerations – We also have a series of concerns related to compliance with state statute on measurable objectives, data and analysis, and internal consistency.
Provisions Related to Keeping Urban Areas Urban -- Again, 1000 Friends strongly supports this concept. But instead of accommodating development needs through 2050, as is proposed in the update, we recommend keeping the 2050 timeframe but only approving development needs for a 10-year period, as allowed in state statute. This provides the opportunity for future updates on the location and timing of allowed new development as conditions change. This change would curtail scattered pockets of development throughout the urban area which could take decades to build out. Instead, concentrated areas of increased density should be the goal to support greater walkability, mixed uses, and fiscal viability.
Finally, we understand and support the need for increased density in urban areas based on need and the appropriateness of location. However, we do not feel it has been made clear to the public that if the FLUM and policies are updated, this establishes the legal foundation needed to make zoning changes to reflect the “community vision” that increased density is appropriate in specified areas. For example, as shown in the LPA Attachment 6, Land Use Comparison, the proposed Urban Residential Preservation category doubles allowable density from “6 units per acre” to “12 units per acre 5,000 sq ft per acre.”
If ultimately approved, the proposed updates will lay the legal foundation for growth and development until 2050. It is supposed to codify our community’s vision for the future. We hope you will participate, request a pause, and share your vision with our community leaders.
Thank you for your engagement on this issue. We hope to see you on April 1.
With appreciation,
Vivian Young, AICP, Special Projects Director
Chadwick Leonard, Planning and Conservation Advocacy Coordinator
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