Just about everything you need to know about comprehensive planning in Florida | Opinion

I was in college in 1985 when Florida passed the Growth Management Act, which is the foundation of what we know as comprehensive planning. The act required local governments to adopt, maintain, and implement a comprehensive plan. But planning started in Florida long before this landmark legislation, however it was mostly voluntary and not well coordinated. The 1985 Growth Management Act drastically changed in 2011, and it is now known as the “Community Planning Act.”

In short, Comprehensive Plans are guides to community development for at least the next 10 years. The Manatee Comprehensive Plan illustrates growth through the year 2040. These plans paint a broad-brush picture of how a community will grow, ensuring that roads, utilities, parks, housing, jobs and other needs, including even ambulances will be available for the future population. They are plans for fostering sound economic growth balanced with preserving natural amenities. They are guides designed to protect the public’s health, safety and welfare and help public officials manage the timing, amount, and location of development. Comprehensive plans contain a “Future Land Use Map” that graphically shows where and how much growth may occur during the life of the plan. It is a way to plan for the long-term and prevents reactive and uncoordinated development that could be unnecessarily costly to the taxpayers. And this is a big challenge when nearly every year since I was in college (except during the great recession) our state has been accompanying roughly 1,000 new residents every day! Comprehensive Plans are not designed to stop growth – they are management tools to accommodate growth.

Now that you know what a Comprehensive Plan is, let me share with you what it is not. It is not a document that tells you what should necessarily be built today. It does not tell you where to build on the property, dictate height, require parking, landscaping, or architectural features. These are requirements of the Land Development Regulations, which includes a zoning map. The zoning map shows you the type and amount of growth that is appropriate today.

Imagine the Comprehensive Plan and the Land Development Regulations as two dancers in a ballroom. The Comprehensive Plan leads, and the Land Development Regulations follow. Always.

As an example, if a property has a future land use category of “RES-6” and is zoned “A-1”, this means that up to 6 residential units per acre may be appropriate on this land anytime between now and 2040, but only 1 unit per acre is allowed today. If a property owner wants to increase the density, then a rezone application is required, where reviews will determine if the timing is appropriate, if it is compatible with existing development, and consistent with development trends in the area. The most intensive scenario must be considered with rezones unless the applicant submits a site plan with the application, known as a “Planned Development” project, in which case the specific plan is reviewed and binding. Whether or not the proper infrastructure is in place (or will need to be built) will be determined during the site planning process when the details of the project are clearer.

Community engagement is a vital part of the community planning process. It is a part of our country’s democratic principles that citizens have a right to influence what affects their quality of life. Having all our stakeholders involved in land use decisions guarantees a better outcome for the community. And if your opinion differs from the status quo, I want to hear from you. The voices we hear as Board members are often heavily one-sided, and having a variety of perspectives is the way that your public officials will reach the best decisions for our community. So take the time to get involved. Bring your kids and your neighbors too, and let’s all come together to drive the way our community grows.

Misty Servia is a Manatee County commissioner representing District 4 and is also an American Institute of Certified Planners-certified land planner. You can reach her at misty.servia@mymanatee.org

This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 7:00 AM.