2010-252A (03) - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Comprehensive Plan Transportation Element A third reason hurricane evacuation clearance times will remain adequate is that many of the new units to be constructed on the north barrier island will be in developments like Windsor and Orchid, which have a high number of seasonal residents. Many of these property owners will not be in residence nor contribute to the evacuation population during the peak hurricane season of late summer and early fall. The final reason that future hurricane evacuation clearance times will be adequate is that the Merrill Barber Bridge improvement provided significant additional evacuation capacity. One additional assurance that hurricane evacuation needs will not increase by 2030 is that the Future Land Use Element and the Coastal Management Element of this plan prohibit any increase in allowable density or intensity for land within the designated coastal high hazard area. These elements also prohibit nursing home type facilities in the coastal high hazard area. While these policy initiatives ensure that the at -risk evacuation population will not increase significantly and that evacuation facilities will remain adequate, the county should consider evacuation routes as priorities when awarding funding for new infrastructure such as roadway widening and ITS projects. Concurrency One of the most important issues with respect to the timing of transportation improvements is Concurrency. Concurrency is a principle established by the state's 1985 Local Government Comprehensive Planning and Land Development Regulation Act. According to the provisions of the Act, codified as Chapter 163.3161 of Florida Statutes, no local government may approve a development project unless the services and facilities needed to accommodate that project are available concurrent with the project's impacts. The Capital Improvements element of this plan establishes the County's concurrency management system. Of all the facilities subject to the concurrency requirement, transportation is the most important. It is transportation system deficiencies, more so than problems with other concurrency facilities, that have been responsible for delaying development projects throughout the state. Over the years, the state changed the concurrency law to make the transportation concurrency requirements more flexible. Besides establishing several flexible transportation concurrency options applicable under certain conditions, the state also modified the timeframe for when development project required transportation facilities must be available to comply with the concurrency requirement. Current state law allows development projects to be approved subject to a condition that the necessary facilities needed to serve new development are scheduled to be in place or under actual construction not more than three years after issuance of a building permit or its functional equivalent. This concurrency allowance was considered by the Board of County Commissioners in 1995. At that time, the Board agreed to apply the concurrency rule more conservatively than allowed by the state. Instead of allowing development projects to be approved if the needed improvements will be in place no later than three years after issuance of the building permit for the project, the Board opted to apply a two year after building permit requirement. That allowance was reflected in this element and in the Capital Improvements Element of the plan. Community Development Department Indian River County 83