In anticipation of Post Article on EAR and Impact to Land Use Plan Change re Beach and Casino District

The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has said to all communities in the State of Florida that they need to have approved Evaluation and Appraisal Reports (EARs - due every 7 years and EARs evaluate how a community meets the goals, objectives and policies in their current Comprehensive Plan) before they review any Future Land Use changes or text amendments. This is a result of recently changed procedures at the State level. We have close to a finished version of the EAR from the Master Plan consultants in our possession now. If you are interested in getting a copy, you can call the Planning Department and they can prepare one for you. I am also working on getting an electronic copy for distribution. The Planning and Zoning Board will be reviewing this document as part of its regular meeting on December 20th (not January 10th - January 10th is the date set for further Planning and Zoning Board special meeting to review of the beach rezoning and creation of the new Beach and Casino zoning district regulations).

The Planning and Zoning Board will review and may make a recommendation to the City Commission, along with whatever suggested changes/edits to the EAR at the meeting on December 20th. The consultants will make any recommended changes between that meeting and the City Commission meeting on January 16th. They can then approve the EAR by resolution. They may also re-affirm their previous action on the two land use plan change requests (beach and Amanzi properties) and then transmit those to DCA. There is no material change to the request, the land use plan change requests just have to be found consistent with the EAR. There is nothing in the EAR which is not consistent with the two land use plan changes (beach and Amanzi properties) and vice versa.

This actually represents a concession on the part of DCA as they usually put off review of an amendment request until it is ultimately adopted - pushing it out to the mid part of next year. They are willing to review the land use plan change requests with submittal (not upon approval) of the EAR..

The EAR eventually will lead to the future adoption of or new Comprehensive Plan that will have the results of the visioning and other community meetings that has been part of the Master Plan process over the past two years.

It's important to realize that even if the EAR had not been raised as an issue by DCA, the second reading on the land use plan change by the City Commission would have been after the March 13th election. By the way, once the Planning and Zoning Board makes a recommendation to the City Commission on the rezoning - subject of its January 10th meeting - the first reading of the rezoning could actually happen before the March 13th election. The second reading of the re-zoning would happen later, at the same time as the second reading of the land use plan change.

Now, about what happens when DCA receives a Comp Plan or Future Land Use plan change. It reviews the change request and issues what is called an "Objections, Recommendations and Comments - ORC" report. Since the land use plan change for the beach represents the inclusion of commercial uses, a traffic study should accompany the request as part of the back-up material.

When the land use plan change is sent up after the Commission's meeting on January 16th, we have an opportunity to send a completed traffic study which shows the effects of the land use plan change with it. Greater Bay or the City needs to contract with a Traffic Engineer now in order for this to be included in the eventual re-submittal. We need to encourage this and emphasize the importance of this to the overall timeline. If the EAR had not been an issue, the lack of a traffic study may have caused a delay in the timeframe to respond to the ORC report issued by DCA - again pushing it farther out in time from the March 13th election. This is an opportunity to address the traffic study now and save time on the critical path.

I have tried to be as detailed and as accurate as possible regarding this complicated and intricate process. If you have any questions, please call me and I can clarify the above. To review, the critical dates are as follows:

December 20th - Planning and Zoning Board meeting to review EAR

January 10th - Planning and Zoning Board meeting to review new draft of the Beach and Casino zoning district

January 16th - City Commission meeting - adoption of EAR by resolution and first reading of beach and Amanzi land use plan changes - transmittal to DCA with traffic study as contracted by Greater Bay or City.

March 13th - Municipal Election

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"