ARPC July ’09 Report

The Apalachee Regional Planning Council (ARPC) held its regular meeting yesterday, July 30 at the Ramada Inn Conference Center in Tallahassee.

The twenty-seven member council is comprised of local elected officials and appointees of the Governor that work with citizens and local government on a host of issues including, but not limited to economic development, growth management, reviewing local comprehensive plans and large-scale developments in the region.

One item addressed by the council of particular interest to the Franklin County area was a proposed amendment to the Coastal Management Element in the City of Carrabelle’s Comprehensive Plan.

Carrabelle city officials proposed to reduce the setback from the mean high water line from 50’ to 20’ in areas designated as Velocity Zones on the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map.

According to an ARPC staff report, in 1993, the City of Carrabelle adopted an ordinance establishing the 50-foot setback; however, the city’s original comprehensive plan only required a setback of 20 feet, for which city officials used to review and approve development within the city. In 2006, during a comprehensive plan update, the city changed the 20 feet to 50 feet, to resolve the conflict between the two documents.

However, landowners negatively impacted by the 50-foot setback began raising issues surrounding private property rights. Citing, the City of Carrabelle was in violation of the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act, when the city changed its comprehensive plan after the effective date of the Act, which then Governor Lawton Chiles signed into law on May 18, 1995.

Skittish over the potential liability from conflicting with the Act, Carrabelle city commissioners sought to reestablish the 20-foot setback by proposing to amend their comprehensive plan.

However, local conservationist Lesley Cox joined with former Carrabelle Mayor Mel Kelly and former City Commissioner Gathana Parmenas in leading opposition against the proposed amendment. In addition to sending email letters to the ARPC opposing the measure, Parmenas appeared before and addressed the council at the July meeting.

Both Kelly and Parmenas were instrumental during their term in office of changing the setback from 20 feet to 50 feet during the 2006 comprehensive plan update.

In their emails, the trio cited among other things water quality issues with Kelly writing, “I believe the need to preserve and protect that small margin of frontage should and must take precedence over any individual right or developer’s want… The minimal 50’ required by the current Carrabelle plan is scientifically considered to be barely adequate for the protection of water quality, aquatic life, and erosion reduction, but that measurement was accepted and approved by the City’s public at the time the current Comprehensive plan was passed.”

In their submittal, the City of Carrabelle was vague on details as there were no maps indicating affected properties nor did the city provide any scientific data justifying the amendment.

On a motion made by ARPC member Apalachicola Mayor Van Johnson and second by council member and former Franklin County Clerk of Circuit Courts Kendall Wade, the council voted unanimously to recommend that the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) not approve the proposed amendment to Carrabelle’s comprehensive plan.

ARPC May ’09 Report

The Apalachee Regional Planning Council (ARPC) held its regular meeting yesterday, May 28 at the Ramada Conference Center in Tallahassee.

The ARPC is comprised of elected city and county officials and appointees of the Governor that serves a nine county region, which include, Franklin, Jackson, Gadsden, Leon, Jefferson, Calhoun, Liberty, Wakulla and Gulf counties.

At the meeting, Davis Stoutamire, Vice-Chair of the Liberty County Board of County Commissioners informed the council that the South Fulton Municipal Regional Water & Sewer Authority (Authority) has made application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, (ACOE) Savannah District to construct a pump-storage reservoir on Bear Creek.

The proposed Bear Creek project is located along Highway 70, about eight miles north of the Fulton-Coweta county line.

Stoutamire’ fears shared by the council, was that the project would cause a further reduction of freshwater flow down the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee/Flint (ACF) River System to the detriment of everyone south of the project.

Stoutamire learned from attending a recent River South meeting held in Bristol that the proposed 440-acre pump-storage reservoir would demand 16.44 million gallons of freshwater per day out of the Chattahoochee River for use by the Authority.

He went on to say that, the Liberty County Board of County Commissioners has already written a letter to the ACOE opposing the application and requested that the Regional Planning Council follow pursuit.

After a brief discussion, Stoutamire made a motion, which passed unanimously to request that all cities and counties represented on the ARPC write letters of opposition and copy the Governor’s office.

In other business, Tallahassee City Commissioner Debbie Lightsey, questioned ARPC staff whether having central sewer on St. George Island would activate any old Development of Regional Impact’s (DRI) approved on the Island some years ago.

Lightsey expressed concerns over whether the old DRI’s in which Gene Brown was the developer would resurface before the ARPC due to the issue surrounding central sewer on the Island.

ARPC March ’09 Report

The following items of interest to the City of Apalachicola were discussed at the Apalachee Regional Planning Council (ARPC) March 26 meeting in Tallahassee:

ARPC member and Tallahassee City Commissioner Debbie Lightsey expressed concern over a bill making its way through the Florida House of Representatives that would abolish the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and transfer their duties and responsibilities to the Department of State.

“What are we (local government) going to do when DCA evaporates, since some of our funding and programs run through DCA”, stated Lightsey.

Lightsey went on to say that, the City of Tallahassee is getting Neighborhood Stabilization money to buy foreclosed properties for affordable housing, a program and other similar programs such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program that’s channeled through the DCA could be compromised by the measure.

Former Franklin County Clerk of Circuit Court and ARPC member Kendall Wade cautioned members of the council to be concerned over another bill before the Legislature which aim is to take away certain duties and responsibilities that’s been mandated by Florida’s Constitution from the Clerk’s office.

Wade further stated that should the measure pass, it would have a serious impact on counties especially small rural counties. He suggested that council members contact their local Clerk to obtain information concerning how the passage of this bill would influence their communities.

ARPC January '09 Report

At the Apalachee Regional Planning Council meeting held in Tallahassee on January 29, there were two items of interest discussed that pertained to the City of Apalachicola and could have an impact of future development.

*Council members reviewed and commented on the City of Apalachicola’s recently submitted Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR), which included recommended changes to the following major elements of the Comprehensive Plan:

1) Affordable Housing;
2) Riverfront Land Use Conflicts;
3) Traffic Congestion on U.S. 98 and;
4) Storm and Waste Water Management

The council voted unanimously to send the EAR on to the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and recommended that the city work with Franklin County on the implementation of the four issues listed above.

*There was also a discussion on a new requirement for local governments as it relates to their comprehensive plans. In the State of Florida, the transportation sector produces over 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. Out of the 40 percent, 80 percent comes from vehicular travel, which makes the transportation sector a major source of greenhouse gas pollution. In order to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced by transportation, there has to be a reduction in the miles vehicles travel.

To accomplish this, the Florida Legislature enacted HB 697 in the 2008 session, which requires local governments to implement with new land use changes and EAR based amendments, new or enhanced land use planning strategies, including planning for alternative modes of travel, more compact mixed-use development, greater jobs-housing balance, and higher densities in appropriate places.

These new requirements became effective on July 1, 2008 and the DCA is planning on posting on their website at http://www.dca.state.fl.us/ additional documents with guidance on the implementation of HB 697.