News PPC and MPO Prepare for Unification

Transcription

1 News PPC and MPO Prepare for Unification The Pinellas Planning Council (PPC) and Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) are entering the final phase of preparations for the unification of the two agencies, which is anticipated to occur in the spring of The purpose of this effort, which has been planned for more than two years, is to fully integrate planning for land use and transportation on a countywide basis. Because both agencies are governed by federal and/or state law, a number of legal and procedural steps must take place before unification can occur. One important step was to recodify the Special Act governing the PPC, in part to enable the Council membership to be the same as the MPO board. This step was accomplished last spring through House Bill 869, which was signed into law on April 27. However, the law will not take effect until corresponding membership changes are made to the MPO, to add two new members who will represent ten beach communities and six smaller inland communities. With the appointment of the new members, the sixteen communities will gain direct MPO representation for the first time. These changes to the MPO, known as reapportionment, require approval by the Governor s office, and were initially expected to be completed during the summer of However, that schedule has been delayed due to conflict with a larger, statewide MPO reapportionment process that occurs every ten years following the release of U.S. Census data. The Pinellas County reapportionment request has now been folded into that statewide process, which will conclude in the first quarter of While waiting for the statewide process to run its course, the PPC and MPO are continuing to implement the organizational steps needed to prepare for unification, as described below. New Shared Office In June, the PPC and MPO moved into a new shared office space at 310 Court Street in downtown Clearwater, across the street from the County Courthouse. This new arrangement allows for greater daily coordination between the two agency staffs, as well as more efficient use of common meeting space and shared office equipment. (Continued on Page 4) Fall 2012 In This Issue... PPC and MPO Prepare for Unification Countywide Plan Update now in Phase II Welcome New Council Member PPC Members Join Transit Planning Oversight Committee PPC Helps Local Governments Apply for Grants

2 Countywide Plan Update now in Phase II As reported in previous editions of this newsletter, the PPC is engaged in an extensive work program to update its Countywide Plan. As set forth in the Special Act, all local government comprehensive plans must be consistent with the Countywide Plan Map and Countywide Rules, the regulatory portions of the plan. Now that the county is built-out and concerned with encouraging planned redevelopment, there is consensus that a new, more future-oriented plan is needed, one that is better integrated with the transportation planning efforts of the MPO. In March 2011, the Council approved a threephase Countywide Plan Update Work Program, which laid out an ambitious timeline for completely recreating the Countywide Plan. The work program calls for adoption of the revised plan no later than October To provide technical input into the Countywide Plan update process, a peer group of local planning staff called the Joint Land Use/Transportation Working Group was convened in April 2011, and has been meeting together with PPC staff to discuss and deliberate issues pertaining to the new plan and the shape it will take. Phase I of the update work program, which identified existing conditions and updated the data and analysis on which the new plan will be based, was completed in July. This phase identified Areas of Growth, or areas of the county where higher-density and -intensity redevelopment is desired or expected to occur, shown at lower-left in red and orange. These areas are distinguished from Areas of Stability, which are expected to continue in their current patterns of development for the foreseeable future, shown in green and white. The update is now in Phase II, in which these Areas of Growth and Stability will be used as a basis for a new, future-oriented Countywide Plan Map and Rules. Countywide Plan Map Categories 2 While the new Countywide Plan Map categories have not yet been finalized, PPC staff has proposed a list of ten categories, each of which will allow a broader mix of uses and greater flexibility at the local level than the current thirty-eight. The proposed categories were presented to the Council and Working Group in December In Phase II, PPC staff is developing the proposed categories further by drafting criteria that would govern the conversion of parcels from the old categories to the proposed new ones, and will be meeting with local government staff individually to review how the changes would be applied to the map in each jurisdiction. (Continued on Page 3)

3 WELCOME NEW PPC MEMBER Councilmember Jerry Mullins, City of Pinellas Park The PPC welcomes Councilmember Jerry Mullins, who was appointed as Pinellas Park s representative on the Council beginning in April. A resident of the City for more than fifty years, he has served on the Pinellas Park City Council since March 2008, and has an extensive history of civic and charitable service. Councilmember Mullins represents the City as Chair of the Community Redevelopment Agency, Chairman of the Angel Fund, and member of the Kiwanis Club of Pinellas Park. Prior to his time on the Council, he served as President of the Pinellas Park Historical Society, Vice-President of the Pinellas Park Thunderbirds Football League, member of the Park Dance Reunion Committee, and member of Celebrate Pinellas Park, Inc. He has worked extensively with other local community groups such as Going the Distance Youth Ministries, Little Home Town Soldiers, the Pinellas Park Police Explorers, People Helping People, and the Sacred Heart Fall Festival. The owner of a concrete pumping business, he has also been a member of the Pinellas Park/Gateway Chamber of Commerce for more than 30 years. For all his efforts, Councilmember Mullins was named Pinellas Park Citizen of the Year in 2005, and has been recognized as a City of Pinellas Park Ambassador. Countywide Plan Update Now in Phase II (continued from Page 2) Centers, Corridors, and Districts In concert with the new land use categories, the new Countywide Plan Map will use the Areas of Growth as a starting point to identify centers, corridors, and target employment districts where higher densities and/or intensities are appropriate and encouraged, a concept first introduced in Pinellas by Design: An Economic Development and Redevelopment Plan for the Pinellas Community, approved in The new plan will carry the concept further by formally recognizing these areas in a regulatory capacity. Higher-density and -intensity redevelopment and urban development patterns will be channeled into, and incentivized in, centers, corridors, and target employment districts that are coordinated with planned transit improvements and/or economic development initiatives. 3 Local Planning Efforts Another unique aspect of the new Countywide Plan is that local planning efforts will be taken into account, and high-quality planning for multimodal connectivity, public realm enhancements, and pedestrian-friendly site orientation and design will be recognized and incentivized with higher permitted densities and intensities. In addition, because the current special area planning process is perceived as burdensome on some local governments, PPC staff is exploring a more collaborative method of certification that could work entirely within existing local plans and codes. All of these concepts are being reviewed and refined by PPC staff. They are also being discussed extensively with the Working Group, with periodic updates presented to the Council.

4 PPC Members Join Transit Planning Oversight Committee The countywide transit planning initiative known as the Pinellas Alternatives Analysis, a joint effort of the MPO, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, and the Florida Department of Transportation, concluded in January Since then, the Project Advisory Committee for that effort, which includes elected officials from the participating agencies, has opted to broaden its scope to look at countywide transportation issues more holistically, including exploration of land use issues. As part of that broader focus, the newly reconstituted group, now known as the Advisory Committee for Pinellas Transportation (ACPT), has increased its membership to include two members of the PPC. Councilmember Jim Kennedy from St. Petersburg and Councilmember Doreen Hock-DiPolito from Clearwater joined the group in September. Both PPC members also represent their communities on the MPO, making them well qualified to provide input into the relationship between land use and transportation. Councilmember Jeff Danner of St. Petersburg, PSTA Chairman, and Brad Miller, PSTA Chief Executive Officer, made a presentation about the ACPT at the September PPC meeting. A link to the PowerPoint slideshow for this item can be found at by clicking on What s New. PPC and MPO Prepare for Unification (continued from Page 1) The new building is owned by the Pinellas County government, which has allowed for considerably lower lease rates compared with the previous offices leased by both agencies. The former PPC office, meanwhile, is being subleased to a private company, allowing for additional cost offsets. Shared Meeting Dates As recommended by the Joint Executive Committee overseeing unification, the PPC and MPO have begun having both entities meet on the same day. The MPO meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 1:00, while the PPC formerly met on the third Wednesday at 1:00. Beginning in October 2012, the PPC meeting was moved to the second Wednesday at 3:00, a schedule that will be maintained until unification occurs. A common meeting day will encourage greater interaction and familiarity among the members of the two boards. It will also make it easier for some local jurisdictions to appoint the 4 same elected official to serve on both boards, as discussed below. Common Membership With unification, the PPC and MPO boards will become a single board, and most local governments who currently have a different elected official on each board will need to choose a single representative. To ease this transition, local governments with the option of nominating the same elected official to represent their communities on both the PPC and MPO are being encouraged to do so prior to unification. Three communities have such common membership: Mayor Jim Ronecker from Oldsmar, Councilmember Jim Kennedy from St. Petersburg, and Councilmember Doreen Hock-DiPolito each sit on both the PPC and MPO. While formal unification may still be a few months in the future, the preparations being made today are ensuring that when it occurs, the process of unifying our two agencies will be a smooth one.

5 PPC Helps Local Governments Apply for Grants As part of its local assistance function, the PPC recently helped four local governments apply for grants to expand and improve their municipal boating infrastructure. Two communities have successfully been awarded grants, while two others are awaiting results that are expected to be announced in early The PPC provides grantwriting services on a contract basis, which allows local governments to obtain cost-effective technical assistance while contributing additional rev enue toward PPC operations. Staff provided grantwriting assistance to the City of Indian Rocks Beach, which won $125,000 from the Florida Boating Improvement Program in 2011 for the construction of a new dock in the Narrows Business District; and the City of St. Pete Beach, which won $219,750 from the federal Boating Infrastructure Grant Program (BigP) in 2012 for the construction of a new dock adjacent to its municipal community center. This year, also with PPC help, the City of Gulfport submitted an application for BigP funding to upgrade the existing docks in its Waterfront District, and the City of Madeira Beach applied to BigP to upgrade facilities at its municipal marina and build new docks at John s Pass Village. The results of this year s competition are still pending. than 38,000 jobs. This means that a single boating trip, on average, generates approximately $156 in expenditures for gas, food, lodging, bait, and other goods and services a significant source of revenue for our many waterfront communities. In 2005, with the residential real estate market at its peak, Pinellas County convened a Boating Access Task Force to address the fact that large numbers of publicly-accessible boating fac ilities were being redeveloped into private condominiums. Among the task force recommendations were that local governments work to identify innovative strategies and partnerships for preserving and enhancing public boating access to Pinellas County waters. These projects will work toward fulfilling that recommendation. The PPC has helped local governments win a total of $1.6 million in state and federal grants since 1996, meeting a variety of public purposes. For more information on the availability of grantwriting assistance, please contact the PPC offices at Maintaining and enhancing access to boating facilities has been identified as an issue of countywide importance, due to the significant economic and recreational benefits such facilities bring into the county. A 2009 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission study entitled Economic Significance of Recreational Boating in Florida estimates that, statewide, nearly 22 million recreation boating trips generate nearly $3.4 billion in direct spending each year, and support more Existing docks in the Gulfport Waterfront District. The City is seeking a federal grant to upgrade this facility, doubling the number of boat slips and improving the ease of docking. 5

6 Upcoming Hearing and Meeting Schedule Planners Advisory Committee Pinellas Planning Council Countywide Planning Authority December 3, 2012 December 12, 2012 January 15, 2013 January 2, 2013 January 9, 2013 February 12, 2013 February 4, 2013 February 13, 2013 March 12, 2013 March 4, 2013 March 13, 2013 April 9, 2013 The Pinellas Planning Council Mayor Jim Ronecker (Oldsmar), Chairman Councilmember Jim Kennedy (St. Petersburg), Vice-Chairman Commissioner John Morroni (Pinellas County), Treasurer School Board Member Linda Lerner (Pinellas County School District), Secretary Mayor David O. Archie (Tarpon Springs) Vice-Mayor Joseph Ayoub (Safety Harbor) Commissioner David Carson (Dunedin) Mayor Patricia Gerard (Largo) Vice-Mayor Samuel Henderson (Group C Communities: Belleair, Belleair Bluffs, Gulfport*, Kenneth City, Seminole, South Pasadena) Councilmember Doreen Hock-DiPolito (Clearwater) Commissioner Joanne Cookie Kennedy (Group B Communities: Belleair Beach, Belleair Shore, Indian Rocks Beach*, Indian Shores, North Redington Beach, Redington Beach, Redington Shores) Councilmember Jerry Mullins (Pinellas Park) Vice-Mayor Marvin Shavlan (Group A Communities: Madeira Beach, St. Pete Beach*, Treasure Island) * Councilmember serves on this governing body. 6 The Countywide Planning Authority Commissioner John Morroni, Chair Commissioner Kenneth T. Welch, Vice-Chair Commissioner Nancy Bostock Commissioner Neil Brickfield Commissioner Susan Latvala Commissioner Norm Roche Commissioner Karen Williams Seel The Pinellas Planning Council Staff Michael C. Crawford, AICP, Interim Executive Director Linda Fisher, AICP, Principal Planner Katherine Holt, Office Specialist Joann Jacobs, Accounting Services Coordinator Christopher Mettler, Program Planner Michael Schoderbock, AICP, Program Planner Carolyn Shoemaker, Administrative Secretary If you have any questions or comments about this newsletter, please call , visit our web site at or write to us at: Pinellas Planning Council 310 Court Street Clearwater, FL