§ 1.4. Urban and Rural Planning Concepts

1.4.1 The Comprehensive Plan

For many local governments across the Country, the basic element of most planning programs is the creation of a plan. The Comprehensive Plan is developed through analysis of data and identification of goals for the community. Often times these goals come from elected officials in the form of targeted issues or agendas. For instance, if a stated goal is economic development, Plan policies may be created to address added infrastructure, quality of life improvements, or other place based goals objectives and policies. Plan policies also arise through the public process as staff helps the community and its various groups identify their goals and form a particular vision.

In the creation of a plan, strategies are identified by which the community can reach its goals and vision. Local government planning staffs are also typically responsible for the implementation or enforcement of many of the strategies, often coordinating the work of other local government departments and divisions in implementation of the Plan's policies. For many local governments the plan becomes a management tool, coordinating the organization and roles of various local government departments and employees in order to systemically prioritize the goals of the elected officials or community through the work done by staff.

Local government planning in Florida has been guided over the past 30 years by the 1985 Growth Management Act, which is contained in Chapter 163, Florida Statutes and was codified in Rule 9J-5, Florida Administrative Code. The Growth Management Act required that every local government in Florida adopt a comprehensive plan to guide growth and development. Under this State mandate, plans must include elements that address future land use, housing, transportation, infrastructure, conservation, recreation and open space, intergovernmental coordination, and capital improvements. With the implementation of this Act in 1985, the State of Florida took a decisively growth management oriented approach and this was done primarily in response to the State's unprecedented growth leading up to the passage of the Act. The main provision under this growth management approach was the concurrency requirement. Local governments were required to make certain that growth related infrastructure was provided concurrent with development. This included roads, water, sewer, solid waste, stormwater, parks and recreational facilities. Public schools where made subject to the concurrency requirement as well at a later date.

Santa Rosa County responded to the state comprehensive planning mandate in 1992 with the adoption of the County's first Comprehensive Plan. This plan has been amended numerous times since this original adoption, including a subsequent revision to include the Public Schools Facilities Element and subject public schools to the concurrency requirement. The Plan contained all the required elements listed above and also included an Administrative Procedures Element and an Economic Development Element (not required). The comprehensive plan amendment process is guided by Chapter 163, F.S.

Comprehensive Planning is a continuous and ongoing process. Recognizing this, the state required the County to conduct an Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR) every seven years to assess its progress in implementing the Comprehensive Plan. The EAR process allowed the County to identify major issues and to respond to changes in state, regional, and local planning and growth management policies as well as changing conditions and trends. Santa Rosa County completed Evaluation and Appraisal Reports and adopted related amendments in 2003 (Ordinance 2003-25) and 2009 (Ordinance 2009-32).

In 2011, the Florida Legislature made significant changes to the state level planning requirements in Florida. These changes included:

• Repealing Rules 9J-5 and 9J-11.1023, Florida Administrative Code and establishing new guidelines for state level processing and review of comprehensive plans and plan amendments;

• Changing the requirements for Evaluation and Appraisal Reports (EARs), sufficiency review by the Department, and mandatory comprehensive plan updates;

• Concurrency for transportation, schools, and parks and recreation facilities were made optional for local governments;

• Financial feasibility for capital improvement plans is no longer required;

• Removing the twice per year plan amendment limitation;

• Removing energy efficiency/greenhouse gas reduction provisions;

• Making the previously required Public School Facilities Element optional; and

Effective June 2, 2011, local governments now have more discretion in determining whether or not they need to update their local comprehensive plan as well. As such, local governments no longer need to submit evaluation and appraisal reports to the State for a sufficiency determination. Instead, the County must determine whether or not the Comprehensive Plan needs to be amended to reflect changes in State requirements every seven years. Once this determination is made, the County is responsible for notifying the State land planning agency and then preparing and transmitting any proposed amendments for review, if any. Santa Rosa County is required to make this determination by December of 2016. In preparation for this, a major update to the Plan was accomplished in 2016 to update the Plan as well as create consistency with significantly revised statutory requirements.

1.4.2 Growth Management

Growth management is a set of techniques used by local governments to ensure that as growth in population and development occurs there are services available to meet the demands of this new population and built environment. Growth Management, specifically for local governments who are in the business of providing urban services such as centralized water and sewer or transportation facilities, is a financial management tool. However, these services are not necessarily only government services. Other demands such as the protection of natural spaces, sufficient and affordable housing, preservation of buildings and places of historical value, and sufficient places for the conduct of business are also considered, depending on the wishes of the local electorate. Florida's original legal framework was heavily oriented towards growth management with a one size fits all approach to planning requirements. Santa Rosa County is not a major infrastructure provider, with water and sewer services being provided by private utilities or incorporated cities, and with a majority of new road construction being state funded in the past. This made the growth management approach difficult in application for the County historically.

One growth management technique is application of zoning to reduce the cost of service delivery. Zoning can be used to reduce the area affected by urbanization, allowing the same number of people to live and work in a smaller area, allowing governmental services to be delivered more efficiently. For example, fire protection and emergency medical response services are less expensive to provide in compact areas than in areas where the population is more spread out. This results in lower expenditures for the same level of service, which saves taxpayer dollars. Land development code provisions such as open space, landscaping, buffering and design related provisions can ensure the compatible coexistence of various densities and intensities of commercial uses within close proximity.

Preventing suburban densities from affecting a large area also has the effect of providing open spaces and the protection of agriculture and natural resources.

1.4.3 Rural Development and Agricultural Preservation

For counties and local governments with a rural contingent like Santa Rosa, preservation of agriculture and rural lifestyle is an important planning consideration. Some communities across the County have also found it necessary to prevent the premature conversion of agricultural lands to more urbanized land uses. Rural planning can also involve environmental protection of certain areas, infrastructure provision in support of farming activities and the creation and sustaining of rural communities that provide vital commercial land use opportunities within closer proximity. Planning for farm related activities such as farm related retail, farmer's markets and other agribusiness related land uses is also important. Santa Rosa County has prepared the Rural Development Plan which encompasses many of these concepts. This small area Plan's recommendations have been incorporated into the County's Comprehensive Plan.

1.4.4 Small Area Planning, Neighborhood or Special Area Plans

A small area plan is any plan that addresses the issues of a portion of the County or City. Small area plans can cover three different geographic scales—neighborhood, corridor, and district. They can cover as few as 10 acres or as many as 4,500 acres. Small area plans cover a specific geography that often has a cohesive set of characteristics and may be developed in order to address a major issue such as declining neighborhood character or to implement community specific goals and objectives without applying plan concepts to the larger political area.

Santa Rosa County has undertaken several small area or special area planning efforts. These plans contained a number of recommendations, some of which have been implemented and others that are in various stages of implementation. The following lists these efforts:

1)

South End Tomorrow (November 2003)

2)

Navarre Town Center Plan (October 2004)

3)

Pace Area Plan (June 2007)

4)

Rural Development Plan (January 2007)

5)

Bagdad Historic District (June 2008)

6)

Navarre Beach Master Plan (Updated June 2002)

7)

NAS Whiting Field Joint Land Use Study (September 2003)

8)

Eglin Air Force Base Joint Land Use Study (June 2009)

9)

Eglin Small Area Study (December 2012)