“Property rights. Every American citizen values these rights and regards their protection as a basic premise upon which our constitutional democracy is founded.”
FLORIDA LEGISLATURE AMENDS EMINENT DOMAIN LAWS
click here to view article.
NEW CONCURRENCY RULES – VEST YOURSELF
By: Keith W. Bricklemyer
Amendments to the Hillsborough County Comprehensive Plan’s Transportation Element approved on December 13, 2000 became Effective February 27, 2001. These amendments must be implemented by the adoption of new regulations that, among other things, will change the way the County determines whether a project meets Concurrency for transportation.
The Plan amendment driving these new regulations is the elimination of volume to capacity (V/C) ratios as the level of service (LOS) standard for concurrency evaluations in favor of letter grade standards (A through F). A V/C ratio of 1.0 would mean a roadway was operating at full capacity – over 1.0 the LOS would be “F”. The County’s previously adopted LOS standards with V/C ratios in excess of 1.0 acknowledged existing conditions with the understanding and that these backlogged problems should be solved by the County and not stop new development in the interim. Although many backlogs remain unresolved, the rules are about to change. At the urging of NAIOP and other industry representatives, the V/C ratios have been maintained for 15 road segments until the earlier of the completion of improvements to these roads or December 31, 2002. At that time, the now temporary, more liberal LOS standards would be eliminated.
The Plan amendments provide small comfort for this disaster-in the-making is by allowing lower LOS standards for roads that are also High Transit roads: If a road has 12 hours of transit service per day with 30 minutes or less between bus arrivals (whether anyone is on them or not), the acceptable LOS would be “E” rather than “D”; and if the road is also a Constrained Road (see Table 6 of the Transportation Element, or just name all our major roads), the acceptable LOS would be 120% of “E”. If you ask your traffic consultant what relief this provides for these key roads, expect the response to be “not much”.
A potentially more helpful provision allows for vesting against the new LOS standards pursuant to the requirements of the County’s Vested Rights Ordinance. Property owners have one year from the date the amendments were adopted - i.e. until December 13, 2001 – to secure their vested rights. Doing so could be the most important thing you do this year to preserve the right to develop your property.
The current schedule for adoption of the new regulations is as follows:
August 13, 2001 Planning Commission WorkshopSeptember 10, 2001 - Planning Commission Public Hearing
October 18, 2001 - BOCC First Public Hearing
November 8, 2001 - BOCC Second Public Hearing
December 21, 2001 - LDC Publication