AGENDA ITEM REPORT
TITLE:
title
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FACILITIES ELEMENT OF THE CITY OF COCONUT CREEK COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TO UPDATE SCHOOL CONCURRENCY STANDARDS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE THIRD AMENDED AND RESTATED INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL FACILITY PLANNING OF BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA. (SECOND READING)(SECOND PUBLIC HEARING)
body
BACKGROUND:
This item was approved on First Reading at the January 11, 2024, City Commission Meeting. Subsequently, City staff forwarded the ordinance and its amendment to the Florida Department of Commerce (previously known as the Department of Economic Opportunity), the Broward County School Board, and other relevant state agencies for their review. Florida Department of Commerce, the School Board, and the applicable review agencies raised no objections to the amendment as initially adopted on First Reading.
However, Florida Department of Commerce did offer advisory recommendations for the City to update various elements of its Comprehensive Plan to address the following issues:
1. New statutory requirements to refresh the City’s outdated Comprehensive Plan Planning Horizons and to consider new horizons of 10 and 20 years into the future.
2. General revisions to update other Comprehensive Plan Elements.
City staff is assessing these advisory recommendations and will bring forward any necessary amendments to address statutory requirements, as needed. Therefore, City staff recommends approval of the ordinance and final adoption of the amendment on Second Reading.
An Interlocal Agreement (ILA) establishing a public school concurrency program for joint comprehensive land use and school facilities planning governs Broward County municipalities, including the City of Coconut Creek, and the School Board of Broward County (School Board). Public School Concurrency is a growth management tool to ensure that public school facilities are available to serve new residential development by the time that new residential development starts to place demand on infrastructure.
In 2010, the School Board and the City amended the agreement to include a major update to the public school concurrency program, which required the City to amend its Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code at that time. The most significant change was to the Level of Service (LOS) standard: changing it from 110% of permanent capacity (brick and mortar only) of each school to 100% of gross capacity (brick and mortar plus portables) until the end of the 2018/19 school year.
Anticipating the expiration of the 2018/19 LOS standard, the School Board and a sufficient majority of municipalities, including the City of Coconut Creek, approved a new LOS standard (as discussed below) through the Third Amended and Restated Interlocal Agreement (TRILA) for Public School Facility Planning, which the City Commission approved on December 14, 2017, via Resolution No. 2017-325. Residential development in the City has been reviewed under the new standard adopted in the TRILA since its approval in 2017. However, amendments to the City’s Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code are required for consistency with the TRILA LOS standard adopted in 2017.
DISCUSSION:
The proposed amendments to the City’s Comprehensive Plan update the new LOS standard and make changes to statutory references. TRILA’s new LOS standard is 110% permanent capacity or 100% gross capacity, whichever is higher. In an effort to determine how the new standard has impacted the eight (8) schools serving City residents, staff reviewed public school concurrency data provided by the School Board. All eight (8) of the schools serving the City currently meet the LOS standard and are projected to meet it for the next three (3) school years. Note that Atlantic Technical College and Dave Thomas Education Center are not included in the public school concurrency program. Future residential development that was not vested for public school concurrency prior to the adoption of TRILA will be required to meet the new standard and pay school impact fees.
RECOMMENDATION:
The Planning and Zoning Board, at its August 9, 2023, meeting, recommended approval of this ordinance, and staff recommends approval of this ordinance.
FISCAL IMPACT: N/A