Two significant pieces of transportation-related legislation were recently passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the Governor. Together they will have a significant impact on transportation infrastructure and mobility issues in Northeast Florida.
House Bill 1021
House Bill 1021 (codified as Chapter 2009-85, Laws of Florida) requires local governments to update their Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Element by June 30, 2012 to include criteria to achieve compatibility of uses on lands adjacent to an airport. The Intergovernmental Coordination Element of the Comprehensive Plan must also be amended to recognize airport master plans. These provisions could materially affect the private development rights of neighboring landowners. The legislation also provides, however, that facilities determined by the Department of Community Affairs and the local government to be port-related industrial or commercial projects within 3 miles of, or within, a port master plan area that rely upon the use of port and intermodal transportation facilities shall not be designated as DRIs if they are consistent with the port master plan. Although Senate Bill 360 has essentially abolished DRI review for Duval County, the DCA still has the right to review proposed development that will exceed 120% of any DRI threshold for consistency with the Comprehensive Plan. This provision of House Bill 1021 could serve as additional evidence that the proposed development is consistent with the Plan.
The legislation also provides local governments with an additional tool to address transportation concurrency backlogs by clarifying the definition of a transportation concurrency “backlog” and providing additional policy support for addressing them through the use of a “transportation concurrency backlog authority.” Such authorities will now have the ability to issue debt obligations to fund infrastructure improvements to mitigate the backlog. The debt obligations can be repaid by ad valorem taxes (subject to interlocal agreement) on a schedule of up to forty years.
House Bill 1213
House Bill 1213 (codified as Chapter 2009-111, Laws of Florida) significantly enhanced the JTA’s role in transportation infrastructure planning for the Northeast Florida region. It gives the JTA a broad grant of authority to address critical transportation needs by owning and operating transportation facilities outside of Duval County through interlocal agreements, with the ultimate goal of making the JTA a regional transportation authority. The ability of local governments to limits JTA’s discretion in transportation planning is very limited under this legislation, and could lay the groundwork for JTA to trump local government decisionmaking on land use planning and growth management matters. The bill also authorizes public-private partnerships to pursue the construction and operation of transportation facilities that would be exempt from ad valorem taxation. This provision removed a significant obstacle to the development of the First Coast Outer Beltway.