Under Florida’s Community Planning Act, every local government’s comprehensive plan is required to contain a capital improvements element addressing the need for and the location of public facilities, as well as standards to ensure the availability of facilities and their acceptable levels of service. These facilities include concurrency for roads, sanitary sewer, solid waste, drainage, potable water, parks and recreation, public schools and mass transit, where applicable. The concurrency provisions of the Act requires that adequate public facilities to exist before new development may occur.
The basis for concurrency is an established level of service standards. If the level of service standards are not met, development permits may not be issued. Notably, level of service standards are to be “adequate” and based on “data and analysis.” Oftentimes, these standards are generic and a particular site, when proven by data prepared by a developer’s consultant, can establish that a particular level of service may be met. Furthermore, when it appears economically unfeasible to meet a concurrency standard, a local government will oftentimes negotiate with a developer to allow for an off site improvement to fulfill the concurrency obligation.
Our firm has assisted numerous clients in achieving concurrency requirements through negotiations with local governments. We also have expertise in negotiating concurrency matters pursuant to the Florida Local Government Development Agreement Act, where a development may lock in its entitlements, including its concurrency obligations for up to 30 years.