 | Alternative Land Use Assessment
Martin County, St. Lucie County, City of Stuart, City of Port St. Lucie and City of Ft. Pierce, FloridaAbstractAccording to recent Evaluation and Appraisal Reports of Martin County, St. Lucie County and the incorporated municipalities of Stuart and Port St. Lucie, the future land use plans contain enough designated vacant land to accommodate the expected population growth well beyond 2010. Much of this vacant land is outside of the existing urban area. Land developers rely upon governmental land use plans to locate our future residential communities, commercial centers, and industrial facilities. Often, the market is more attractive to develop land along the suburban fringes. From the public's perspective, this development can be, costly over the long term. Communities are reluctant to simply reduce the intensity or density of the Future Land Use Maps to address land use imbalances due to property rights concerns. A regional program is needed to capture the profit potential of the market through private initiatives and direct those profits to infill and redevelopment opportunities in the existing urban area. This Transportation and System and Community Preservation Grant includes the development and analysis of alternative land use scenarios. The grant may result in a feasible, market-based program of transfer of development rights, purchase of development rights, land banking, and overlay land use designations to effectively reduce the allowable intensity and density of land along the suburban fringe and focus this excess capacity into the existing urban areas. The end product will provide an opportunity for obtaining a land use balance and its associated benefits including reduced travel demand and public infrastructure needs, greater feasibility of alternative modes of travel, and more opportunities for open space, greenbelts, and greenways development. To accomplish this, the services of a Consulting Team will be employed to provide and coordinate the regional talent necessary to accomplish the objectives. The grant, in combination with funding from the Project Partners, will provide an extensive analysis of vacant and redevelopable land within the study area and develop specific Comprehensive Plan policies to obtain a desired alternative future land use. Please see Figure 1 for a depiction of the study area. The study area, with a population over 300,000 residents, encompasses an urban, regional perspective spanning both Martin and St. Lucie Counties and the incorporated municipalities of the City of Stuart, Ft. Pierce, and the City of Port St. Lucie. Community input shall play a key role in the development of the alternative land use and transportation scenarios. The Metropolitan Planning Organizations of Martin and St. Lucie Counties shall provide technical expertise in the analysis of the travel implications of the various plans. Specific policies to implement the preferred land use plan shall be developed relying upon public/private partnerships to encourage private sector development patterns including such programs-as transfer or purchase of development rights and land banking. A monitoring plan shall also be developed to ensure that development is occurring according to the adopted vision and is providing the expected benefits. Long term monitoring is assured through the requirements of the State of Florida for Evaluation and Appraisal Reports of the local Comprehensive Plans on a five year cycle. Previous Page |
