STATEMENT OF ISSUE
On October 22, 2008, the City Commission adopted the latest Concurrency Manual to serve as the City’s policy direction.

On December 10, 2008, the City Commission approved a Memorandum of Agreement with the County, which included provisions for the purchase from the County, property to be used to site the Public Safety Complex. In order to complete this sale, it is necessary to process a Limited Partition to separate the site from the remainder of the Tom Brown Park property.

The Concurrency Manual requires that prior to reviewing a Final Development Order, (such as a Limited Partition), a concurrency analysis must be performed. However, at this time it is not feasible to conduct a concurrency analysis since the building design has not been completed and the actual square footage has not been determined.

The purpose of this item is to request exception to the requirement of having a concurrency analysis performed prior to processing the Limited Partition for the Public Safety Complex. This exception would support the concept of “fast tracking” public sector projects.

RECOMMENDED ACTION
Option #1 – Approve an exception to the Concurrency Manual and allow the Public Safety Complex project to move forward with a Limited Partition before the concurrency analysis is completed.

FISCAL IMPACT
N/A

Robert L. Herman, Growth Management Department

Anita Favors Thompson, City Manager

For information, please contact: Robert L. Herman, Director-Growth Management Department, 891-7001.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL/ISSUE ANALYSIS
HISTORY/FACTS & ISSUES
On October 22, 2008, the City Commission adopted the latest Concurrency Manual to serve as the City’s policy direction. The Concurrency Manual requires that a Concurrency Application be submitted prior to any Development Order being processed. A Limited Partition is defined as a Final Development Order.

In April 2006, the City, County and Sheriff Campbell agreed to the creation of a joint dispatch operation for public safety agencies, which included the Leon County Sheriff, Leon County Emergency Medical Services, Tallahassee Police Department and the Tallahassee Fire Department. It was determined that the preferred site for the facility would be approximately eight (8) acres, owned by Leon County, located within Tom Brown Park.

On June 18, 2008, the City Commission approved a Joint Project Agreement (JPA) with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to site, construct and manage a Regional Transportation Management Center (RTMC) and its associated telecommunication infrastructure, Freeway Management System, Intelligent Transportation System infrastructure and License Plate Reader project. The associated JPA with FDOT provides for such development and further provides for termination of the JPA, by either party, if the City has not provided an acceptable site and rights of use or access, in the case of a multi-use facility, within 365 days following June 30, 2008. The intent was to include the RTMC with the joint dispatch facility at the Tom Brown site. As you are aware, Leon County plans to have an Emergency Operations Center in this facility and the County will fund this portion of the building.

On December 10, 2008, the City Commission approved the Memorandum of Agreement for the City of Tallahassee and Leon County to share equally in all costs associated with the design and construction of the Public Safety Facility, consisting of the Tallahassee-Leon County Public Safety Communication Center, City Regional Transportation Management Center, City Fire Administration Headquarters, County Emergency Medical Services Headquarters and the County Emergency Operations Center, now being referred to collectively as the Public Safety Complex. This MOA called for the City to purchase from the County one half of the identified property.

In order to finalize the sale of the property, the Leon County-City of Tallahassee Public Safety Complex needs to process a Limited Partition to separate their parcel from the remainder of the Tom Brown Park property. As mentioned above, prior to processing a Limited Partition, a concurrency analysis is required. At this point in time, the actual square footage of the permanent offices and the number of personnel associated with the Public Safety Complex has not been determined. This information will not be available for several months. Without knowing the precise square footage associated with the development, it is not feasible to perform a concurrency analysis. Therefore, an exception to the City Commission’s concurrency policy is being requested. The exception would allow the submittal of the Concurrency Application and analysis to be performed when the Public Safety Complex final development plans have reached a stage where approximate sizes and uses of the facility are known. This exception would support the concept of “fast tracking” public sector projects.

The sale of the property cannot take place until the Limited Partition is processed. The FDOT JPA requires that a site is provided and rights of use established for the RTMC by June 30, 2009. If the sale of the property is not finalized by that date, the City risks losing $7,411,912 in funding FDOT is providing for this facility.

CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS
N/A

OPTIONS
1. Approve an exception to the Concurrency Manual and allow the Public Safety Complex project to move forward with a Limited Partition before the concurrency analysis is complete.

Pros:
a) Allows the property sale to be finalized between the City and County.
b) Allows the development of the Public Safety Complex to continue through the development process.
c) Provides the site ownership requirements necessary to meet FDOT JPA terms.

Cons:
a) Makes an exception to an established policy.
b) May encourage other projects to seek exceptions.

2. Deny the exception.

Pros:
a) Does not allow an exception to an established policy.

Cons:
a) This option would delay the development of the Public Safety Complex. It would also render it impossible to meet the time constraints defined in the JPA between the City and FDOT as it relates to the RTMC component of the facility. This would allow FDOT to pull out of the agreement and withdraw the $7,411,912 funding it was to provide for the RTMC.
b) Delay processing of the Limited Partition until sufficient programming and design is completed to provide the required space/usage information.

ATTACHMENTS/REFERENCES
None