City of Fort Lauderdale - Community Area Planning Initiative (CAP) - Community Area Planning Initiative (CAP) - Community Area Planning Book 2000
City of Fort Lauderdale - Community Area Planning Initiative (CAP)
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Community Area Planning Book 2000

Part 2, Section 1: Organization of City into Community Areas

To address the unique issues and growing diversity facing parts of the city, a staff decision was made to divide the city into five (5) individual community areas. By dividing the city into five areas and analyzing these regions over a five-year period, staff proposes to complete one (1) community area plan per year resulting in all areas being finished in five (5) years. In the fifth year, staff will look at tying each area together through regional issues. The plan will:

  • Provide for efficiency in resources: capital, labor, and time;
  • This time period is essential to permit greater citizen integration into the planning process to ensure a true community plan;
  • Promote a more unified community outlook as opposed to fragmented or divided perspectives;
  • Foster increased participation by a more diverse aggregation of citizenry;
  • Help analysts address the growing diversity and unique issues facing different parts of the city;
  • Assist in the collation of data for developing the Comprehensive Plan;
  • Allow ample time for resolution of difficult issues;
  • Produce a concise template for other municipalities to emulate; and
  • Take potential annexation areas into account, i.e. Palm-Aire Village and South Beach.

The following guidelines were used in the identification and demarcation of the areas:

  • The number of areas were kept to a manageable amount in order to facilitate a timely planning process; and
  • The areas were made to have clear and easily identifiable boundaries that respected geography, such as major roads, bodies of water, traffic analysis zones (TAZ), and neighborhood association boundaries.

Five CAP Areas

Once the areas were defined, staff labeled them, and prioritized them based upon their level of volatility. This criteria included development activity, current CRA development programs in place, amount of vacant properties, current planning initiatives, crime statistics, and regional issues.

The five CAP areas will be completed in the following order:

  1. Central Area
  2. East Area
  3. South Area
  4. North Area
  5. Barrier Island Area

1. Central Area
The first area to be studied will be the Central Area due to the scoring as indicated above as well as the high number of ongoing redevelopment initiatives occurring within this area. Staff anticipates that the CAP will be an effective tool to streamline the redevelopment process and galvanize the recommendations into a concise action plan. The area has available funding (i.e. CDBG, TIF, CRA, Enterprise Zone, etc.) that will assist in implementing the CAP.

2. South Area
The South Area is selected to be studied second due to its amount of vacant properties, high number of historically significant areas, the State Road 84 Study, and variety of regionally impacting issues. These regional issues include substantial transportation factors (I-95, US-1, I-595, SR 84, US-441, the FEC and CSX railroads), a regional hospital, a penitentiary, a large portion of the Downtown Development Authority, the Arts & Sciences District, and its proximity to the International Airport.

3. East Area
The East Area is selected to be studied third largely because many of their neighborhood issues were addressed during the 1997 Unified Land Development Regulation (ULDR) Reform. This area also has relatively stable commercial and residential development patterns. However, staff realizes that there are important issues that will need to be addressed in the near future after the recommendations from the "To-Do" List (later named "Pending Items" list) studies are implemented.

4. North Area
The fourth area to be studied is the North Area because it has a certain degree of economic stability, a higher quality of existing structures and infrastructure, and a more cohesive land use and zoning pattern. Although it ranked last, staff feels that this area should be studied prior to the Barrier Island Area since a CRA study has yet to be conducted while the Barrier Island Area is currently implementing its CRA program.

5. Barrier Island Area
The fifth area to be studied is the Barrier Island Area since it has just recently experienced the Central and North Beach Moratorium Study. Staff wishes to see the outcome of the recommendations proposed from that Study before undergoing another major study.

During the fifth year study, staff will analyze any regional issues affecting the community areas by identifying those elements that tie the City together to ensure a city-wide cohesiveness. This regional environment supplement will encompass such items as airports, the port, waterways, railroads, major traffic corridors, the DDA, the CRA, historic districts, and on-going planning studies, special projects, and large-scale development proposals.

Once all Community Area Plans are complete, staff will revisit and update the first CAP and continue the process over the next five years.

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