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Planning board recommends updating comprehensive plan: planning horizon to 2040, sewer feasibility and TMDL project listing
Summary
The Escambia County Planning Board recommended amendments to the county comprehensive plan to extend the planning horizon to 2040, require a feasibility analysis for connecting certain developments to sanitary sewer, and add a requirement to list projects needed to meet TMDL pollutant reductions.
The Escambia County Planning Board on Sept. 9 voted to recommend amendments to the county comprehensive plan to extend the planning horizon from 2030 to 2040, add a policy on the feasibility of providing sanitary sewer service to certain residential developments using on-site sewage treatment and disposal systems (OSDS), and require listing projects in the capital improvements element to meet total maximum daily load (TMDL) pollutant reductions.
Staff said the changes respond to findings in the state’s evaluation and appraisal report and are required to make the county’s comprehensive plan consistent with state law. “They identified a couple deficiencies within our comprehensive plan,” a staff member said, explaining the need to shift the planning horizon another 10 years and to add the feasibility analysis required by 2023 state legislation.
Under the proposed policy, the county, in coordination with the Escambia County Utilities Authority (ECUA), must consider the feasibility of providing sanitary sewer service within a 10-year planning horizon to existing or proposed residential developments of more than 50 residential lots where more than one on-site sewage treatment and disposal system exists per acre. Staff said ECUA has participated in meetings and is on board with conducting the required feasibility analysis.
The amendments also add language requiring a list in the five-year capital improvements program of sanitary sewer projects needed to increase capacity or upgrade treatment to achieve pollutant-load reductions attributable to the county. Staff said there are currently no projects identified by county staff for that listing; any projects that are identified would be added and updated in future annual updates to the capital improvements program.
There were no public speakers on this item. The board moved and seconded the recommendation and voted to forward the comprehensive-plan amendments to the Board of County Commissioners for transmittal to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. The meeting transcript records the motion carried by voice/hand raise; no roll-call tally was provided in the record.
Staff also noted that future meetings will include rezonings and small-scale amendments; the board adjourned with direction to return Oct. 7.
