Reedy Creek Improvement District Comp Plan - Part 2

Part one can be found here. In that chapter, I take a look at the basics for Comprehensive Plans. In Part Two, the discussion continues.

John Nolen, the planner who developed the Comprehensive Plan for San Diego said in 1926 that City Planning is:

· An aide to the man in the street to visualize his city properly planned;

· A practical, sensible way of providing a place for everything with everything in its place;

· An instrument for uniting citizens to work for the City’s future;

· An efficient means of avoiding duplication and waste in public improvements.

The Reed Creek Improvement District (RCID) Comprehensive Plan covers the entire Walt Disney World Property, which includes all of the tourist amenities plus the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista.

Comprehensive Plans (or General Plans) are broken down in elements or chapters. The RCID plan has eight elements including Future Land Use, Traffic and Circulation, Housing, Infrastructure, Conservation, Recreation and Open Space, Intergovernmental Coordination, and Capital Improvements. I will be taking a closer look at each of these chapters in the upcoming weeks.

Each chapter contains background information, projections, standards, maps, illustrations, and a set of goals and policies. Every policy is based on nine goals. They are:

• To preserve the integrity of the natural environment; maintain convenient, efficient public services; minimize threats to health and safety; and control and direct future development through policies, principles and standards that support the potential for economic benefit.
• To continue to maintain a safe, convenient efficient, and balanced transportation system to meet the multi-modal capacity requirements of existing and future development.
• To facilitate the provision of an adequate supply of affordable housing for any unmet affordable housing need generated by employment growth within the district, to the extent required by Chapter 163. (Intergovernmental Programs)
• To provide water, sewer, solid waste, and stormwater management services to existing and future development within its boundaries in the most efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally sound manner possible.
• To protect and conserve the natural resources of the District.
• To promote the creation of state-of-the-art vacation and recreational facilities; to maintain and expand access to these facilities; and to retain the visual, environmental, and psychological benefits provided by open space in the District.
• To promote intergovernmental coordination with the two cities within its boundaries; the two counties in which it is located; other local governments in the immediate vicinity; and regional, state and federal governmental entities for the mutual benefit of all involved parties.
• To promote adequate public facilities to existing and planned development areas in a manner that is concurrent with the impacts of such development and efficient and consistent with available financial resources.

It takes along time to draft a comprehensive plan. Although Florida law requires an update every five years you have to conduct other studies prior to starting to draft the comprehensive plan. Then there is a methodical planning process. Once that process is completed, the development regulations have to be updated in order to implement the plan. Toss in a bunch of reviews by various local, state, and federal agencies and you can see why you need every bit of those five years.

The land use planning process for the Plan was untraditional just like the original concept for EPCOT – the City of Tomorrow. Prior to the 1991 update, the state’s prescribed process was confining and didn’t allow for the flexibility needed for the Disney’s unique circumstances. The 1991 update allowed for a higher level of flexibility based on performance thresholds instead of rigid and traditional planning techniques. The traditional approach forced the Plan toward many amendments in order to make changes.

For the RCID, this more flexible process works because there is little concern about conflicting land use like a government would have in a traditional city. Here, one owner owns much of the property and intergovernmental relationships have been firmly established. The planning process does take into consideration on how internal changes will impact the surrounding communities. The RCID process is always meant to be collaboration between agencies.

The community collaboration process was also untraditional for this type of planning. Most plans required substantial public input. With no large residential population most of the work was done through meetings with interested parties. Additional public input was provided at public hearings conducted by both cities and the District. Of course there was close cooperation with all property owners within the District.

As stated earlier, the Plan is broken down into eight chapters. Within each chapter are goals, objectives, and policies. A Goal is the long-range vision or solution that addresses a specific issue. It is a description of the desired end state. An Objective is the specific direction and actions that will achieve the Goal. The Policies are measurable actions that help achieve the Objectives.

The chapters also include supporting data and analysis. All of this comes together to provide a planning framework that allows for expansion of the unique uses with in the District, manages growth, protects the environment, ensures health and safety, and enhances the quality of development.

The primary function for the Plan is to govern the location and intensity of land uses. The Plan provides clear expectations for growth and conservation to the private sector. It also guides public investment in new facilities, such as road, water systems, and water quality facilities. The planning horizon for the current plan is the year 2018.