Alachua ▫ Bradford ▫ Columbia ▫ Dixie ▫ Gilchrist ▫ Hamilton ▫ Lafayette ▫ Levy ▫ Marion ▫ Suwannee ▫ Union
Fall 2012 In This Issue Energy resiliency……….…….2 Changes at UF..………………2 New group for young professionals………………….3
City of Ocala updating comprehensive plan
Student update……....……….3 Section Lines….………………4 Complete streets…...………...4 Planning outreach opportunity………....…………7 From the Chair.……...……….7
Upcoming Events First Mondays, Third Tuesdays AICP Study Group, NCFRPC, 6:30 pm
October 13-14 – Section outreach at Downtown Art Festival 18 – Ernest R. Bartley Memorial Lecture Series
November 6 – Adapting Cities to Climate Change webinar, NCFRPC
For more events, please visit our website: http://www.floridaplanning.org/sanf elasco/index.asp
The Ocala 2035 Vision includes form based elements. Above is an alternative roadway section for Pine Avenue (US-441) through Ocala versus that roadway today (below). Sources: City of Ocala; Google StreetView.
The City of Ocala is hard at work developing a new vision for the city for the year 2035. The City has spent the past two and one half years conducting citizen participation events and adopting the Ocala 2035 Vision Plan (the Vision), as well as the West Ocala Community Plan. As part of the citizen participation, the City formed a Leadership Group of 20 community leaders that meets once per month to guide the process and disseminate information throughout the community. A West Ocala Steering Committee was formed of 10 leaders specific to the West Ocala area for the same purpose. The Ocala 2035 Vision was adopted by City Council on October 19, 2010, and the West Ocala Community Plan was adopted by Council on December 20, 2011. Approximately 50 community meetings have been held during this time, as well as many public hearings. The Comprehensive Plan updates are a direct result of the Vision. In CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
SAN FELASCO NEWSLETTER Fall 2012
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 addition, the City will be updating its Zoning Code to ▫ Bradford ▫ Columbia ▫ Dixie ▫ Gilchrist ▫ Hamilton ▫ Lafayette ▫ Levy ▫ Marion ▫ Suwannee ▫ Union reflect land uses that require Alachua and encourage Form Spring 2012 Based Codes as a result of the community input received. These updates are expected to be completed by next summer. Ocala has drawn from the City of Miami, as well as other cities, in looking to increase walkability and further economic development with changes to its Comprehensive Plan. The City’s consultant for the creation of the plan is VHB Miller Sellen. More information of the plan is available at the following websites: City of Ocala Comprehensive Plan website American Planning Association article Ocala Star-Banner article
recommended goals, strategies and measures and to prioritize the recommendations. The objective of these energy workshops is to identify strategies to diversify Florida’s energy future and to reduce reliance on foreign energy sources.
Regional planning councils pursue energy resiliency for Florida
To take the Florida Energy Resiliency Strategy Survey, please visit http://florida-energy.org/
Changes at UF planning program as fall semester begins
By Scott R. Koons, AICP Executive Director, North Central Florida Regional Planning Council The 11 regional planning councils in Florida, in association with the U.S. Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Energy and the Florida Office of Energy, are reviewing energy issues in their regions and collecting recommendations for goals, strategies and measures to be assembled into a state wide energy resiliency strategy.
By Kristin Larsen, AICP Chair, UF Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Faculty changes This spring, Andres Blanco secured a new position at the Inter-American Development Bank as a Senior Specialist in Fiscal and Municipal Management. Dawn Jourdan has also accepted a new position as Director of Regional and City Planning at the University of Oklahoma. We wish them both much luck and success. Abhinav Alakshendra is our newest faculty member. Completing his doctoral work at Kansas State, Abhinav focuses his research on economics and transportation. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
On August 13, 2012, the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council and the Northeast Florida Regional Council held the first of two workshops at the Gainesville Regional Utilities Eastside Operations Center to discuss the current state of energy in North Florida, and our vulnerabilities. A total of 53 participants attended the first workshop. The second workshop was held on August 29, 2012 at the Northeast Florida Regional Council to discuss the
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SPA prepares for a new school year
Alachua ▫ Bradford ▫ Columbia ▫ Dixie ▫ Gilchrist ▫ Hamilton ▫ Lafayette ▫ Levy ▫ Marion ▫ Suwannee ▫ Union Reaccreditation and the Spring 2012 new on-line degree program
The 2011-12 year focused on preparing for reaccreditation of the master’s Urban and Regional Planning program with the Planning Advisory Board (PAB), including the completion of our Self-Study Report and our Strategic Plan 2010-2015. The PAB Site Visit occurred from February 13-15, 2012. We had strong participation from planning professionals, many of them graduates of the program. This certainly made a strong positive impression on the Site Visit Team. The final decision regarding the reaccreditation will be made at our Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference in early November. This past year, we also developed the new on-line degree program and began course development, transforming our 52-credit graduate planning degree into an on-line program. The launch of our new on-line Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning occurs this fall semester. The first students will be graduating in Summer 2015. We will seek accreditation of the on-line program prior to this time.
By Juan Castillo, Jr. President, UF Student Planning Association Summer has kept us really busy as we prepare for what promises to be an exciting fall semester for the University of Florida’s SPA. We are excited to meet this coming semester with a set of items that we hope will help to engage the current student body and incorporate the new one. One of these items is the 2012 SPA T-shirts! It’s amazing what a t-shirt can do for the unification of a body of students. Our hope is that this t-shirt will not only bring our body of students closer together but also promote SPA as we engage in community services, conferences and school activities. The t-shirts are $15.00 and currently available in Navy blue. To order a t-shirt, please contact me at Jcgator1@gmail.com.
Florida APA starts Young Professionals Group By Jacob Kain Secretary, San Felasco Section
With a new t-shirt comes a new logo for SPA. This logo is designed in order to echo our relationship to the American Planning Association (APA) and the University of Florida.
APA Florida is creating a Young Professionals Group. The purpose of the APA Florida Young Planners Group is to provide young planners with guidance, resources and professional development opportunities so that they can excel individually and lead collectively in the field of planning.
Another exciting change that is currently in the works is the creation of a new position within our officer line up. Planning does not only affect planners but it also affects everyone else, therefore this position is an effort to further diversify SPA by promoting involvement in and from groups that are not strongly represented within the SPA community. Some of the responsibilities for this new position entail being actively involved as a liaison to other disciplines such as landscape architecture, architecture, engineering, building and construction, sustainability and preservation. Furthermore, this CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
The group held its first official meeting at the APA Florida Conference in Naples. If you are interested in participating in the group or planning activities in the San Felasco Section, please contact me at kainji@cityofgainesville.org.
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 position will also reach out to the international Section Lines Alachua ▫ Bradford ▫ Columbia ▫ Dixie ▫ Gilchrist ▫ Hamilton ▫ Lafayette ▫ Levy ▫ Marion ▫ Suwannee ▫ Union community in an effort to facilitate participation and Spring 2012 involvement from said community. Lastly, this position Joseli Macedo was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru scholarship and spent 6 months conducting research in India. She also will help in the creation of community service activities received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor in that will promote exposure to varied cultures. UF’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
SPA is committed to the development of UF’s student planning body. These changes are instruments that we are using in order to reach and encourage students toward a more active role within the UF and Gainesville community.
Amanda Douglas, a graduate student in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Florida, was awarded the Jeanne Fewell scholarship by the First Coast APA section. Amy Cavaretta, a graduate student in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Florida, will be the first Thomas J. O’Bryant Fellow with the Eno Center for Transportation in Washington, DC. She was also named Student of the Year by the Florida Chapter of APA for 2012.
Looking forward to an exciting fall semester!
Ruth Steiner was recently selected to participate in a faculty development workshop sponsored by the Initiative for Pedestrian and Bicycle Innovations at Portland State University. The goal is to get faculty to incorporate bicycle and pedestrian planning into their courses. During the workshop participants had both classroom exercises, walks in the neighborhood and bicycle rides to look at special bicycle and pedestrian facilities in areas near Downtown Portland.
We need complete streets A personal qualitative account of a morning commute
Ruoying Xu received the US Department of Transportation Eisenhower Graduate Research Fellowship. The Alachua County Transportation Disadvantaged Coordinating Board (TDCB) has received the 2012 Outstanding Coordinating Board of the Year Award from the Florida Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged (FCTD). The North Central Florida Regional Planning Council provides staffing to the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization for the Gainesville Urbanized Area which serves as the official planning agency for the Transportation Disadvantaged Program in Alachua County. Lynn C. Franson-Godfrey, AICP, Senior Transportation Planner, provides the staff support to the Alachua County Transportation Disadvantaged Board. We would like to congratulate her and the Alachua County Transportation Disadvantaged Coordinating Board for receiving this statewide award.
By Juan Castillo, Jr. President, UF Student Planning Association My hour-long bus trip which consists of two buses has arrived at its destination, and I start my half-mile walk from the last bus stop on the route to my office at North Central Florida Regional Planning Council. Normally, I don’t mind the walk. In fact, I look forward to it since it gives me a reason to be active and to enjoy the outdoors (and also because sometimes, there is a CSX train parked on the tracks that I have to cross to get to work…I love trains). However, on mornings like today, I am reminded why I would not mind owning a car.
To submit a Section Line, email Jacob Kain at kainji@cityofgainesville.org.
FLASH BACK TO 15 MINUTES BEFORE I REACH THE OFFICE I hop off the bus and quickly open my red umbrella. The sight must have been comical to some motorists as they fly by me wearing a black and grey sweater, army green cargo pants, black boots, and a brown book bag while holding a bright red umbrella. I have to admit, it’s comical for me as well. I start my journey by crossing my first street which is the same street that the bus has
just dropped me off on. In front of me now resides a discreet building which officially belongs to the fire department yet somehow seems too small for its function. I continue down walking more on grass than on paved ground in an attempt to avoid cars on my left who seem to make a sport of driving 40 miles per hour inches away from me. CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
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to walk (not run) across the second set of three lanes. I make my move, noting the amount of oil on the road. Alachua ▫ Bradford ▫ Columbia ▫ Dixie ▫ Gilchrist ▫ Hamilton ▫ Lafayette ▫ Levy ▫ Marion ▫ Suwannee ▫ Union OBSTACLE 1 This is a very real danger to speeding vehicles that don’t Spring 2012 Cars are still flying by at speeds that seem too fast to be have the ability to see the rainbow flow of chemically safe on a wet oily road. I make my way to cross the right enhanced run off on the street; a tall sign of the turn lane with the aim to reach the little concrete island presence of oil and the possibility of hydroplaning cars. about 10 -15 feet away. Obstacle three has now I succeed, only to wait been averted. until all lights are red for OBSTACLE 4 the oncoming traffic (I have to depend on the I make it across the street lights since there second set of three lanes are no pedestrian only to land in the signals to inform me of shoulders of the highway an opportune time to where I am greeted by cross this 6 lane knee high grass. highway). First obstacle Unfortunately my red has been defeated. umbrella can’t help me here. From my torso up I OBSTACLE 2 have remained dry due to Finally the lights are the protection of my red, and I cross the umbrella. From my torso street, walking at a down, well, that’s a quick pace. I hesitate different story. I accept to run since the the challenge, moving highway has deep forward through the forest groves on the asphalt; a of weeds and wild clear sign of high and flowers, coming to a brief constant use of fast clearing where I am traveling, heavy greeted with a pleasant vehicles. It’s possible sight; rail road tracks; and that in the process of an even more pleasant running I could trip over surprise on it; a train one of these groves, engine. I take in the fall, and get run over. I beautiful sight as I cross the first set of 3 cautiously cross the track, lanes to land in the making sure that the grass median. engine is indeed parked, Thankfully it’s wide and not in the process of enough to provide a moving. Obstacle four is clear area of rest from now cleared and I this busy and obviously continue forward. dangerous highway. OBSTACLE 5 Obstacle number two has been defeated. Four obstacles down, and now it seems I’m home OBSTACLE 3 free. On this side of the I check to make sure that the incoming traffic is far enough to provide me time CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 as exciting as Lord of the Rings, but definitely and rail road tracks, the grass is not nearly as tall, and there adventure. All this to say: Florida, we the people need Columbia ▫ Dixie ▫ Gilchrist ▫ Hamilton ▫ Lafayette ▫ Levy ▫ Marion ▫ Suwannee ▫ Union is a makeshift path along the Alachua street.▫ Bradford Even ▫ though the complete streets! Spring 2012 path is there, the grass still Juan Castillo, Jr. is an intern at the North Central Florida protests my clear stomping assault upon it by counter Regional Planning Council and commutes on RTS route attacking with stickers and bombs of water. My boots 8. and pants are bearing the evidence of a very heavy and brutal assault. Sidewalks would be advantageous to me right now. I continue my walk. The rain has now ceased, allowing me to fold my red umbrella and make my sight a little less comical. As I bring my umbrella down to finalize the closing procedure, my eyes meet a very solemn reminder of the predicament I’m in; the body of a very large snake. The clear marking on its skin tells me that this probably was a rattle snake (the rattler was gone thanks to the body’s ghastly dismemberment). The reminder comes as a bit of shock; but a stern warning that yes, there are wild animals living in these high grassy planes, they can harm me, they are very real and they are big. I have no option but to keep walking. These grasses are tall enough to easily hide a snake as large as the one I just finished observing to the point that I would not even realize the snake’s presence until I was right over it. A slightly frightful thought but all I could do was pray and move forward. Sidewalks definitely would be a welcome addition to this road; nevertheless the fifth obstacle has now been breached. OBSTACLE 6 I turn into the street that my office is on. A sigh of relief escapes my mouth due to the fact that lawns here are mowed, not wild and overgrown as the one I just finished trudging through. However, my journey is not over yet. I still have a three minute walk left in which I battle huge 18 wheelers speeding across this street as they approach their industrial destination. I stay clear of the puddles of water on the street noting the sheer splash factor from these huge vehicles. Obstacle six has now been cleared.
Planners gather in Naples for annual conference Planners from San Felasco and across Florida came together to exchange ideas at the annual Chapter conference in Naples, FL early this month. The 2013 conference will be held in September 2013 in Orlando.
SUCCESS Finally, my trip ends at my office where I now stand; musing over how wet I am, but thankful for arriving safely. I have been on a mini-adventure. Kind of like a Lord of the Rings type of adventure, where I had to face dangerous swamps, mystical creatures (dead snake) and behemoth dragons (18 wheelers). Ok, maybe not
Thank you to Jeff Hays for supplying the photos of Downtown Naples (top) and the Clam Pass beach path (bottom) from this year’s conference.
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SAN FELASCO NEWSLETTER Fall 2012
From the Chair
Alachua ▫ Bradford ▫ Columbia ▫ Dixie ▫ Gilchrist ▫ Hamilton ▫ Lafayette ▫ Levy ▫ Marion ▫ Suwannee ▫ Union
2012 Help spread theSpring word about planning!
A recent discussion with a co-worker that visited Rainbow Springs got me thinking about the size, diversity and distinctiveness of our section's region. The San Felasco section covers about 13 percent of the state's area, includes eleven counties and has over 72 cities and towns. This area also has a combined population of over 830,000 people and includes some of Florida's most significant natural resources that attract millions of visitors each year (Alachua County alone had 1.6 million visitors in 2011 according to the Alachua County Visitors & Convention Bureau). I was also fascinated to learn that 17 of the state's 33 first magnitude springs (including river rises) are located in our section, as are the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers. This little bit of fact-finding makes me want to learn more about our section and what makes us the "Original Florida". So, as the year draws near an end and we turn our attention to the annual state conference and the section annual meeting, I ask you all to give some thought to our region and ask yourselves if it is more than just a convenient section boundary prescribed for us by our state chapter... Do our section boundaries form a unique region with similar issues and challenges? I plan to travel around our section in the coming year to meet our members, learn more about our valuable resources and better understand the issues that join us together.
The local San Felasco Section of APA will have a booth at this year’s Downtown Art Festival October 13-14. The goal is to help educate the public about planning and the myriad things that planners do.
If you would like to join me in exploring our region or help arrange for a member tour of your area, please contact me to make arrangements. We will also have an opportunity to come together at our annual meeting, which is tentatively planned for Wednesday, November 28 in Gainesville.
We are looking for members to volunteer to help with the booth and help answer any questions people may have. Also, if you have any material that you would like displayed about a project or idea, then that is welcome too.
Doug
Please contact Leslie McLendon at lmclendon@alachuacounty.us or 352-374-5249 if you would like to participate or if you have any suggestions for educational material.
Doug Robinson Chair, San Felasco Section
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