Following in the city commission’s footsteps, the Leon County commission voted 6-1 to join their sister government in pushing the decision on the “comprehensive plan,” the area’s blueprint for growth and development, into 2026.
The county chambers were not filled as the city chambers had been with audience members sporting pins and green t-shirts, many armed with reasons why they should push back the plan, but commissioners said they had seen what had happened across the street and agreed to follow.
“I want to acknowledge and I want to appreciate the city commission for unanimously taking a lead on recognizing that we still need more input, still need more adjustments to the comp plan, and I’m glad that we get to join in that and participate in that… because it is such a big deal that we work together on it,” said Commissioner David O’Keefe.
The developing saga of the city and county’s goal to update their shared comprehensive plan has been ongoing for several years. The comprehensive plan is a “state-mandated document to provide standards regarding the governance for growth within a community,” records show.
The “comp plan,” as it’s called, has worried many, specifically those in city limits, who fear changing it will exacerbate sprawl at the urban fringes or allow for unwanted development in primarily residential neighborhoods. Tallahassee and Leon County’s comp plan determines everything from a “trails and greenways master plan” to a “land development code.”
Commissioner Christian Caban was the lone dissenting vote on the matter and in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat he said that the reason behind his decision was rooted in housing affordability.
“I voted no on delaying the comprehensive plan because we are the county, not the city, and we shouldn’t be deferring to their timeline… this plan has been in the works for over a decade. Most importantly, it increases density in the urban services area, which is essential if we’re serious about improving housing affordability,” Caban said.
“More housing in areas where infrastructure already exists helps increase supply and bring down housing costs over time. It also helps prevent sprawl, which threatens our community’s environmental treasures,” Caban continued.
Commissioner Rick Minor has been very involved with the comp plan process, even appearing at the community event at the Womans Club of Tallahassee in the Los Robles neighborhood. He expressed support for the pushback saying if the county passed their comp plan ahead of the city it would lead to several problems.
“Number one, it would lead to a lot of confusion since there would be, for a time at least, two entirely separate comp plans… so that’s one problem. The second problem we would have, after the city adopts their rewrites, we would then have to undergo a reconciliation process,” Minor said.
Minor said the third problem was there was still plenty of discussion to be had between constituents, commissioners and planning staff.
“If you go to the public meetings, if you go to the meeting that they had at Los Robles … time and time again people are asking us for more time. They’re asking us to sit down with us, with staff to go through the details of what this plan for growth is going to mean for the next 25 years,” Minor said.
Arianna Otero is the trending and breaking news reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at AOtero@tallahassee.com and follow her on X: @ari_v_otero.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon County joins city in pushing back contentious comprehensive plan into next year
Reporting by Arianna Otero, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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