The Capital Improvements Element is a required component of the local government's comprehensive plan.
Section 163.3177(3)(a), Florida Statutes, explains the purpose of the Capital Improvements Element is to “consider the need for and the location of public facilities in order to encourage the efficient use of such facilities.”
The provisions of this section require that capital improvement projects which are necessary to ensure that adopted level of service standards for public facilities will be achieved and maintained for the five-year period, will be adopted into a Schedule of Capital Improvements included with this element. The schedule of capital improvements should include any publicly funded projects of federal, state, or local government and may include privately funded projects for which the local government has no fiscal responsibility. The schedule must be coordinated with the applicable metropolitan planning organization’s transportation improvement program and long-range transportation plan.
Section 163.3164(7), Florida Statutes, establishes the definition of "capital improvement” to be physical assets, excluding items like operation and maintenance services and studies. There is no requirement to include these types of non-physical asset expenditures in the Schedule of Capital Improvements
The Schedule of Capital Improvements does not itself allocate the use any County funds or those of other entities.
It only identifies projects, that may be funded or unfunded, that are deemed necessary to ensure that adopted level of service standards for public facilities will be achieved and maintained.
The proposed update presented here includes projects identified in the County’s latest Capital Improvement Program (CIP), FDOT transportation projects identified in the North Florida TPO’s latest Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and cost feasible projects identified in the its Long Range Transportation Plan, projects identified as part of the update to the County's Mobility Plan, and water and wastewater projects identified in JEA’s Water Resource Master Plan.
Pursuant Ch. 163.3177, The update to the schedule may be now accomplished by local ordinance and will not be considered an amendment to the comprehensive plan and is therefore not subject to review by the State.
The schedule should be reviewed annually by the local government to reflect the timing, location and funding of capital projects to achieve and maintain adopted level of service standards for public facilities that are necessary to implement the comprehensive plan. |