City Planning

One of the keys to a healthy community with a high quality of life is good planning for the use of land. This planning effort includes both public property, such as parks, as well as private property that is scheduled for development. Good planning must determine the best future land uses, as well as the provision of roads and utilities. Let’s take a look at some of the planning that has been recently completed or is in process for the benefit of our town.

Downtown

Before the recent proposals for the renovation of the Grand Hotel were received, the City’s CRA board gave $25,000 to the Chamber’s CRA Steering Committee to conduct a study downtown. The money had been donated to the CRA by Richard Quaid for this purpose, and the study focused on the area around the Grand Hotel.

Contract negotiations have commenced with the selected firm, Dixie Walesbilt LLC, for the renovation of the Grand Hotel. This project is scheduled to be done in concert with the downtown plan.

Park Planning

City staff is working with representatives of Bok Tower Gardens, Green Horizon Land Trust, and others to develop a trail network. Developers who have projects along the network will be requested to construct links as a part of their sidewalk/parks requirements.

Planning has been completed for a renovation of Kiwanis Park, and a grant application has been submitted for funding. Parking lot reconstruction, baseball field reconfiguration, trees, benches, and restroom gates are included in the plan.

Comp Plan Amendments

The City’s Planning and Development staff is working to update the Capital Improvements Element of the Comprehensive Plan. This element outlines what facilities will be needed to serve growth and how they will be paid for. The City already has in place a menu of “impact fees” that are charged to new developments for this purpose.

City staff is also working with the Planning Board on the “evaluation and appraisal report,” which is an evaluation of the Comprehensive Plan.

Roads

The “East Polk Road Study” is being conducted by Polk County in an area that extends from Haines City to Frostproof, east of US 27. Some of the recommendations that are currently under review include:

• The extension of Venus Lake Blvd in Hunter’s Glen (north of Peddler’s Pond on US 27) to CF Kinney Rd


• The extension of CF Kinney Rd to Starr Blvd at Home Depot


• A new road connecting Starr Blvd going south to Chalet Suzanne Rd, across from the western-most entrance to the Eagle Ridge Mall. A traffic signal is proposed for that intersection


• The extension of Hickory Hammock Road to US 27


• A new road connecting Scenic Highway to US 27, north of Mountain Lake Cutoff Road


• A new street connecting Burns Ave at Scenic to Wiltshire to make a connection to US 27

There are a number of other recommendations in this study that can be viewed at ftp://ftp.glatting.com/ with the network password of Polk.

Selected Area Studies (SAS)

A number of “selected area studies” are being conducted by Polk County. These studies recommend future land uses and services to developing areas:

1. East Polk SAS – this study includes the City of Dundee and a portion of Lake Wales in the area of Lake Annie, Waverly, and Tindal Camp Road;


2. Southeast Polk SAS – this study includes the area south of SR 60, and east of US 27. City Planning Board Chairman Chris Lutton is serving on the focus group for this study.


3. Gateway area SAS – this study covers the area to be impacted by the CSX development in Winter Haven. The area is west of US 27 along SR 60. Masterpiece area SAS – This study is proposed for the area including Chalet Suzanne Road and Masterpiece Road, east of US 27. City staff is working with the County on the scope of work and an interlocal agreement for the County to reimburse the City for the study.

Assorted Items of Interest

This week let’s look at several topics of interest in our town.

Trail and Sidewalk Planning

There have been questions asked recently about the new trail on the east side of North Wailes Drive. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee recommended the connection between the new Trailway to Spook Hill Elementary School to improve safety for school children. Using asphalt allowed for a wider path at a lower cost than the use of concrete. It also opened up the paved area for easier travel for bicyclists. The east side of the street was chosen since it keeps pedestrians from having to cross a number of streets and provides a much safer path for the elementary school students.

The next phase of this work will include painting in a crosswalk, the installation of signage, and the construction of a concrete sidewalk on school property. Additional sections of sidewalks are planned along the west side of North Wailes Dr. south of the Trailway to make a connection down to Lakeshore Drive.

SR 60 East: Lighting and Medians

City staff approached FDOT several years ago to inquire about their ability to improve street lighting on State Road 60 from 11th St to Buck Moore Road. FDOT completed that work months ago. City staff then approached FDOT about the feasibility of continuing the grass median from 11th St to the east. FDOT staff prepared a conceptual plan that is on display in the lobby of city hall. The City Commission will be asked to endorse their plan, and FDOT staff will then hold an open house to review and explain the plan to affected property owners and interested citizens.

At present this stretch of State Road 60 has an open turn lane. Motorists traveling either east or west can pull into the lane and then turn left. Unfortunately, some drivers also use this lane as an “acceleration” lane. If they want to turn left from a street, say 12th Street for example, but traffic is heavy going in that direction, drivers sometimes pull into the center lane and drive there until traffic opens up and they can move over. This is a very dangerous move.

FDOT has federal safety funds that can be used for this sort of project. The conceptual plan shows that there will be full openings at some intersections, and “directed” turns (which only allow cars to turn a certain direction) at other locations. Landscaping will be provided to enhance this area and make a very nice entryway into town from east SR 60. The median will end west of Capps Road.

Park Planning, Trees

The Parks and Community Appearance Board has been busy. The board recently heard a presentation from an arborist regarding trees in Lake Wailes Park, including the type of trees and their condition. One of the arborist’s recommendations will involve ways to relieve the stress of some large trees caused by mowing grass beneath the trees. These areas may need to be mulched.

City staff is also researching available properties in the northern areas of the city for the building of a city park. It is anticipated that recreation impact fee funds, as well as any available grant funds, would be used for this purpose.

Utility System Improvements Workshop

Every year the City Commission approves a plan that lists the capital improvements that will be needed for the next year. The plan recently adopted contains financing and expenditures for the first phase of work for the wastewater treatment plant. This work includes maintenance work for the plant, which is now twenty years old, as well as other improvements and a small expansion of capacity. There are also plans to extend a water line to connect to the new airport system and go further west on SR 60. It is anticipated that these topics will be discussed at an upcoming City Commission workshop.

Principles of Good Planning

In this space last week I proposed that successful growth management requires active citizen participation. This is particularly true in Lake Wales, a special place that needs citizen involvement to ensure that the town can maintain its unique character through periods of intense development and expansion.

Whispering Ridge, a newly developing subdivision on 11th Street south of SR 60, is a good example of this concept. Six years ago a developer came forward with a plan that was a perfect grid of north-south and east-west streets, with 550 lots, all 50 feet wide. On Grove Avenue, which at that time was little more than a driveway from Minnesota to 10th Street, the developer proposed a 7-acre park that had no access other than the lots that backed up to it.

When Margaret Swanson arrived to take the position of City Planning Director, she came with a knowledge of the planning principles espoused by Frederick Law Olmsted – the designer of Central Park in New York City, the White House gardens, and the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. (His sons designed the grounds at Historic Bok Sanctuary and prepared a landscaping plan for Lake Wales.) His principles include:

1. Have the best land reserved for public open space


2. Have natural-looking and irregular groupings of trees rather than orderly lines of trees


3. Have a “spine road” that takes you through an area, with side roads leading to neighborhoods


4. Have parks and open space throughout the development


5. Have interesting, curvilinear streets rather than straight line streets in a grid pattern


6. Have pedestrian walkways through interesting landscapes

These principles are the opposite of what had been presented in the first plan for the property. After many discussions and numerous draft drawings, a plan prepared by local landscape architect Marshall Whidden using Olmsted principles was endorsed by City staff and taken to the Planning and Zoning Board for approval.

This plan featured:

1. A spine road curving through the development from 11th Street to 9th Street. Along the road is an 8-foot concrete pedestrian/bike path in a landscaped corridor with the historic black pole, acorn lens light fixtures. The Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Commission has endorsed a plan to extend the path to both the east and west as surrounding properties develop in the area.


2. There are no driveways coming out on the spine road, and no houses facing it. Side roads lead to intimate neighborhood settings, each with its own green space.


3. There are sidewalks throughout the development. A mulched path leads from the spine road to Grove Ave., connecting to new sidewalks built by the developer on Grove and Marietta.


4. Besides the landscaped bikeway corridor, there are numerous small parks and green areas. Pine trees have been saved throughout the development, and natural vegetation has provided a base for plantings along Grove Ave.


5. The final development plan was reduced from 550 – 50-foot lots to 350 lots with varying lot widths.


6. Despite the new housing market decline, 50 lots have been sold and 23 are now under construction.


7. In addition to these features, the developer will be extending Grove Avenue from Minnesota Street to 11th Street. The developer is also constructing a sidewalk on Marietta Street, from Grove Avenue to SR60.

Good land planning is essential to maintain what has made Lake Wales special. Citizens are cordially invited to attend the Planning and Zoning meetings, which are held the last Tuesday of each month.

The Best Future for Our Community

My wife and I left Northern Kentucky in 1985 and came to Lake County just north of us for my first City Manager job. Shortly after my arrival several reporters from the local paper descended on me and asked what I felt was the biggest challenge facing that town. From my research, I did not hesitate to answer: Growth Management.

Over 20 years later and now in Lake Wales, my answer is the same. Growth Management is a multi-faceted challenge with effects for the long-term, one that begs for citizen participation. The questions to be answered include, what kind of community are we building for the future? Will it be a “bedroom community”, with most working adults leaving during the week-long daylight hours to work somewhere else? Or will we have industry and commerce here? When they reach adulthood, will our children have the opportunity to work here, or will it be taken for granted that they must move away to find career jobs? If we have a bedroom community, will it be sustainable? That is, will the revenues from that type of community be able to support the public services such as police and fire that are necessary to serve the community, or will it take a mix of industry, commercial, and residential in order to be sustainable? And if we develop a community with adults leaving to work, what about the children? Will they have to leave during the day to find a quality education? In such case, what is the mindset of the families in the community when family members spend most of their weekday time in another community, away from where they live? Will they be as willing to volunteer their scarce free time to contribute to the community where they live? Will they have true community pride?

These were some of the questions posed five years ago at the outset of the Polk Vision process. The planner hired by the then new, non-profit Polk Vision group went around the county and met with citizens in various communities. His first meeting in Lake Wales was at the library, and he commented that it was the largest community meeting in Polk County that he had had up to that time.

The fundamental concept that came out of the Polk Vision process was that we – as a town and as a county – do not want to be a bedroom community. We do not want our citizens to have to leave during the weekday for employment or education.

I believe that Lake Wales has exemplified this point more than any other city in our county, and the foundations for this concept were well in place long before Polk Vision came along. Ready examples of this concept can be found in the last 7 years: in the sale of the Lake Wales Medical Center, and the establishment of the Lake Wales Charter School System.

Shortly after I arrived here in 2001, I was invited to a meeting to discuss the status of the Lake Wales Medical Center. At that time it was owned by Winter Haven Hospital, and over time there were fewer services being offered. After a series of meetings it was decided that the group would approach the parent company to encourage them to sell the hospital to another firm that would provide us with an independent, stand alone hospital with many more services. I remember thinking that this mission seemed like a long-shot… but then - Mission Accomplished! Winter Haven Hospital sold the Lake Wales Medical Center to Community Health Systems, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, a company with one other hospital in Florida. Our new and improved hospital now features many services that have returned, along with new services including cardiac catheterizations and other diagnostic procedures that have been added. Success!

Similarly, many parents over the years have been concerned with the quality of education at the county district schools in Lake Wales. A group was formed through the Chamber of Commerce to explore the formation of a city school district. Interestingly, the city had its own school district many years ago before merging with the county district. After much work and discussion, a new charter school district was formed that converted four elementary schools and the high school into charter schools under one district, with a new charter middle school starting up in the fall. The results have been very impressive, with many improvements including new science labs in all five schools. There has been a refreshing new energy in the schools, with more community involvement. Another Success!

These are just two examples of what I and my family have found here: that Lake Wales is a very special place, and the fundamental concept conveyed in the Polk Vision effort has been demonstrated here. But, looking ahead, there is more to do. There is much interest in expanding and growing our community. In order to achieve our “best future”, we must have active citizen interest and participation. In this space next week, we’ll explore how that can be accomplished.

The City's Utility Systems

A number of times during the year, City staff members address citizen groups on the workings of City government. During these presentations I always take time to emphasize the importance of our City utility systems: water, sewer, and re-use water. While these systems are essential for every household and business, they are also one of the fundamental keys to growth and development.

Let’s review this topic and present a progress report on where we are now and where we are headed.

Our Current Situation

The City’s water utility serves 7.644 customers and pumps over 3 million gallons of water per day. This water comes from deep wells at three City water plants (Market Street, Burns Avenue, and Grove Avenue) that are capable of pumping over 17 million gallons of water per day. However, the amount of water that can be pumped from the aquifer is regulated by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD). Our current “Consumptive Use Permit” (CUP) for this purpose is capped at 3.86 million gallons per day. While we are not exceeding this limit on an average basis, the demand for water is increasing with growth. For this reason City staff began serious discussions with SWFWMD on this topic over two years ago and then submitted a request to increase the City’s CUP in December of 2006. Since then, the City Commission has taken two actions to strengthen our position to have the CUP approved:

1. The City Commission approved a new water rate schedule that increases the price per thousand gallons as more water is used. This schedule, even more than the previous schedule, encourages water conservation; and


2. The City Commission approved a contract with SWFWMD that provides matching funds for the construction of the first substantial re-use project (see below). Re-use water is highly treated sewer water that is not at drinking water standards but is used for irrigation, thereby reducing the amount of water pumped by the City wells.

City staff expects that with these City Commission actions, the new CUP will be approved this year.

The provision of sewer service is, in many ways, more difficult than water. At present the City operates one sewer plant in the area of US27 and SR 60, with a capacity of 1.9 million gallons per day. It is currently treating 1.2 million gallons per day. The operation of the plant is regulated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP)

FDEP requires that when the usage of the plant reaches 80% of plant capacity, the plant owner shall begin planning for plant expansion. Currently our plant is at 63% usage, but the City Commission has already taken action and the construction plans for the first phase of plant expansion are nearly complete.

Where We are Headed

It is not unusual for a city to issue bonds for the expansion of utilities, with the new developments paying the debt service for the bonds; however, in such cases, the existing customers, in effect, “co-sign the note.” In other words, if growth does not occur at the pace predicted, the existing customers are on the hook to pay off the debt.

Our City Commission has directed that, to the greatest extent possible, existing customers shall not be saddled with this expense. Therefore, the Commission approved a system whereby new developments line up in a “queue” and wait until enough developers are ready to commit to utility expansions and guarantee payments.

It is also important to note that some developers have existing commitments for all or some of the unused capacity in both water and wastewater. The City Commission approved the City’s first formal “Concurrency System” for City utilities to track the usage and availability of water and sewer service for new development.

The process for providing water and sewer capacity, along with a well-written Land Development Code, is the key to providing quality development. The City Commission has ensured that these items are now in place without requiring the existing residents to pay the bill.

Utility Infrastructure Planning

Last week in this space we discussed the steps the City has taken to prepare for growth in the substantial revision of the Comprehensive Plan and the Land Development Code, as well as an updating of the City’s impact fees. This week we will explore another important aspect of preparing for growth: the planning and construction of new water and sewer infrastructure.

A new system to ensure the proper planning for water and sewer facilities has been put in place by the City Commission. The new system has the following features:

1. Developments that wish to utilize City water and sewer facilities must now be annexed into the City. This is a change from the past, where developers outside the City were allowed to use these facilities and agree to annex at a later date;


2. The system requires developers who will need City water and sewer service for their future development to sign an agreement and get in the “queue” (that is, to “line up”) for future service. It costs 10% of the water and sewer impact fees to get in line;


3. Once in line, City staff will periodically check to see how many developers are ready to go to the next step, which involves signing a “Utility Service Agreement”. This agreement locks a developer in to making a series of payments of utility impact fees to construct the new facilities that will be needed for development.

At present there are 13 developments in the queue – some of whom were automatically entered as they were already in some stage of the development process when the system was adopted; others have paid the now required 10% fee.

New water and sewer facilities to serve growth are already in various stages of developments. These projects include:

• A new water plant will soon be finished at the airport. Initially it will be used for the new fire hydrants at the airport (the first time the airport has had fire hydrants) and will be converted to a potable (drinking water) well to serve the west SR 60 area;


• A new elevated water tank is being designed for construction in the area of Scenic Highway and Hunt Brothers Road;


• A new sewer force main will serve the Buck More Road area, and developments south of SR 60 from the Hunt Brothers Road area to US 27. The City Commission has hired the contractor and this project will begin in the near future;


• A phased expansion of the sewer treatment plant and operational improvements have been engineered and the plans have recently been submitted for state agency approval;


• The City is changing how it disposes of the water that has been treated at the sewer plant. Rather than all of the water going into the Rapid Infiltration Basins near the Scenic Highway between Lake Belle and Hunt Brothers Road, the City is beginning to use some of it for irrigation in the Longleaf Business Park, the new soccer/multi-purpose field complex on Hunt Brothers Road, and soon in the city cemetery. There are also plans to serve the Whispering Ridge and Mayfair subdivisions.

Preparing for growth is a multi-faceted process, and the City is successfully moving forward to encourage quality growth and the facilities needed to serve it!