Transportation Concurrency Requirements and Best Practices: Guidelines for Developing and Maintaining an Effective Transportation Concurrency Management System

Concurrency is a growth management concept intended to ensure that the necessary public facilities and services are available concurrent with the impacts of development. To carry out concurrency, local governments must define what constitutes an adequate level of service as well as measure whether the service needs of a new development exceed existing capacity and any scheduled improvements in the capital improvements program for that period. If adequate capacity is not available, then the developer must provide the necessary facility or service improvements to proceed, or provide a monetary contribution toward such improvements, or wait until government provides the necessary improvements. Among the key features of the 2005 growth management legislation were changes to the concurrency management process. The legislation provides for a more effective concurrency approach through well-defined financial feasibility requirements for capital improvements schedules (CIS) and tightened timelines for concurrency. In addition, the legislation directed local governments to enact concurrency management ordinances by December 1, 2006 that allow for “proportionate share” contributions from developers toward meeting transportation concurrency requirements. The legislation also directed the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to provide technical assistance in carrying out provisions of the legislation. DCA contracted with the Center for Urban Transportation Research to provide technical assistance regarding transportation concurrency management resulting in this technical memorandum that documents best practices in local government concurrency management systems. In addition, a recommended practice for reporting de minimis impacts has been developed that addresses report content and formatting in response to the annual de minimis reporting requirement. + Read more