CITY OF WEST MELBOURNE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE

The City of West Melbourne is updating its Comprehensive Plan, “Horizon 2030”, along with a community-based visioning process to meet the State of Florida requirements.  The Comprehensive Plan, last updated in 2009, is now returning to the planning process preparing for the city’s future, focusing on land use, transportation, recreation, sustainability and for infrastructure needs.

The Comprehensive Plan lays the foundation and groundwork in planning for our community’s future growth. It is a policy document which sets the decisions made by elected officials in terms of long-range land use and development regulations. Florida State Statutes Section 163.3177 requires that each local government have a Comprehensive Plan to guide and ensure consistent decision making on future growth.

West Melbourne’s strategic location in Florida’s Space Coast corridor has fostered the city’s robust economic development while providing challenges in balancing density, population growth and land use constraints. West Melbourne’s population nearly tripled since 2000, with 4% growth since 2010, with an estimated 2022 population of 28,127.

The 2040 Comprehensive Plan update for the city must be carefully considered to address significant growth since 2010. Taking this understanding along with the city’s vision, the Commission authorized the City Manager to enter into an agreement with The Corradino Group to conduct the Comprehensive Plan revision in partnership with the community.

Throughout this process, there will be outreach to gauge community wants, concerns, and needs. This will be accomplished through a series of public workshops that will include interactive boards, presentations, and surveys where participants will be asked to share additional ideas and desires for the community. The 1st public workshop will be a visioning session for residents to participate in the planning process and formulate the overall theme and the plan’s name. There will be more information about public workshop dates to follow and will be coordinated by subconsultant MHCP COLAB under the direction of The Corradino Group.

The Comprehensive Plan will focus in on land use, transportation, public facilities, and other critical elements. Through this process, we will develop and adopt a new Comprehensive Plan that meets or exceeds the State of Florida requirements, embraces community needs and issues and contains common standards for local comprehensive planning. Corradino has provided the city a project schedule that delivers a draft plan to the City by April 2023.

Historically, the city has incorporated input from residents and consultants as part of the process to foster community outreach as it pertains to comprehensive planning updates. Through this process, the City of West Melbourne is addressing topics that include:

•  How can the city enhance its character and sense of place?

•  How can the city encourage the provision of housing to meet current and future needs?

•  How can the city take advantage of economic opportunities and optimize its unique assets?

•  How can the city become more resilient and achieve sustainability?

Additional topics include multi-modal transportation options that will improve connectivity and safety for the transportation network. All plan elements and polices are required by the State to meet existing and future infrastructure and facility needs.

FAQ’S

1. What is a Comprehensive Plan and why do we need it?

The State of Florida requires that each local government have a land use plan to reflect the 10-year planning horizon of a community. A Comprehensive Plan establishes policies for a community’s future and reflects the community’s vision and identity and their commitment to these policies, including this land use plan. This includes standards for how land is used and developed in alignment with land development regulations and in balance with future economic, social, physical, environmental, and fiscal development. Comprehensive Plan policies provide a guide for future land use decisions and contain programs and activities to ensure that policies are implemented. A Comprehensive Plan is comprised of multiple chapters called plan elements and includes a summary of data and data analysis and element goals, policies, and objectives.

West Melbourne’s Comprehensive Plan will include the following elements:

1. Implementation

2. Future Land Use

3. Housing

4. Education

5. Transportation

6. Infrastructure

7. Capital Improvements

8. Recreation and Open Space

9. Conservation

10. Private Property Rights

11. Intergovernmental Coordination

12. Sustainability and Resiliency

2. What are the steps to the process?

•  The comprehensive planning process kicked-off in July 2022.

•  The first public meeting will be a visioning workshop in early September to discuss the community’s ideas, important themes and select a branding name for the comprehensive planning process.

•  A second meeting will be held in November to present initial data and analysis for each of the twelve plan elements and to discuss additional opportunities for plan policies.

•  The consultant team will draft the plan policy elements based on community input and present the final plan to the City Council at a public hearing. The plan will be transmitted to the State reviewing agencies who will have 30-days to submit comments.

•  After the comments are addressed, the city will hold a second public hearing to formally adopt the plan.

3. How will this impact me and the community?

The policy decisions in the Comprehensive Plan will guide how the community will evolve over time. Plan policies will protect and enhance West Melbourne’s identity, guide future decisions for consistency with the community’s vision and be geared towards maintaining and enhancing a high quality of life. Policies can seek to improve parks and open space, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, address traffic concerns, economic development, ensure adequate infrastructure and plan for new needs related to population  growth. Your participation in this process will influence these policy decisions and help to create a plan which reflects all of the community’s desires and goals and future vision.

4. What is my role in the process and how can I get involved?

The Comprehensive Plan is an opportunity for the community to influence how West Melbourne will grow through 2040. You can get involved by attending public meetings, emailing the City at planning@westmelbourne.gov and the consultant team: WestMelbourneCompPlan2040@corradino.com, and providing comments on our interactive mapping website Vera Voice, which will be introduced during the first public workshop.

5. Will the Comprehensive Plan address issues that are important to me?

Yes. The plan will address issues that will affect everyone. If they are important to you, they are important to us. We want to hear your perspective to make this the best plan it can be.