BikeWalkLee's 2014 Priorities

As BikeWalkLee issues its 2013 annual accomplishments report, it is also identifying its top priorities for 2014 and putting them in the context of our larger vision and goals.

BWL Steering Group Jan. strategic planning meeting

BikeWalkLee's priorities for 2014 focus on four key areas: Integrated planning; quality of life, transit, and safety.  As part of each of these themes, we've identified 2-3 key actions that need to be taken in 2014 by our elected officials and local agencies.  These include: 

Integrated Planning:

• BoCC adoption of the 2035 Horizon Plan comp plan amendments, consistent with the EAR.

• MPO Board selection of a land use scenario option that supports a balanced multi-modal 2040 LRTP.

• BoCC adoption of the County's proposed Sustainability Plan.

Quality of Life:

• BoCC review and reinstatement of funding for infrastructure through impact and/or mobility fees.

• Incorporation of bike tourism in economic development strategies by county, municipal, and state agencies and officials.

Transit:

• BoCC adequate funding of transit, including restoration of evening and weekend service cuts, improvements in the Route 60 line, and no further transit budget cuts in 2015.

• Continuation of the LinC bus line connecting Lee and Collier Counties through shared funding by BoCC, the City of Bonita Springs, and Collier County, with MPO Board and FDOT support.

Safety:

• MPO Board, each jurisdiction, local law enforcement officials, and other stakeholder agencies and groups make implementation of the MPO's Bicycle Pedestrian Safety Action Plan a top priority.

• Local law enforcement leaders and other stakeholder agencies and leaders, convened by the MPO, launch a countywide enforcement and education campaign in 2014.

• Lee Legislative Delegation support for state legislation to strengthen a ban on texting while driving by making it a primary offense; strengthen hit-and-run laws, and oppose efforts to raise speed limits.

Click here to read the full 2014 Priorities document.

Click here to read the 2013 Accomplishments Report (which also includes the 2014 priorities).

BikeWalkLee Releases 2013 Accomplishments Report

On January 26th, BikeWalkLee released its 2013 Accomplishments Report and shared it with our supporter organizations, national partners, government officials, agencies, staff, committees, the news media, and others in our network as a way of saying "thanks" to everyone for their support, leadership, commitment, and involvement.

BWL Steering Group Members; Back row (from left): Margaret Banyan, Kate Gooderham, Ken Gooderham, Darla Letourneau, Bruce Butcher and Dan Moser. Front row (from left): Ann Pierce, Mike Bacigalupo and Steve Chupack. Other members not in photo:  Cindy Banyai, Sarah Baker, Bert Hamilton, Steve Rodgers, and Tom Sharbaugh.

Through the support of our supporter organizations, in conjunction with committed public officials, local agencies, a variety of government advisory committees, and dedicated individuals, BikeWalkLee has been able to achieve a great deal in five years.  The prestigious national TIGER grant awarded in September 2013 to the Lee MPO for its Complete Streets Initiative project, was the culmination of all the building-block efforts throughout the county that BikeWalkLee has been involved in over the past five years.

As 2014 gets underway, the Steering Group of BikeWalkLee wanted to summarize the coalition's 2013 accomplishments and share our priorities for 2014, as a reminder of all that has been done and the work that lies ahead.  A special thanks to the nine organizations that became part of our coalition in 2013, bringing the total number of supporter organizations to 59 (plus 8 national partners).  Click here to read our earlier blog post introducing each of our new supporter organizations.

This year's accomplishments report includes lots of photos from the year, along with a series of quotes from national, state, and local leaders demonstrating BikeWalkLee's impact in Lee County and beyond. For the first time our annual accomplishments report includes our top priorities for the coming year.  Click here to read the blog post about our 2014 priorities.

In 2014 and beyond, BikeWalkLee will continue to work with local officials, dedicated advocates and like-minded organizations to advance the cause of complete streets and transportation alternatives for Lee County.  Thanks to our broad network for your support of these efforts.  If you'd like to be a complete streets champion and become more involved in BikeWalkLee, please contact dletourneau@bikewalklee.org.

Click here to read the 2013 Accomplishments Report.

Click here to read BikeWalkLee's 2014 Priorities.

Chick here to read about New Supporter Organizations: 1/14/14 blog post: "Nine more groups join BikeWalkLee's coalition network of supporter organizations" 

BikeWalkLee Thanks Outgoing and Welcomes Incoming LPA Members

BikeWalkLee thanks the departing LPA members and welcomes the newly appointed members;  provides some background on the LPA's role; and outlines the work ahead to finalize the New Horizon 2035 Plan in the next few months.

BikeWalkLee would like to thank the 2013 Local Planning Agency (LPA) board members (remaining - Jim Green, Noel Andress, Mitch Hutchcraft; leaving - Wayne Daltry, Roger Strelow, Ann Pierce, Steve Brodkin) for their commitment of enormous amounts of time and energy spent last year to better Lee County’s future.  We also welcome the four new members appointed for 2014 (David Mulicka, Dennis Church, Rick Joyce, James Ink). 

As the LPA begins its 2014 work, it might be helpful to provide our readers with some background about what the role of the LPA is and is not.  Members of the LPA have unique roles as defined by statute, legal precedent, and guidance documents. As outlined in the Florida Planning Officials Handbook, elected officials (e.g., BoCC members) are the policy makers and the LPA members are appointed to work within the policies and ordinances formally adopted by the BoCC.  As the Handbook states (p. IV-2-3), elected officials “are responsive to constituents' interests and subject to election campaigns that encourage attention to immediate concerns rather than to long range problems.  Planning commissioners and boards exist independently to balance this tendency. They do so by emphasizing the long range interests of the community."

According to the Handbook (p. IV-3) it is the BoCC's responsibility to appoint the members of the LPA and to create a capable LPA with a balance of experience and expertise...."However, the Council [i.e., BoCC] then needs to leave the Board [i.e., LPA] to do its job." "They [LPA members] work within already established policy and do not change policy based on public comment....It is their role to apply the given ordinance...it is not their role to change what is or is not permitted." The Handbook (p. IV-4) goes on to say, "If the Board [i.e., LPA] tries to set policy or the Council [i.e., BoCC] tries to interfere with the application of the ordinance or fails to value the technical advice of the Board [i.e., LPA], confusion and trouble will follow."

LPA members are charged with serving the citizens of Lee County by upholding those citizen’s expressed wishes as embodied in the Comprehensive Plan. The LPA is to maintain public trust in being the ‘keeper’ of the adopted Comprehensive Plan, which in the state of Florida, is law.  As the protectors of the Comprehensive Plan - the legal document containing the culmination of input elicited from thousands of individuals and organizations within the County- the LPA is  obligated to assess all new amendment and change requests to their degree of compliance with the existing Plan, and make their recommendations to the BoCC accordingly. They are also obligated to keep this Plan up-to-date through  periodic Evaluation and Appraisal Review (EAR) and  rewrite processes.

Lee County is nearing the end of this updating process and will hopefully produce an exemplary Comprehensive Plan that accurately reflects the voice of its citizens. The 2010-11 EAR process produced an award-winning document distilling those many citizen voices into clear and unambiguous goals to bring the vision of a Livable Lee to reality.  These goals have now been incorporated into the "Lee Plan: New Horizon 2035", which has been going through extensive committee review, element by element, for two years, with final reviews scheduled to be completed in March 2014.

As expressed in the EAR, the citizens want Lee County to preserve that which makes this a great place to live while working towards a stable and diverse economic future. They want a distinct differentiation of growth patterns, rates and densities within defined urban, suburban and rural areas with pattern-specific transportation choices, safely connecting people to places. And last, they have stated that the unique character of their communities and neighborhoods should be maintained and protected.

It is now the job of this current LPA to ensure that the final document remains true to its origins – a Comprehensive Plan borne of open cooperation, vigorous citizen input and sound long-term vision. 

One of BikeWalkLee's 2014 priorities is for the BoCC to adopt the 2035 Horizon Plan, consistent with the EAR, this year.

Click here to read the 1/3/14 BWL blog: Updated Schedule forNew Horizon 2035 Lee Plan Review, including links to BikeWalkLee's written statements on the land use and transportation elements.

Report by Darla Letourneau