The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners and its Office of Economic Development will convene the 2005 Economic Summit at the Palm Beach County Convention Center on November 9 and 10. Recommendations from this two-day visioning process will serve as a springboard for a phased, multi-year update of Palm Beach County’s Strategic Economic Development Plan which will help guide the county for the next 10 to 15 years.

Attendees will hear from an array of top business and industry leaders and will have the opportunity to take part in breakout sessions geared to specific areas of economic interest: Industries of the Mind; Agribusiness, Equestrian and Food; Smart Growth and Transportation; Quality of Place; International Investment; Total Education; and Housing.

Citizens will work alongside elected officials and business experts in real estate and development, education, the cultural arts, biotechnology, information technology, agriculture, international finance, and maritime and equestrian interests to develop a shared community vision that will help ensure a strong, stable and diversified local economy.

Summit organizers are committed to sustaining Palm Beach County’s economic vitality and unique character by raising awareness of local, regional, national and international business issues, identifying specific challenges and goals, and developing an effective means of addressing them.

For several months, volunteers from the business community have been meeting regularly to prepare presentations for the Summit. The work of these subcommittees is being overseen by the Board-appointed Overall Economic Development Plan steering committee.

“Many people have devoted a great deal of time and effort to ensure a thorough exploration of our current economic conditions, identification of potential trends and challenges, and detailed, open discussion on how to best meet our goals,” said Deputy County Administrator Verdenia Baker.

To do this, the public’s involvement is essential. Please plan to attend the 21st Century Palm Beach County 2005 Economic Summit on November 9th and 10th. Advanced registration is $45; $60 at the door. Online registration is easy. Or call the Office of Economic Development at 561-355-3624. CUES is serving as staff to this effort.
 

Improved regional cooperation will better equip communities throughout Florida to stay economically competitive and maintain a high quality of life for their citizens in the face of future population growth, according to recommendations from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Florida Initiative on Regional Collaboration. In addition, the initiative notes that such cooperation will help the state’s communities in efforts to conserve land and other natural resources.

The initiative, launched in December 2003, was created to identify what the State of Florida can do to promote regional collaboration to ensure the future economic competitiveness and livability of Florida and its communities. It aims to achieve this goal through three objectives: 1) identifying state barriers to regional cooperation; 2) forging a consensus around effective state actions and reforms that can help facilitate regional solutions; and 3) working for implementation of its recommendations on fostering regional collaboration.

ULI is an international research and education institute dedicated to responsible land use; and the Florida initiative is part of the Institute’s ongoing efforts to promote more efficient development patterns in metropolitan areas worldwide. The Florida program, funded by ULI, the Institute’s four district councils in Florida, and a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is being directed by a statewide committee of leaders representing the development community, civic and environmental groups, community-based organizations and the public sector including CUES Director, Jim Murley.

“Florida has very distinct and different regions. To accomplish greater regional collaboration, it is important to first figure out the needs of each region and then fashion a plan that works,” said ULI Trustee Peter Rummell, committee co-chair and chairman and chief executive officer of The St. Joe Company in Jacksonville.

The effort is aimed at preparing the state’s communities for the substantial population growth they will experience in the years ahead. One of the fastest growing states in the nation, Florida is projected by the U.S. Census Bureau to incur an increase of nearly 5 million people over the next 15 years, raising the state’s population to 22.6 million by 2020. The Florida Department of Transportation estimates that between 2000 and 2030, vehicles miles traveled will increase by 103 percent. Moreover, according to the Sierra Club, seven of the nation’s 30 most “sprawl-threatened” cities are in Florida—Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Tampa, Pensacola, Orlando, West Palm Beach and Daytona Beach.

“It is a fact of life that the state will continue to grow. If we don’t take the gigantic step and make regionalism work, forty years from now we will look back and wish we had,” said Nathaniel Reed, co-chair of the committee with Rummell and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In forming recommendations to address Florida’s rapid growth, the committee noted that virtually all issues related to metropolitan growth—including traffic congestion, housing affordability, economic development and environmental protection—pose formidable challenges that are best solved through broad regional constituencies. “Regionalism is just a word that describes working together to address mutual challenges or to take advantage of an opportunity. By participating, you’re saying we are all in the same boat, so we might as well work together for success,” said Carolyn Dekle, executive director of the South Florida Regional Planning Council.

The initiative’s recommendations, which are detailed in the full report, focus primarily on actions that can be taken at the state level to catalyze regional collaboration. They are:

• Exercise leadership—The governor must exercise leadership and an ongoing commitment to statewide regional cooperation.
• Promote regional visions and action plans—The state should enable and ensure that each region develops a regional vision and action plan to implement that vision.
• Provide state support for regional visions and action plans—The state must ensure that all state agencies function in a highly responsive and integrated way to foster and monitor regional cooperation and promote and support regional initiatives.
• Sustain and improve regional cooperation—Regional cooperation must be sustained and improved over time. The state must encourage and support, on an ongoing basis, each region’s efforts to make measurable progress toward its vision and to continue to improve regional cooperation.

“Looking at Florida’s long-term trends, it is difficult to imagine that any one governmental institution can deal effectively with regional trends. We need regional institutions charged with the big regional issues like transportation, affordable housing and natural resource protection,” said committee member James F. Murley, director of the CUES.

“Effective and integrated regional land use and natural resource planning is vital to protecting, sustaining and enhancing Florida’s natural systems, while ensuring an adequate supply of water resources for current and future demand. The governor should ensure that state agencies responsible for these natural systems participate in the development of regional visions and action plans, and that their programs and investment are consistent with and supportive of these visions and plans,” states the recommendations.

The complete report contains details on the statewide committee’s recommendations to enhance state, regional and local efforts to encourage quality growth through regional cooperation. Committee members are planning meetings with Florida Governor Jeb Bush and state legislators to discuss the recommendations.

“Most officials are thinking and acting locally, when most of the big challenges we are dealing with are regional. Regionalism helps us step back and see our how our community is interconnected to a bigger picture,” said committee member Katy Sorenson, commissioner on the Miami-Dade Board County of Commissioners.

The Urban Land Institute is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide responsible leadership in the use of land in order to enhance the total environment. Established in 1936, the Institute has more than 26,000 members representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines. The report and more information on the Florida Regional Initiative can be found on www.uli.org/floridaregionalcooperation.
 

As part of our upcoming regional indicators report, CUES has planned a series of community level focus groups across the region. The community level meetings will complement the forthcoming regional indicators report, which tracks significant trends and projected changes in South Florida in areas such as population growth, housing, traffic congestion and wages. The purpose of this community level research is to get a ground view of what these changes look and feel like to the residents throughout the region. Through these local conversations, CUES will gather information from residents and other stakeholders about the changes they have experienced in their communities over the last decade and what they expect will happen in the next ten years.

CUES has planned for five to six focus groups and has already held three. To date, groups have met in Overtown (Miami-Dade), Indiantown (un-incorporated Martin County), and Jupiter (Palm Beach County); and those in the works include the State Road 7/US 441 Corridor in Broward County, Port St. Lucie in St. Lucie County, and Homestead in Miami-Dade County. Each of these communities has experienced or is experiencing some type of rapid change in their communities, such as change in population demographics, school overcrowding, urban development, gentrification, and rapid loss of agricultural or green space.

Fabio A. Naranjo of CUES, Dr. April Young of the Collins Center for Public Policy, Dr. Allan Wallis of the University of Colorado at Denver, and Mary Beth Hartman.

CUES has been working on this project with Dr. Allan Wallis of the University of Colorado at Denver, who serves as a consultant for our regional indicators work, and Dr. April Young of the Collins Center for Public Policy, Inc., as part of an ongoing collaboration between CUES, the Collins Center and the other two partners in the South Florida Regional Resource Center, the South Florida and Treasure Coast Regional Planning Councils. For more information on our regional indicators work, see www.soflo.org. For more information on the South Florida Regional Resource Center, see www.sfrrc.net.

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Manatee Protection and Boat Facility Siting
CUES continues its work on the Palm Beach County (PBC) Manatee Protection Plan (MPP) and the Boat Facility Siting Plan, a component of Broward County’s MPP. The second draft of the PBC MPP has been released to the public and submitted to state and federal reviewers. Public comments are being accepted through September 9th and may be submitted online (see “Request for Comments”, which also provides for downloading of the MPP and related mapping products). The second public workshop on the PBC MPP was held on August 16th with approximately 50 attendees from a wide range of stakeholder groups. CUES Assistant Director for Research, Dr. Lenore Alpert, presented at this workshop and also at the general membership meeting of the PBC League of Cities on August 24th. Additional public meetings will be held this fall, with final plan approval by the PBC Board of County Commissioners anticipated in January 2006.

Broward County convened its Manatee Core Stakeholder Group on August 19th to discuss the latest draft of the Boat Facility Siting Criteria and Analysis. CUES Senior Research Associate, MJ Matthews, participated in that meeting, which focused on the need for improved public/boater education and awareness about manatees, enhancements to the law enforcement effort, and increasing the boat slip density ratios in the north, central, and south parts of Broward County to provide some additional public water access.

Marine Management Plan for Monroe County
CUES is preparing a plan to address waterfront redevelopment issues in Monroe County, FL, in collaboration with the South Florida Regional Planning Council. The plan will include goals, policies, future marine-related land use maps, action recommendations, and an implementation strategy aimed at preserving and enhancing both public water access and the working waterfront throughout Monroe County. The CUES team recently conducted 26 stakeholder interviews throughout the Florida Keys, and then compiled an interview analysis, in addition to a Study Area Description and a Literature Review. The Working Waterfronts Report is now being drafted and will be followed by a Legal Overview with recommendations and information on legislative proposals and efforts to preserve the working waterfront in the Keys.

Florida Ocean Alliance (FOA)
CUES serves as secretariat to FOA, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to bringing together government, academic, and private sectors in Florida to protect and enhance the state’s coastal and ocean resources for continued social and economic benefits (see www.floridaoceanalliance.org). As provided for in House Bill 1855, the FOA Board made recommendations to the Commissioner of Agriculture for appointees to the Florida Oceans and Coastal Council. In mid-August, the State of Florida announced appointments to this Council, which includes seven FOA Board members. The Council is charged with developing priorities for ocean and coastal research, establishing a statewide ocean research plan, and coordinating public and private ocean research for more effective coastal management. For more information.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Boating Study
CUES has been awarded a two-year, $160,000 contract for a statewide boating inventory, part of a larger project funded by the FWC. Work tasks include preparing a Boating Access Facilities Inventory. CUES is partnering with the Urban Harbors Institute at the University of Massachusetts – Boston and Michigan State University, which is developing an economic study. CUES is compiling a comprehensive database of information on boat ramps, marinas, dry storage facilities, mooring fields, and docks throughout the State of Florida. The study also involves a pilot project for Lee County, Florida.

Economics of Beaches
CUES is in its third year of a project examining the related issues of tourism and beaches and assessing the state’s existing beach management program, under contract with the Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Dr. William B. Stronge of FAU’s Department of Economics is serving as consultant. The project also will focus on public education and the economic benefits of restored beaches in the wake of the unprecedented 2004 Hurricane Season.

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