There are a just a couple more issues that have been brought up during discussions on the interlocal agreement that need to be mentioned.

First was one that was brought home early in the process when it was noted that Tavares Elementary is located across the street from a park run by the city.  Visitors to the park and its ball field were all parking on the street surrounding the park and on occasion it was a little dangerous with children darting in and out of the cars on to the street.  The reason it was an issue is the elementary school has a large empty parking lot but the school and parking lot are surrounded by a chain link fence.  The question and answer to the problem were both in plain site.  Both facilities are paid for with taxpayer dollars, both facilities were for community use, yet they were being managed separately.

What came from this was a commitment from all of the municipalities, the County, and the School Board to work together to improve joint use of facilities.  Not only will we establish consistent policies across the board, but development of future facilities will always consider joint-use possibilities.  This might mean in the future that a city park is located next to an elementary school so the children could use playground equipment at the park instead of building a separate facility; the County, when buying land for a regional park, would set aside enough land to build a middle school; or a high school library be sized to accommodate a County library.  The agreement will also address current uses so that a city commission meeting at which a large turnout is expected is held at the local school cafetorium, or as in parking at the park in Tavares, the elementary school fence is moved to surround just the school allowing park patrons to use the parking lot.

The second big issue is the location of future school sites.  While the cities and County retained the right to hold a public hearing on zoning questions, we hope that much of the controversy that has arisen in the past will be eliminated by including all parties in the actual selection of the site.  Questions such as whether the transportation network or utilities infrastructure will be considered and addressed long before a site is purchased.  We will also look at and commit to particulars of a site that will ensure long queues of parents are not lined up on adjacent roadways at the end of the day by requiring sufficient on-site parking to accommodate what we know will occur.

The opportunity to accelerate development of a school concurrency plan has been a real challenge but it was one whose time had come for Lake County.  All of the elected officials of the County, municipalities, and School Board should be congratulated for their efforts in making this happen.

The last two people who need to be commended for making this happen are Representative Alan Hayes and Senator Carey Baker for lobbying and “arm twisting” with State officials to make us part of the pilot project, and for their behind-the-scenes advocacy and support for our efforts.

Proportionate share payment and concurrency in the out-years (beyond the five year planning window) will be an art and a science.  What a developer is essentially asking the School Board to do during these negotiations is create sufficient student stations in the area to accommodate students created by the development.  In essence, the school board will be promising to add necessary schools to its next financially-feasible five-year capital improvement plan. 

Where the developer (or a number of them) agrees to build a school and turn it over to the School Board, this may be a relatively simple decision.  Another option that is on the table is to allow charter schools to be considered capacity if they are built to State of Florida standards and have some sort of financing plan that would protect the School Board in the event the charter went bankrupt.  In other words, the School Board doesn’t want to be handed the keys to a school with one hand and a bill for the construction with the other.

In a case that only one developer comes forward with the request and is only willing to write a check, the “art of the deal” becomes crucial for both sides.  To understand why this is important, you need only look at the cost of construction in the central Florida area over the past year or two.  Costs for concrete, drywall, steel, and hundreds of other building materials have “skyrocketed” to heights never anticipated.  Predicting what steel or concrete may cost five years from now could prove to be pure guesswork.  If it accepts this payment for construction of part of a school and grants concurrency, the School Board is committing to come up with the remainder of the funds for construction itself or through other agreements for concurrency.  This is a tall order and one that cannot be taken lightly.

There is a concept used widely throughout the state and nation called mitigation banking.  In most cases it is used to preserve wetlands, wildlife corridors, natural areas, or similar sensitive areas.  What we may quickly see develop is a mitigation bank of student stations where a developer or group of developers build a school in an area and sell student stations (credits) to other would-be developers in the area in order to expedite the process.  Depending on how proportionate share agreements are made with the School Board this could be a good thing.  It could allow a school to be brought on-line quickly, independent of the School Board, to reduce overcrowding and allow additional schools to come on line more quickly in another area.

In Part V, I’ll wrap up the discussion with some of the final details of the interlocal agreement.

When a landowner comes to see the School Board to determine concurrency on a piece of property, school staff will first look to the schools in the concurrency service area to determine if capacity is available.  If it’s not, they look to adjacent service areas.  If both of these tests fail, they take an additional step before making a decision.  Remember in the first blog of this series I mentioned capacity needed to be in place concurrent with impacts of a development?   This thought forms the basis of the next test. 

As background for understanding the next step, it’s important to realize that the school system is required to plan for construction to accommodate future capacity needs.  To make sure this happens, the State Department of Education requires school districts across the state to submit a Five-Year Capital Improvements Plan each October.  In the document, each school district outlines existing conditions, anticipated growth, and provides plans for future construction.  Although the plan actually looks ahead up to twenty years, only the first five years of the plan must be “financially feasible.”   What this means is everything planned for construction in this first five-year period must have funds identified and committed.  This is not a “wish list” for school construction, it should be considered “rock solid” so that, as a parent, you should be able to look at the plan and know Elementary School “K” will be built in two years and High School “YYY” is programmed for construction in three years.  A developer should also be able to look at the plan and know a school will be built in four years to accommodate his/her proposed development.

With that in mind, a landowner coming to the School Board can look at the Five-Year Plan and determine that a school is planned within the next 3 years.  The capacity of the new school must be considered as available and the development gets the go-ahead.  If, however, plans are for construction of a school in four or five years, the property owner cannot consider the capacity available but has the ability to pay his or her proportionate share of the costs associated with the construction to “guarantee” student stations and then proceed with the development. 

If the School Board does not have plans in its Five-Year Plan to build a “reliever” school, the property owner must either wait until a school is available or provide alternative school capacity.  This is where the bargaining begins.

The first and, to the casual observer, most visible measure of concurrency is level of service.

Currently, Lake County Schools range from a low of 69 percent capacity at Mount Dora High School to a high of 199 percent of capacity at Mascotte Elementary School. The level of service for schools that has been established by the interlocal agreement is 100 percent of permanent FISH (Florida Inventory of School Houses) capacity, which is the “official” capacity of a school facility based on a number of factors. Permanent FISH capacity is the number of students a school is designed to hold in permanent facilities (i.e., not portables).

The Lake County interlocal agreement will allow an exception to this that will allow temporary student stations (i.e., portables) to be counted toward capacity up to 125 percent of permanent FISH if the cafeteria accommodates more students than FISH capacity. I’ll give you an example of how this works using round numbers.

Before the class-size amendment passed a few years ago, elementary school “A” had a capacity of 650 students. Class-size amendment changes reduced the classroom capacity of the school to 500 students but the cafeteria still has a capacity of 650 students. In order to fully utilize the cafeteria capacity the school now has portables to house 150 students.

Under proposed school concurrency, the school’s capacity at Lake County’s adopted level of service will be 500 plus 25 percent of 500 (125) or 625. If enrollment at the time concurrency is measured is less than 625, a development will meet concurrency and will be allowed to develop. If enrollment exceeds 625, a development does not meet concurrency and must look elsewhere for capacity.

This “elsewhere” is where a second element of concurrency comes into play. For purposes of concurrency, School Board staff is required to look around the development to see if any of the nearby schools have available capacity. Local municipalities, Lake County Board of County Commissioners and the School Board have created 15 “concurrency service areas” countywide that serve as boundaries for this exercise. No one would want capacity at a school in Umatilla to be considered for a development in Mascotte or Four Corners, so these concurrency service areas break the County up into manageable pieces.

After the School Board determines that elementary school “A” in the example above does not have sufficient capacity to handle a new development, School Board staff will look at the elementary schools in each of the adjacent concurrency service areas to determine if capacity is available there. If it is available, the concurrency test is met and the development may proceed.

If capacity is not available, the process goes to the next step. I’ll talk about that in the next installment of this four-part blog entry.

Several folks have asked me to provide an update on school concurrency and where we are in the process, so here it goes.

As most people know, Lake County was selected as one of six “pilot communities” in the State of Florida to develop school concurrency late last year. Ideally we should have finished the process earlier in July, but we didn’t quite make it. Last Thursday (7/27), the BCC, members of the School Board and representatives of the municipalities met to iron out some final details on our interlocal agreement. The revised agreement was distributed to representatives this afternoon for final review and discussion by each city council/commission. We’ve invited all local elected officials to a meeting at Lake Receptions in Mount Dora on Aug. 23 at 6:30 p.m. to go over the final agreement in detail. After that meeting, the cities, School Board, and the Board of County Commissioners will consider adoption of the agreement over the next month or so. Hopefully, school concurrency will be a reality here in Lake County within the next 90 days.

For those not well-versed in the term “concurrency” and its usage in growth management, it simply means that the infrastructure (i.e., roads, schools, sewer, recreation facilities, etc.) necessary to support a development must be in place and available at the same time the impacts created by the development occur. In reality, because there is a certain amount of lead-time associated with construction of both infrastructure and development, having the infrastructure planned and funded is the measure that forms the basis for this determination.

The interlocal agreement that has been crafted establishes the “rules” of concurrency and how it will be managed. Key elements that everyone should be aware of include level of service, handling of charter schools, collocation and joint use, selection and evaluation of new school sites, site design, concurrency service areas, and mitigation opportunities. These are the mechanisms that will make concurrency work. During the next several blogs, I’ll discuss each more thoroughly.

Long time no blog. I apologize for not posting an entry lately, but as you probably can imagine the comprehensive plan process is consuming a great deal of my time.

While the series of Local Planning Agency (LPA) meetings in June were productive, I was disappointed we couldn’t reach our goal of transmitting the entire document to the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) by the end of this month. Nonetheless, the LPA has transmitted all the elements of the comprehensive plan, except for the future land-use element and map.

I support the LPA’s decision to take extra time and care to review these two portions of the comp plan. The LPA is expected to finish its final review of the two remaining portions of the document at its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, Aug. 17 at 9 a.m. in the County Commission chambers, located in the Lake County Administration Building, 315 W. Main St., Tavares.

In anticipation of this final LPA transmittal, staff has scheduled two work sessions on Sept. 12 and 15 with the Board of County Commissioners to review the comp plan. In addition, I am in the process of meeting with all the Commissioners to update them on the status of the update. If all goes as planned, a tentative date for a BCC transmittal hearing to the Florida Department of Community Affairs is Oct. 3.

While I know the process of drafting a new comprehensive plan has been, to say the least, tedious and frustrating at times, I appreciate the unwavering support of the community and local leaders. One example is how the Board voted two years ago not to transmit any additional comp plan amendments until the new plan was completed.

Stay in touch with the Lake County Comprehensive Plan process by e-mailing compplan@co.lake.fl.us.

With four public meetings scheduled for the month of June, the Local Planning Agency (LPA) is expected to finalize its review of the comprehensive plan. The LPA could then transmit the document to the Board of County Commissioners by next month.

The LPA will meet as regularly scheduled on Thursday, June 15, at 9 a.m. in the Board Chambers of the Lake County Administration Building, located at 315 W. Main St., Tavares. The planning agency will also meet at 9 a.m. in workshop sessions on June 12, 19 and 21 at the offices of Cnow Inc., located at 28334 Churchill Smith Lane, Mount Dora. The spacious meeting quarters off of East Lake Jem Road can accommodate a large audience and all the resources needed for the LPA to make informed decisions about the County’s rewrite of the comprehensive plan, titled Planning Horizon 2025.

These public meetings are specifically important in light of the Board of County Commissioners’ meeting this week. As many of you may have read or heard, the Board denied transmitting a comprehensive plan amendment to the state for a Development of Regional Impact in South Lake County. Several County Commissioners mentioned during the hearing that they couldn’t foresee themselves voting for the comp plan amendment with the major rewrite of the plan still underway. In fact, the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has stated to County officials that no more comp plan amendments should be considered after July 1 until the update of the comprehensive plan is adopted.

The rewrite of the comprehensive plan is progressing along smoothly. With the significant progress made by the LPA in May, the Planning & Community Design Division is scheduling workshops in July for the Board of County Commissioners to begin its review of the plan. I’ll pass along the dates and times when they are finalized. After the Board reviews the document and considers transmitting to the DCA, the comp plan amendment process could be reinstated by the first cycle in 2007.

For directions to this month’s LPA meetings or anything else about the Lake County Comprehensive Plan, e-mail compplan@co.lake.fl.us.

The May 22 meeting of the Local Planning Agency (LPA) was fruitful as the group finalized consensus on including recommendations from the Mount Plymouth-Sorrento Planning Advisory Committee and a variation of the citizen-presented rural areas plan into the comprehensive plan draft. While the LPA has not made a final recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners, the LPA has directed staff to include these items in the comprehensive plan based on citizen comments.

This week’s LPA meeting was also monumental as staff was able to present a complete rough draft of the comprehensive plan elements. The LPA has reviewed the elements individually many times before, but this was the first time a complete rough draft was compiled.

I anticipate final recommendations from the LPA to the Board of County Commissioners are coming soon. In addition, the first draft of the LPA’s proposed future land use map is anticipated to be completed shortly.

The LPA is tentatively scheduled to meet June 12, 15, 19 and 21. If all goes well and the process continues to move forward, the June 21 meeting may be the transmittal hearing for the LPA. For the best information related to the Lake County Comprehensive Plan process, please check back to this Web site frequently.

I have received some criticism recently that there’s a perception that staff is not posting documents quick enough. I can assure everyone that as soon as planning staff receives new documents; the files are forwarded to the Information Outreach office to upload to the Web site.

I also would like to announce the hiring of Wayne Bennett as Lake County’s new director of the Planning & Community Design Division. He brings more than 30 years of experience to Lake County and will begin working on June 5.

To submit comments or questions about the Lake County Comprehensive Plan, e-mail compplan@co.lake.fl.us.

The U.S. Census Bureau has released population estimates for the nation’s 100 fastest growing counties between 2000 and 2005. Lake County’s estimated population on July 1, 2005, was 277,035 persons, an increase in population of 66,508 from the year 2000.

Between April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2005, it is estimated that Lake County grew by 31.6 percent. In comparison, Lake County grew by a total of 38.4 percent between 1990 and 2000.
Lake County is currently the 20th fastest growing county in the United States, up from the 22nd fastest growing county in 2004. Lake County is third fastest growing county in Florida. Flagler County (population 76,410 in 2005) is the fastest growing county in Florida and in the United States. Osceola County (population 231,578 in 2005) is the second fastest growing county in Florida and the 13th fastest growing county in the United States.

For more information:
U.S. Census Bureau Press Release
Table of Fastest Growing Counties

Comprehensive Plan Population Projections
The Comprehensive Plan contains population projections prepared by Lake County that were based upon by the official projections by the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR). Lake County’s population projections have now been approved by the Florida Department of Community Affairs. We project that Lake County’s population in 2025 will be over 460,000. However, it is predicted that the high rate of growth we are currently experiencing will slow over this period.

The Florida Statutes tell us that we must plan for the projected population and build our Comprehensive Plan around population projections in order to plan for the necessary public facilities and services. Most demographers will tell you that population growth is not determined by local decisions, such as land use. Global factors, such as the national economy and the growth in retirement-age baby boomers contribute to migration to Florida.

Other factors such as a robust local economy, land prices and quality of life mean that Central Florida will continue to receive additional population. The BEBR population projections tell us how much we can expect to grow. The choice lies in how Lake County plans to manage that growth and the associated demands for facilities, services and housing.

Regional Update
In December, I wrote about thinking regionally. The regional visioning effort is taking shape. Citizens, community leaders and elected officials from throughout the Central Florida Region (Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk Seminole and Volusia counties) are now involved in an intensive regional visioning process. The goal of this effort is to create a “Shared Vision” for Central Florida.

There is an important opportunity for the citizens of Lake County to participate.  Community Information Sessions called, “How Shall We Grow? Creating a Shared Vision for Central Florida” will be held on Thursday April 27, 2006.  For more information and to register, log on to http://myregion.org or contact Pam Clancy, Community Liaison, at 407-835-2443

As I wrote in my last blog entry, the Comprehensive Plan “road show” will be on tour for a third time this April. The tour will have five stops around the County for shareholders to submit comments to the Local Planning Agency (LPA). The tour dates and locations are:

• Friday, April 7, Venetian Gardens Community Building, 109 E. Dixie Ave., Leesburg
• Tuesday, April 11, Umatilla Community Center, 1 S. Central Ave.
• Thursday, April 13, Clermont City Hall, 685 W. Montrose St.
• Tuesday, April 18, Lake Technical Center, Kenneth A. Bragg Campus, 12900 Lane Park Cutoff Road, Tavares
• Wednesday, April 19, Eustis Community Center, 601 Northshore Drive, Eustis

All meetings will be held from 4 to 6:30 p.m. One difference between this tour and those held in 2005 is the LPA will be conducting the meetings. At the series of public meetings, the LPA will ask for public’s comments regarding the creation of a new Lake County future land-use map.

At the March 16 meeting of the LPA, staff presented the agency with five maps for planning zones 7, 8, 9 and 10. The maps — existing land use, adopted future land use, zoning, municipal requests and land-owner requests — will assist the LPA with making recommendations about future land-use designations.

Staff will present the LPA with maps from planning zones 4, 5 and 6 at the Friday, March 31, meeting. The LPA is not expected to discuss any of these maps as this will be the main topic of discussion during the public meeting tour in April. At each public meeting, the LPA will address the maps from the nearby planning zones. To view a map of the planning zones, log on to http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/2025/planning_zones.aspx.

With the help of Lake County’s Information Outreach Section, a poster announcing the April public meetings was recently developed and distributed to libraries, city halls and county buildings. Later this month and next, several news releases will be posted on the County’s Web site and sent to local media. Even without these marketing efforts I expect large crowds at these public meetings.

However, this third public participation tour for the comprehensive plan will not be the last time for citizens to submit comments. As always, shareholders can submit comments by e-mailing compplan@co.lake.fl.us. In addition, the public can comment about the comprehensive plan at future meetings of the LPA and the Board of County Commissioners.

For an unprecedented third time, the Planning Horizon 2025 team will take Lake County’s comprehensive plan on the road to solicit public input.

While not all of the dates have been set, I do know the public participation tour will feature five stops around the County in April. The series of meetings will give the public an opportunity to submit comments regarding the comprehensive plan.

One difference between this tour and those held in 2005 is the Lake County Local Planning Agency (LPA) will be conducting the meetings. The LPA is very concerned about getting as much public participation in the comprehensive planning process as possible. The agency has directed staff to set up these meetings to get residents, land owners and the business community involved.

In an effort to ensure more regional participation, staff has combined the 10 planning zones into a series of five public meetings. With LPA Chairman Barbara Newman conducting the meetings, the LPA will ask for the public’s opinion regarding major policy issues, such as the future land use map.

Before the public meetings in April, the LPA will begin reviewing land use requests from municipalities and land developers. On Thursday, March 16, at 9 a.m., the LPA will review these requests from planning zone 10, while planning zones 7 and 8 will be available. The meeting will be held in the Lake County Administration Building, located at 315 W. Main St., Tavares.

Next time I’ll be able to supply the dates, times and locations for the third public participation tour. For more information about the comprehensive planning process e-mail compplan@co.lake.fl.us.

What a better day to profess your love than on Valentine’s.

While I appreciate the questions about “how am I holding up,” I find this process exciting and exhilarating. I think the one thing everyone is forgetting is I love my job. Many people can’t say that, but I truly love what I am doing.

Together with the citizens of Lake County, we are going to shape what this County will look like for the next 20 years. While I admit I wish we were farther along with the comprehensive plan, I feel some tangible strides were made last week.

For staff, the Local Planning Agency (LPA) meeting Feb. 10 was a great perspective of all the interested parties in the comprehensive planning process. The agricultural community, the environmental community, homebuilders, land developers and property owners were all represented. Overall, I think it was a very well-rounded discussion.

An important topic that came out of the all-day meeting is that the public needs to realize this footrace of completing the new Lake County Comprehensive Plan is a marathon. While we  are immersed in the process, the LPA is far from the finish line. Contrary to the circulating rumors, the LPA is still reviewing public comment and there is no staff version of a completed future land-use map.

The Future Land Use Map will come in good time. The consultant is currently conducting peer reviews of the goals, objectives and policies to ensure that we are consistent with state laws. Once complete, we can begin designing the map. In this race, we must take it one step at a time.

The LPA will meet again Thursday, Feb. 16, to discuss a proposed joint-planning area with the Town of Lady Lake. The agency will also hear a presentation from a planning contractor on how Pasco County was able to reserve rural areas in its comprehensive plan while enabling economic development and affordable housing.

The LPA will meet Thursday, Feb. 24, to discuss recommendations from the Mount Plymouth-Sorrento Planning Advisory Committee regarding the draft of the comprehensive plan’s goals, policies and objectives. The LPA is also scheduled to meet March 16, 23 and 31. In March, the LPA will begin discussing requests for future land-use. Several maps will be presented to the LPA at these meetings. The maps are not the finalized staff version, but reflect the land-use plan desires of conservation groups, land developers or municipalities.

All meetings are at 9 a.m. and are held in the Lake County Administration Building, located at 315 W. Main St., Tavares. The public is invited to attend any of these meetings. Until next time, stay tuned to the Planning Horizon 2025 process and keep in touch by e-mailing compplan@co.lake.fl.us and regularly checking back to the Planning Horizon 2025 Web site.

Last week, Amye King and I visited with Shelley Lauten, Project Director for myregion.org to discuss this regional perspective. Myregion.org is, “An organization of citizens and leaders from public, private and institutional sectors who have launched a program to prepare the Central Florida Region to compete more effectively in the 21st century while enhancing the quality of life of its citizenry.” Among the many initiatives undertaken by this partnership is the Penn Design Study. The University of Pennsylvania analyzed the growth trends for Central Florida and created a trend model that reflects what the region could look like in 2050 if current trends continue. They then developed an alternative growth scenario based upon alternative strategies for the environment, transportation, and the economy. The Penn Design study was presented to the Lake County Local Planning Agency in October 2005 by Linda Chapin, Director of the Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies at the University of Central Florida.

Another outcome of this regional perspective is the Smart Growth Alliance initially formed with the MPO Alliance, myregion.org, the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council and the Central Florida Regional Planning Council. The roster of the Alliance has expanded to include representatives from state and local governments and the business community. A Technical Committee has also been formed to work on alternative regional growth scenarios. The next meeting of the Alliance will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2006, from 12:30-2:30 p.m. at the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, 631 North Wymore Road, Suite 100, in Maitland. Lake County will be an active participant in these discussions of regional smart growth issues.

Lake County’s Comprehensive Plan 2025 outlines the community's vision and priorities for the future. The Comprehensive Plan will also help us define our role in the region from an environmental, transportation and economic perspective.

Most Americans today do not live in towns – or even in cities – in the traditional sense that we think of these terms. Instead, most of us are citizens of a region - a large and multifaceted metropolitan area encompassing hundreds of places that we would traditionally think of as distinct and separate “communities.”

Peter Calthorpe, The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl, 2001

The participation of the community forms the basis of any Comprehensive Plan. The citizen input in Planning Horizon 2025 shows that the community cares greatly about the County and about this process. I hope everyone will continue to participate as the draft elements are developed and reviewed.

The next Local Planning Agency (LPA) meeting is on Nov. 17 at 9 a.m. in the Board of County Commission Chambers. The Future Land Use Element and portions of the Future Land Use Map will be discussed. Our consultants, Renaissance Planning Group, will be available for questions in addition to staff.

The LPA also has a workshop scheduled for Nov. 21 at 9 a.m. in room 233 in the Administration Building. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the Public Facilities Sub-Elements, which include: potable water, sanitary sewer, aquifer recharge, solid waste and stormwater management. Staff, the consultants and St. Johns River Water Management District will be available for questions.

Coming to Lake County as the new Growth Management Director provides me with a great opportunity to do what I love – to help communities plan for their future. I look forward to working with the community as we prepare the Comprehensive Plan.

The first of these meetings will be Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 9:30 a.m. in the Lake County Administration Building in downtown Tavares. During this workshop session, LPA members will discuss the transportation, housing and economic elements of the comprehensive plan.

During the regularly-scheduled LPA meeting on Thursday, Oct. 20, at 9 a.m. the LPA will consider a developer’s agreement between the County and the Villages developer for improvements to County Road 466.

Finally, the LPA will hold two more workshops at 9 a.m. on Oct. 24 and 31 to discuss other elements of the comprehensive plan, such as concurrency, capital improvements and public facilities, which includes potable water, sanitary sewer, aquifer recharge, stormwater management and solid waste management.

Another important public meeting next month that LPA members may attend will occur on Monday, Oct. 10. At this meeting, government officials from the Lake County Commission, School Board and every municipality will gather at Lake Receptions in Mount Dora from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. to discuss Lake County’s inclusion in the state’s school concurrency pilot program. The Department of Community Affairs is going to brief attendees on the pilot program, scope of work, schedule of deliverables, and grant funds.

With four LPA meetings scheduled next month, there is no better time for the public to engage in the comprehensive plan proposals staff is making to the LPA. Remember to keep in touch with the comprehensive planning process by visiting these meetings, regularly logging on to this Web site and e-mailing compplan@co.lake.fl.us.