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HomeMy WebLinkAboutII (A3) Charter Schools - The Haskell Group Agenda 5-16-2000 Item II A 3 Draft Five Year Plan To Solve Overcrowding in Ocoee's Schools Year 2001 Build an elementary school south of highway 50 on land already owned by the school system or Ocoee Year 2002 Build an elementary school in north east quadrant of city near the end of Clarke Road Year 2003 Build a high school on the Coca Cola property at Fullers Cross Road and Apopka Highway Year 2004 Build a middle school in the northern half of the city Year 2005 Build an elementary school in the northwest quadrant of the city The preceding schedule should eliminate the overcrowding of our current school system. It calls for an all-out effort of all city agencies and citizens concerned to ensure that our children have the best facilities in Orange County and the most reasonable chance to enrich their education in our community. We should look at all options available to construct these schools from charters, to school district involvement,to city involvement. This is why I am proposing at our next commission meeting that we hold a town meeting to start the process of discovery on how we might be able to accomplish this plan. This plan has been, except for the time frame,presented by our planning department to the school district and it meets the requirements of our future growth. "CENTER OF GOOD LIVING-PRIDE OF WEST ORANGE" MAYOR•COMbIISSIONER S.SCOTT VANDERGRIFT Ocoee COMMISSIONERS O� ; , _ o CITY OF O C O E E DANNY HOWELL 4 ' '_ -, 150 N.LAKESHORE DRIVE SCOTT ANDERSON } x RUSTY JOHNSON s Q OCOEE,FLORIDA 34761-2258 � ��'��`'_�,� NANCY J.PARKER �<<.. (407)656-2322 o-;,. - CITY MANAGER �,�'=. {',3:e ELLIS SHAPIRO 4 OF GOOD DRAFT May 2, 2000 The Honorable Mel Martinez Orange County Office of the Chairman 201 South Rosalind Avenue Orlando,FL 32801 Dear Mr. Martinez: I am in receipt of your letter of April 6th making some inroads on school overpopulation. I hope you will keep all of the cities in mind as you proceed with the plans you are suggesting for the county. You are to be commended for your far-reaching vision in an attempt to curtain overcrowding in our schools. We stand ready to work with you and your staff in any way that can speed this journey. Ocoee is on the cutting edge with a comprehensive plan that already has elements on school sites. In addition we(I) were a full supporter of Concurrency for schools in our first joint meeting and even before and will cooperate to that end. We have established an Education Commission made up of citizens, parents, teachers, elected officials to make our school system the best it can be. We have just cooperated with OCPS in the purchase of 25 acres for an elementary school and a 10-acre park playground. We have established an attitude of seeking out school sites within parks that will serve both the school district and the community. As this letter is being written, I am proposing a 5-Year Program for Building Schools in Ocoee. It is very aggressive and one that will call upon all concerned to concentrate on efforts for the good of the public schools and our children. The program will call upon the school system, our city and citizens to search for new ways to build schools. I am asking everyone to lend themselves to look at Charter Schools and any other methods that reach this end. If we can accomplish this, it will mean 5 new schools in 5 years: 3 elementary schools, 1 middle school and a high school that will also help overcrowding in the nearby unincorporated areas. "CENTER OF GOOD LIVING-PRIDE OF WEST ORANGE" MAYOR•COMMISSIONER S.SCOTT VANDERGRIFT Ocoee COMMISSIONERS i CITY OF OCOEE DANNYHOWELL (of 1 { ,0,0 , 150 N.LAKESHORE DRIVE SCOTT ANDERSON t S":"� 0- OCOEE, RUSTY JOHNSON v s**ASV' • 14 NANCY J.PARKER • (407)656-2322 "f i` • CITY MANAGER .r "�` _- - a�`� ELLIS SHAPIRO Eq OF GOOD We hope the same courtesy you ask of us on annexing unincorporated land be reciprocal in not using our schools just to approve subdivisions in the outskirts of Ocoee that would hamper the balance of students. I would suggest strongly that your commissioners look into Charter Schools along with us and see if there are other funds available to help build the hardware of education now and in the future. Sincerely, S. Scott Vandergrift . /`` Pam `\\ . ORANGE COUNTY `- -• - OFFICE OF THE CHAIRMAN ', r �. J ' / TELEPHONE(407)836-7370 FAX(407)836-7360 i.ti lR\L '/ 201 SOUTH ROSALIND AVENUE,ORLANDO FL 32801 chairman@co.orange.fl.us MEL MARTINEZ CHAIRMAN April 6,2000 The Honorable Scott Vandergrift Mayor of the City of Ocoee 150 North Lakeshore Drive Ocoee,Florida 34761 Dear Mayor Vandergrift: You may have read or heard in the media.that I recently proposed a change in practice at Orange County with respect to how certain land-use decisions are made in areas where schools are overcrowded. The purpose of this letter is to explain to you personally what I am proposing and to ask for help from you and your city as we undertake this initiative. f ‘req/ T recent months, the Orange County Board of County Commissioners has faced a number of uests -'° for residential land-use approvals in areas of the County where public schools are seriously 0 G overcrowded. Our Board's frustration over the apparent lack of options to address the problem has been evident, and I can assure you that I very much shared their frustration. Orange County is currently C) working with Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) to develop an updated Public School Facilities Element for the Comprehensive Policy Plan. We are one of only four local vernrnents„that have adopted a Public Schools Facilities Element. fowever, the i on a egislature has established new standards and additional requirements for school elements, so we must revise and update our existing element. Early work on the update of the element shows that OCPS has a $1.4 billion dollar fiscal gap 'Th tweenIhe cost of what it needs to modernize its facilities and accommodate growth and the amount of available funding. While OCPS is working hard to find additional Federal, State and local funding, they have also asked Orange County to stop approving new residential development in areas with seriously overcrowded schools. If we are going to reduce school overcrowding, then each government entity must do its part. I personally believe that I have a responsibility to the children of Orange County and to their parents to reduce the rate of growth in areas with seriously overcrowded schools. We have "concurrency"programs for water, sewer, roads, parks, landfills, etc., but not for schools. School facilities are no less important than any other aspect of our infrastructure. In fact, most parents would place a higher priority on schools than they would on these other factors that we already take into account when we approve new development. However, the state legislation two years ago, made school concurrency something that is extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, to implement. With the able assistance of the members of the Public Schools Task Force that I formed last year, I still intend to work with all the municipalities in Orange County to consider implementation of school concurrency. However, implementing school concurrency is so difficult that, I am told, not one county or city in Florida has succeeded in doing it. In my view, counties and cities in Florida are hardly indifferent to the issue of school overcrowding. Instead we are stymied by an unworkable school concurrency statute. Page Two Land Use Approval and School Overcrowding Because school concurrency has proven to be such an ineffective and illusory land-use tool,I directed our planning and legal staff last year to review once again the state of law in Florida and to determine where in the several stages of the land use approval process, if at all, school overcrowding can be legally considered in our Board's decisions to grant or deny approvals. I wanted to know whether the concurrency statute acts to preempt other sources of legal authority such as charter county home-rule powers. The analysis has been completed and I have sought input from a number of stakeholder groups such as the Homebuilders Association of Mid Florida, the Orange County PTA, the Board of Realtors, and the Orange County Homeowners Association. Based on our staffs analysis and input from these groups, I have directed several changes to be undertaken with respect to Orange County's land use approval process. First, on all requests for amendments to the County's Future Land Use Map (FLUM) in the Comprehensive Policy Plan (CPP), and on requests for residential re-zonings (including PD's and PD amendments), where the map amendment or the requested rezoning will have the effect of increasing residential densities,the request will be sent to the OCPS for review. If the review and analysis by OCPS determines that the affected schools are overcrowded and that the increased residential densities will substantially aggravate the overcrowded conditions, our staff will render a recommendation of denial of the map amendment or rezoning. The foregoing will also apply to requests for approval of any residential "development of regional impact," as well as requests for amendments to development orders for any previously approved DRI's. However, with respect to approvals of preliminary subdivision plans for single-family residential projects, approvals of residential plats, approvals of apai tuient construction plans, and issuance of building permits, our staff persuades me that any attempt to deny these kinds of approvals should not be considered at this time. Under current law, the likelihood that the courts would overturn denials of these types of applications is much higher than the re-zonings. Our ostensible recourse at those late stages in the land use process is to implement school concurrency — a task that, as I said, is onerous and perhaps impossible. Actually, with respect to preliminary subdivision plans, plats, apartment construction plans, and building permits, our real recourse might be to convince the legislature to revise school concurrency laws so that they are similar to the much more workable and effective concurrency rules governing roads, utilities, stormwater drainage, and other infrastructure. I have directed our staff to pursue the school concurrency portion of, our legislative priorities with those changes in mind. Of course, school overcrowding is not affected by commercial, office, or industrial development, so there will be no changes with respect to the processing of nonresidential land-use applications. Our staff is completing its discussions with OCPS staff regarding the types of information and analysis that OCPS will provide for residential PLUM amendments, residential DRI approval and amendments, and residential re-zonings. I expect that these types of staff recommendations of denial will begin to appear on our Board's agenda within the next several weeks. Recognize that there may be exceptions. For example, in areas where developers are willing or are required by our regulations to donate school sites, our staff may opt not to recommend denial. However, as a general rule, school overcrowding will be a major factor in the Board's decision making in the future. I am optimistic that, if the Board elects to deny FLUM amendments or residential re-zonings or DRI approvals or amendments based on school overcrowding, we can defend our decisions against the inevitable court challenges. However, the County Attorney advises that the state of the law does not provide certainty regarding the outcome. If it happens that the courts won't support us, we will then turn Se Page Three Land Use Approval and School Overcrowding to the legislature for relief. For now,however,we will take this most difficult and frustrating issue and do what we can. My staff has assured me that my proposal to take into account the impact that re-zoning requests will have on school overcrowding will not significantly affect the overall homebuilding industry. There are thousands of acres, with residential zoning that can be used by homebuilders in Orange County. Obviously, our homebuilders will need to be selective in acquiring sites for development. Furthermore, any denial of a re-zoning represents only a deferral on development. As new schools are constructed and capacity is increased, these re-zoning requests can then be approved. VIy purpose in sending this letter is to ask for your support of our specific efforts to reduce school ; overcrowding. First, I would ask that your city not annex property that has been denied for re-zoning by ; / Orange County because it would seriously impact an overcrowded public school. Second, I would request I that you consider incorporating consideration of the adequacy of public schools into your re-zoning evaluation and decision making process. These two actions would support and strengthen Orange. County's initiative to use its zoning authority to minimize school overcrowding. I invite you to support our new approach to this long-standing issue. By working together and making tough decisions, we can make a difference in this important area. If you have any technical or legal questions, please contact Bruce McClendon, Director of Growth Management and Environmental Resources at(407) 836-5313 or Tom Wilkes, County Attorney at(407) 836-7332. Sincerely 111/ . Mel artinez MM:rep c: Board of County Commissioners Dennis Smith, Superintendent, Orange County Public Schools Ellis Shapiro,City Manager, City of Ocoee • Ajit Lalchandani, County Administrator Tom Wilkes,County Attorney Byron W.Brooks,Deputy County Administrator Bruce W.McClendon,Director, Growth Management and Environmental Resources David C. Heath,Director,Planning Division