II (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