§ 2-331. Findings and declaration of necessity.  


Latest version.
  • (1)

    It is hereby found and declared that the tools and techniques identified and encouraged by the state legislature in F.S. § 163.3180(5)(f) and (i), and identified by the board of county commissioners in the Pasco County comprehensive plan will substantially advance the public purposes of job creation, reduction of energy and infrastructure costs that typically result from sprawl-type development, and public safety. These tools and techniques include:

    (a)

    Adoption of long-term strategies to facilitate development patterns that support multi-modal solutions;

    (b)

    Exempting or discounting impacts of development in urban areas, redevelopment, job creation, and mixed-use on the transportation system;

    (c)

    Assigning a greater priority to ensuring a safe, comfortable, and attractive bicycle/pedestrian environment, with convenient access to transit; and

    (d)

    Reducing impact/mobility fees to promote development within urban areas, development that results in job creation, and developments that are compact, mixed-use, energy-efficient developments, such as transit-oriented development and traditional neighborhood development.

    It is further found and declared that applicable law requires that revenue sources other than those deriving from mobility fees be utilized for operation and maintenance of transportation facilities, and to provide targeted discounts or reductions of transportation impact/mobility fees for development in urban areas; development that results in job creation; compact, mixed-use, energy-efficient development; and other locally desired development, and utilizing tax increment revenues for such purposes serves a legitimate public purpose.

    (2)

    It is further found and declared that there exists in the Pasco County transportation district conditions injurious to the public health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the county, including particularly (i) inadequate transit service, bicycle/pedestrian facilities, roads, bridges, traffic and travel corridors, means of access and other transportation inadequacies that pose severe safety concerns in times of evacuation, as well as limitations on access to the recreation, vacation and tourism destinations and attractions within the area; (ii) a shortage of high-paying jobs sufficient to provide economic diversification necessary to sustain a stable tax base through seasonal or business cycles; and (iii) insufficient employment opportunities for the residents of the county qualified to perform such service, management and operational positions. The existence of such conditions (i) contributes substantially and increasingly to the spread of unemployment, underemployment, cyclical economic recession and depressed property values; (ii) constitutes an economic recession and social liability imposing onerous burdens which decrease the tax base and reduce tax revenues; (iii) substantially impairs sound growth, restricts the provision of housing accommodations, limits possibilities for needed redevelopment; and (iv) limits improvement in the quality of life necessary to attract tourism and business relocation to the Pasco County transportation district. Economic development, tourist development, and the ability to evacuate in the case of a natural disaster or threatened danger are matters of state policy and state concern.

    (3)

    It is further found and declared that the promotion, development, construction, acquisition, equipping, operation and maintenance of roadways, transit and bicycle/pedestrian facilities (the "transportation improvements") will significantly increase opportunities for access to the natural resources of the Pasco County transportation district, improve tourism by providing free traffic flows and efficient movement of people and vehicles to those arriving at destinations within the Pasco County transportation district, creating opportunities for new business and development and for employment for the citizens and residents of the county, thus improving economic conditions, increasing economic prosperity and the local tax base, multiplying the expenditures within the county for construction of housing and businesses and provision of services therein, improving the quality of life and attractiveness of the area to additional new and expanded employment generators.

    (4)

    It is further found and declared that the preparation for evacuation from storms and other perils plays a vital role in the area economy by assuring the safety of the workforce and consumer base within the area, and that it is in the public interest and the interest of the citizens and residents of the county to provide for the design, permitting, acquisition, construction and equipping of the transportation improvements.

    (5)

    It is further found and declared that the powers conferred by this division are for public uses and purposes for which public money may be expended and the power of eminent domain and police power exercised, and the necessity for the provisions herein enacted is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination.

    (6)

    It is further found and declared that the preservation or enhancement of the tax base from which the county realizes tax revenues is essential to its existence and financial health; that the preservation and enhancement of such tax base is implicit in the purposes for which the county is established; that tax increment financing within the Pasco County transportation district is an effective method of achieving such preservation and enhancement because the tax base cannot reach its potential due to inadequate transportation infrastructure; that economic development afforded by the transportation improvements, when complete, will enhance such tax base through the increase in the number of homes and businesses and the value of properties, and provide increased tax revenues to affected taxing authorities, increasing their ability to accomplish their other respective purposes; and that the preservation and enhancement of the tax base in such areas through tax increment financing, the levying of taxes by such taxing authorities, and the appropriation of funds to a Pasco County transportation multi-modal transportation fund bears a substantial relationship to the purposes of the county and is for lawful purposes and concerns.

    (7)

    It is further found and declared that the transportation improvements are "essential infrastructure," and that this division is intended to create a dedicated financing source for such infrastructure, thus qualifying the tax increment financing adopted by this division as "dedicated increment value" for purposes of F.S. § 200.001(8)(h).

    (8)

    The findings contained in the preambles hereof are true and correct.

(Ord. No. 11-09, § 1, 7-12-11; Ord. No. 14-30, § 1, 11-5-14)