Marco Island Blindly Approving Projects?

Something is missing in planning decisions — island-wide data— say Marco Island City Council and Planning Board members. 

“The annually required level of service (LOS) report hasn’t been done for over a decade,” said Planning Board member Bradley Henson during a Planning Board meeting on March 7.

It wasn’t the first or last time the concern was noted publicly by public officials. 

Still, nothing has been done. 

During the Marco Island City Council meeting on March 17, Councilwoman Bonita Schwan inquired about updated traffic counts on main roads. Then, Council Chairman Erik Brechnitz responded that a level of service, which would include traffic, is required annually by the Comprehensive Plan and hasn’t been done in entirety since 2012.

“I researched minutes, ordinances, resolutions, I couldn’t find anything. It just wasn’t done. For whatever reason, Marco Island stopped looking at traffic impact as a whole since 2012, and this board hasn’t had a chance to look at it and get our head around it,” said Henson.

Council decided not to complete level of service reviews due to cost, said City Manager Mike McNees during the March 17 Council meeting.

Henson described the need for the level of service reports by describing a game of Marco Island Monopoly, which is a board game he saw for sale at Walgreens. 

“We’ve all learned the game,” Henson said of Monopoly.

“When you look at level of service and traffic impact study reports, the traffic impact study is for a particular site, Boardwalk, Park Place - that’s easy, you do it, you look at it, what’s going to impact the houses and hotels,” said Henson. “It’s easy to do if you require the TIS (Traffic Impact Study),” he said.

“The LOS is looking at the whole board,” Henson said. 

“The entire board, Park Place, Atlantic Ave, you name it, Illinois Ave, it’s looking at the whole board. That’s the purpose of the LOS, so we understand what the true infrastructure impacts are going to be,” Henson said.

“That’s what we need to do our job. In my opinion, more information is always better than not enough,” he said.

The level of service is required by the City’s ordinances. Sec. 30-711 of the Marco Island Land Development Code requires and defines the purpose of the annual level of service reports. 

The community development department is to include in this annual level of service report an inventory of facilities, capital improvements planned within five years, population projections in five years, permit activity comparisons, development and redevelopments impacts, as well as other data. 

The LOS report is to be available to the public and the Planning Board two weeks prior to a public hearing on the LOS each year, according to the Land Development Code.

Necessary improvements to maintain level of service are to be funded within two years, the LDC states.

Council would then have two readings with a presentation by the city manager to include any changes to capital improvements that would need to be addressed to mitigate any deficiencies identified, the City’s LDC further states.

Transportation, storm water, drainage, community parks, potable water, sanitary water, parks, and roadways are among the key aspects of the required report.

“What I would ask is this LOS should be submitted,” said Henson.

However, Planning Board Chairman Jason Bailey outlined that Council dictates what the actions of the Planning Board are. 

“We’re doing the heavy lifting. I want to make sure we know what we’re lifting and what we’re moving forward,” said Henson.

The recent Planning Board discussion occurred as the Board reviewed a proposal to no longer require a variance when a project provides more than 120 percent of required parking. 

Though Bailey said he found the LOS somewhat irrelevant to the discussion on removing the variance requirement in this instance, he still voted not to move forward with the consideration of a change in the parking variance requirements.

As for the LOS requirement, it is identified by several city officials that it’s required and necessary to decide what developments and redevelopments to approve as well as what is needed in infrastructure and services as a consequence of each approval. 

“If we approve a project, it will impact density or intensity. I’m just concerned about it,” said Henson.

Planning Board member Hayden Dublois agreed on the LOS concerns. 

“It’s been brought up a number of times,” Dublois said. “It’s in my mind crazy that a traffic study hasn’t been done,” he said. “Council hasn’t acted. It came up in the past several years in the context of Old Marco, and they still didn’t do it,” Dublois said.

The LOS has not been a specific part of the city budget for approximately 11 years, city officials report. 

“At some point, we need to have a holistic view of this,” Dublois said.

Traffic counts and parking credits need to be reviewed, he added. 

“The day I can fit a car in a recycle bin is the day it should count as a parking credit,” Dublois said, recalling something a resident had told him previously.

The lack of LOS is a serious oversight and one that should be rectified before any major policies are made regarding development and parking regulations, said Henson. 

“Without the LOS overview from above, it is a very dangerous and flawed way to plan for Marco’s future. We need the information,” said Henson. 

First, Marco needs to comply with its own code and conduct required annual LOS reports, he maintained throughout the March Planning Board meeting. 

“Planning Board and City Council have been making decisions without critical data necessary to evaluate long-term infrastructure impacts,” said Henson. 

He requested the City to produce the LOS reports as required by law.

“I have said on this dais many times we need to be doing level of service studies,” echoed Dublois. 

“I’d vote today to do that LOS report,” he said. 

“Maybe we should push Council to get this information because right now we’re kind of flying blind,” agreed Planning Board member Mike Hogan. 

Council can direct staff to put the matter on a future Council agenda if they choose. 

The next scheduled Council meeting is 5:30 PM on Monday, April 7 in the Community Room, 51 Bald Eagle Drive.