In May, Orchid's Local Planning Agency and Town Council considered proposed amendments to the Town’s Comprehensive Plan. At those public meetings, there was much constructive discussion about this important document and how best it should be brought up-to-date to meet the community’s needs.
The Comprehensive Plan sits at the top of the hierarchy of local regulations. It paints in broad strokes a vision for the Town, not only as it is, but as it can be in the future. The Comprehensive Plan is made up of elements regarding state-mandated topics. Each element in turn is comprised of goals, objectives, and policies. These are then implemented via the Town’s Code of Ordinances, where detailed legal provisions give refinement and shape to that vision.
The last comprehensive update of the Comprehensive Plan was completed in 2012, when the Town made changes based on a state-mandated “evaluation and appraisal” process to ensure the Plan was brought into agreement with changes that had occurred in relevant state laws. This required review takes place every 7 years and was last undertaken in 2020, in time for the state’s deadline. At that time, the Local Planning Agency and Town Council voted to transmit a letter to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to relay that no amendments were necessary to reflect changes in the requirements of Chapter 163, Part II of the Florida Statutes.
During that aforementioned review process, though, it was determined by the Town's staff and consultants that certain policies of the Comprehensive Plan were in need of update, addition, or deletion unrelated to the requirements of the aforementioned Chapter 163. These proposed changes were worked into a draft that aimed to make the document more user-friendly and provide greater flexibility. Among other updates, the draft presented to the Local Planning Agency and Town Council eliminated redundancy by deleting duplicate policies throughout. There were a number of goals, objectives, and policies that had been fulfilled since the last update or that had become outdated and were ready to be removed or amended for those reasons.
This draft of the 2021 Comprehensive Plan was presented in full for the first time to the Local Planning Agency and Town Council in May, though the revisions had been in the works for many months up to that point. At the meetings, recommendations for further changes were presented and considered by board members as well as participants in the public hearing. The Town Council voted to delay any formal action on the draft until the fall, in order to give all interested parties time to review an updated draft over the summer and provide feedback.
The current draft of the 2021 Comprehensive Plan, updated based on the aforementioned recommendations, has been made available online. The draft is presented in a "clean" format, which simply means that all amendments, deletions, and additions included so far aren't visible in strike-through and underlined text. This is to help with readability, but if you'd like to see the "tracked" draft or to request the listed maps, please reach out to Town Hall for assistance. The current 2012 Comprehensive Plan is also available online on the same webpage.
Please remember that your input is welcome! Contact Town staff with your questions, suggestions, and concerns, or reach out to your Town Council or Local Planning Agency Members for more information or to share your thoughts.
In the fall, the Local Planning Agency and Town Council plan to each hold public hearings again to review the then-current draft. Once a final draft meets with the Town Council's approval, it is sent to a variety of state agencies, as well as local and regional entities for their input. This external review process takes sixty days and will result in a notice from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to the Town regarding the acceptability of the amendments. If the Plan is found to be in compliance with all regulations and there are no conflicts, then the Town Council will hold a second public hearing to finally adopt the updated Plan. After that, the Town will be required to amend the Code of Ordinances to comply with the newly adopted Comprehensive Plan.