TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – The Leon County Commission voted on the final Comprehensive Plan at Tuesday’s meeting.
The Comprehensive Plan, or land use constitution, lays out a map for Tallahassee’s growth over the next 30 years.
Urban planners say the Tallahassee area needs 23,000 new homes by 2050, which has led both the city and county to consider changes to their comp plan over the past few months.
The county has already limited staff’s original recommendation, primarily around Lake Jackson. They voted against expanding the utility map, but the current plan does allow for some expansion near Southwood.
“What do the taxpayers get out of expanding the urban services area?” one public speaker said. “You’re going to end up paying for long-term maintenance of these areas.”
Another speaker who lives on Old St. Augustine Road said expanding the urban services area, which is a boundary on a map where sewer and electric grids are run, will hurt the canopy road.
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“Old St. Augustine is already falling apart,” he said. “It cannot be widened and is already threatened by traffic.”
Commissioner David O’Keefe asked planners about the urban services area expansion near Southwood, which he opposes.
By blocking expansion near Lake Jackson, O’Keefe said the commission forced the landowner into an individual process and wants the same to happen around Old St. Augustine.
Commissioner Bill Proctor said the urban services area line “doesn’t mean anything to Black neighborhoods,” saying that even when Black homes are put in the USA, they don’t receive the same services.
He said the expansion near Southwood should be “decoupled” and would support the substitute motion to adopt the final comp plan excluding those parcels.
Commissioner Nick Maddox asked urban planners if the urban service area expansion would encompass anything that isn’t urban fringe.
Planners said the majority of the expansion would be urban fringe, which serves as a buffer between the urban and rural areas.
NEW: The Leon County Commission is now voting on adopting its land use constitution, known as the comp plan.
It sounds boring, but it’s important. That’s because Tallahassee needs 23,000 new homes, and has to put them somewhere. https://t.co/nXvTJMYAEs pic.twitter.com/n9PRhEWBkP
— Matt Hoffmann (@ByMattHoffmann) December 9, 2025
“I appreciate what the staff has put together,” Maddox said. “We have to balance planners through logic and reason vs residents who are emotionally tied to their community.”
Commissioner Brian Welch said the frustration surrounding growth is a threat to the community.
“This is a perfect encapsulation of the paralysis we’ve had in this community,” Welch said. “This property near Southwood will not realize the densities that were referenced. That’s not based in fact. In order to create affordable housing, we have to build.”
Commissioner Rick Minor emphasized that changes to the plan must be made transparently. “The key for us is to grow in a smart way,” he said.
Ultimately, the commission voted 4-3 to adopt its 30-year comprehensive land use plan.
At the last step, the commission stripped out acreage near Southwood where utilities would be built up.
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