Tallahassee commissioners voted 3-2 to advance a proposed Canopy development agreement despite questions over a possible Dempsey Mayo-Miccosukee Road connection, traffic impacts, concurrency costs and whether taxpayers could inherit infrastructure expenses.<\/p>\n
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 A decades-old plan for a road connection across protected green space is again at the center of a Tallahassee development fight \u2014 this time raising questions about who pays for future roads, how more development will affect traffic and what happens to the Miccosukee Canopy Road.<\/p>\n
Tallahassee commissioners voted 3-2 Wednesday to advance the third amended and restated Canopy development agreement to a second public hearing Sept. 23.<\/p>\n
Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Jack Porter opposed moving forward.<\/p>\n
The most contentious issue involves the potential extension of Dempsey Mayo Road across the Miccosukee Greenway to Miccosukee Road.<\/p>\n
City Growth Management Director John Reddick said the proposed agreement would clarify the developer’s position on that connection while also updating several older provisions of the Canopy agreement.<\/p>\n
Would the developer have to build the road?<\/p>\n
That question dominated the debate.<\/p>\n
Attorney Erin Tilton, representing the developer, said the idea of extending Dempsey Mayo across the greenway dates to 1998, when an easement was reserved for possible future road access.<\/p>\n
In 2002, the city and county adopted a policy allowing the connection if local government determined it would have a desirable impact on Miccosukee Canopy Road. A prior City Commission made that finding in 2006, Tilton said.<\/p>\n
But Tilton disputed what she described as a public perception that the developer is obligated to construct the road.<\/p>\n
“That was never the case,” Tilton said, adding that the obligation has never been contained in the development agreement, planned unit development or Welaunee Critical Area Plan.<\/p>\n
Under the proposed amendment, the road could still eventually be built, including potentially by the developer. But Tilton said the agreement would clarify that constructing it is not a development obligation.<\/p>\n
City planning has assumed the connection would exist<\/p>\n
That clarification raised a more complicated issue.<\/p>\n
Reddick told commissioners Tallahassee’s traffic modeling has operated under the assumption that the Dempsey Mayo connection would eventually be constructed.<\/p>\n
When the city evaluates traffic generated by phases of Canopy development, its modeling assumes drivers will have that additional route to Miccosukee Road.<\/p>\n
If that connection does not happen, Reddick acknowledged the city must consider what that means for traffic and concurrency calculations.<\/p>\n
Porter questioned why those financial and traffic consequences were not resolved in the agreement before commissioners were asked to advance it.<\/p>\n
Resident: Don’t shift road costs to taxpayers<\/p>\n
Resident Lynn Adams-Tackus delivered some of the strongest criticism.<\/p>\n
She argued the proposed changes could shift road construction responsibilities away from developers and toward taxpayers while allowing development to continue.<\/p>\n
She also raised concerns about reserved roadway capacity, provisions she said could remain locked in for 15 years and the potential effect of continued development on Tallahassee’s tree canopy.<\/p>\n
“Trees matter,” Adams-Tackus told commissioners.<\/p>\n
She urged commissioners to scrutinize the agreement rather than approve changes that could ultimately leave the public paying for infrastructure associated with private development.<\/p>\n
The developer disputed the premise that it is currently obligated to construct the Dempsey Mayo connection.<\/p>\n
Porter: ‘The implications of this are pretty significant’<\/p>\n
Porter said the uncertainty over traffic and concurrency costs was enough reason to stop the agreement and get answers first.<\/p>\n
She also questioned why the agenda material indicated there was no financial impact when commissioners had just discussed potentially significant unresolved concurrency costs.<\/p>\n
“This is a lot of money,” Porter said. “The implications of this are pretty significant.”<\/p>\n
Porter moved to stop the process and have staff return with additional information, including the concurrency figure, rather than leave that issue for a separate agreement later.<\/p>\n
Matlow supported her motion.<\/p>\n
He said his reading of the proposal suggested financial responsibility could be moving away from the developer and toward city government.<\/p>\n
“Frankly, on first reading to me it looks like it’s transferring financial responsibility away from the developer to the city government,” Matlow said.<\/p>\n
City manager: Road may never be built<\/p>\n
City Manager Reese Goad offered a different perspective.<\/p>\n
Goad said development agreements naturally change as large projects evolve over decades and obligations are completed.<\/p>\n
He also questioned whether the controversial connection will ever actually happen.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure that road connection’s ever made,” Goad said, pointing to substantial public opposition, particularly around Westminster Oaks.<\/p>\n
Goad said the proposed agreement nevertheless provides useful clarity over easements, utilities and how a connection could work if it is eventually pursued.<\/p>\n
Development agreement also changes other requirements<\/p>\n
The roadway is not the agreement’s only change.<\/p>\n
Staff said the amendment also addresses transit shelter requirements, recognizes the 2024 termination of an inclusionary housing agreement and removes or updates obligations that have already been satisfied.<\/p>\n
The developer described the changes largely as a cleanup of an agreement originally approved in 2011 and amended in 2016 and 2020.<\/p>\n
Tilton said there are no proposed changes to the underlying development program.<\/p>\n
Final decision Sept. 23<\/p>\n
Porter’s attempt to pause the process did not prevail.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox instead pushed to continue to the second hearing, arguing commissioners have two weeks to get answers to the questions raised.<\/p>\n
Mayor John Dailey agreed the issues were serious but said he was not ready to stop the process.<\/p>\n
The commission voted 3-2 to move forward, with Matlow and Porter opposed.<\/p>\n
The second and final public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 23 at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tallahassee commissioners voted 3-2 to advance a proposed Canopy development agreement despite questions over a possible Dempsey Mayo-Miccosukee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-397523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}