Fragmented Jurisdictions and the Delivery of More Sustainable Urban Form in Florida

Source abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings Florida’s metropolitan growth crosses county and municipal boundaries, while implementation authority remains divided among local governments and specialized institutions. In this study I examined how jurisdictional fragmentation can weaken the institutional conditions for delivering more sustainable urban form in South Florida, metropolitan Orlando, and Tampa Bay. The analysis focused on four dimensions: contiguity, multimodal accessibility, infrastructure alignment, and environmental continuity; I did not measure regional sustainability outcomes. I drew evidence from public plans, agency records, transportation studies, statutes, ordinances, annexation and service records, and adopted fiscal and development-cost schedules. I organized these materials around four mechanisms: Two concern boundary and service reassignment and differences in adopted development-cost conditions; the other two concern cross-boundary transportation dependent on local land use implementation and regional coordination without equivalent binding implementation responsibility. Transportation provided the strongest evidence: Metropolitan movement and corridor systems depend on implementation powers divided among institutions. Regional coordination can extend across a wider geography than the institutions responsible for carrying it into implementation. Annexation and fiscal records provide narrower evidence of boundary, service, and adopted cost differences. In this study I did not infer annexation motives or developer relocation and did not establish parcel-level causation or final urban-form outcomes.Takeaway for practice When a planning issue crosses jurisdictional or agency boundaries, planners should identify the geography over which it operates and the decisions needed for implementation. They should then identify who controls those decisions and where implementation crosses institutional boundaries. Responsibility for alignment should also be clear. This allows fragmentation to be reviewed without assuming every boundary is a problem or metropolitan consolidation is the answer.