• By meeting the statutory objectives of planning for future growth and development, the thoroughfare plan map is an invaluable planning tool and a proper subject of the police power; and • Local governments may amend their plan twice per year under Florida law and this provides flexibility for mitigating hardships that may be incurred by affected property owners. In 1995, the Florida legislature amended state transportation planning law (Chapter 337, F.S.), and Florida’s local planning act (Chapter 163, F.S.) to define the local role in corridor management. The policy shift was designed to encourage coordination between the FDOT and local governments on preserving right-of-way for planned facilities and a logical outgrowth of the Palm Beach County v. Wright opinion, which supported corridor management in the context of local comprehensive planning and growth management programs. Corridor Management in Florida Statutes Corridor management provisions in Florida local planning and state transportation law have remained largely intact in the decades since passage of the 1995 amendments. The stated intent of the 1995 amendments was to coordinate transportation and land use planning through local comprehensive plans for a variety of legitimate public purposes. This intent was reiterated in the 2011 Florida Community Planning Act, which eliminated the role of the State in monitoring local government plans for compliance under Rule 9J-5, made transportation concurrency optional as a regulatory tool while retaining it as a planning tool, and added new multimodal transportation planning requirements. The Community Planning Act incorporated language from the 1995 corridor management amendments, enabling local adoption of corridor management maps and ordinances as follows (s.163.3177(b)(1), F.S.): “Each local government’s transportation element shall address traffic circulation, including the types, locations, and extent of existing and proposed major thoroughfares and transportation routes, including bicycle and pedestrian ways. Transportation corridors, as defined in s. 334.03, may be designated in the transportation element pursuant to s.337.273. If the transportation corridors are designated, the local government may adopt a transportation corridor management ordinance . The element shall include a map or map series showing the general location of the existing and proposed transportation system features and shall be coordinated with the future land use map or map series.”(emphasis added) Important definitions in Florida law relating to these provisions include: “Transportation corridor” means any land area designated by the state, a county, or a municipality which is between two geographic points and which area is used or suitable for the movement of people and goods by one or more modes of transportation, including areas necessary for management of access and securing applicable approvals and permits. (emphasis added) Transportation corridors shall contain, but are not limited to, the following: (a) Existing publicly owned rights-of-way; (b) All property or property interests necessary for future transportation facilities, including rights of access, air, view, and light, whether public or private, for the purpose of securing and utilizing future transportation rights-of-way, including, but not limited to, any lands reasonably necessary now or in the future for securing applicable
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