Indian River County Corridor Management Regulations Section 952.07(10) states that Indian River County Community Development and Public Works Departments will maintain a roadway characteristics inventory (Table 4.7.1 in the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan) which includes right-of-way type and width on each segment in the transportation links database. Indian River County’s Land Development Code (Table 11) also includes a minimum right-of-way table that addresses the functional classification, urban versus rural cross sections, number of lanes, minimum lane width, and identifies special corridors that may have different cross sections. There are also multiple mentions in the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan of landscaping as a priority (pages 26, 74, 103). Nearly 3% of total roadway project costs go to landscaping in the County. Policy 3.4 (which falls under the right-of-way protection objective) focuses on the acquisition of right-of-way to allow for landscaping or incentivizing adjacent landowners to provide adequate landscaping along corridors. Policy 5.6 and 5.7 also cover landscaping along corridor rights-of- way and stipulate that the county will allocate a minimum of 2% of total construction expenditures for roadway projects for landscaping. Right-of-way Dedication Indian River County requires dedication of the first sixty feet of right-of-way and the property owner is compensated for any additional right-of-way required. County staff indicate that the 60 ft. standard is based on the amount of right-of-way necessary for a local road and to bring the road right-of-way up to the standards in the comprehensive plan and land development code. This is supported by Policy 3.2 of the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan as well as Section 952.08. (Right-of-way requirements) of the Land Development Code. However, during the review of any development project, the technical review committee may require the increase of right-of-way and pavement widths. The county acquires right-of-way through dedication or reservation at the time of site plan approval or through fee simple acquisition or condemnation as part of preliminary and final roadway design for specific projects. Advance Acquisition The Transportation Element (p. 58) specifically identifies the need to include funding for advanced right- of-way acquisition in the capital improvement program to ensure that sufficient right-of-way is available for future construction projects. Policy 3.5 in the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan (p. 104) states that the county will use available funds, including the one cent sales tax, for advanced right- of-way acquisition. The County does currently engage in ‘opportunity purchases’ for advanced right of way acquisition. When a parcel comes up for sale on a corridor planned for widening, the county may either purchase the whole parcel or a portion of the parcel and sell the residual. Funds for land acquisition come from a combination of traffic impact fees, a six-cent local option gas tax, and a one-cent county-wide sale tax. Another interesting strategy mentioned by staff is the use of concurrency provisions along SR 60 to obtain financial contributions toward the widening of SR 60. Several developments along the SR 60 corridor pay a special fee that constitutes the difference between the cost of acquisition of right-of-way for future construction and the interest on advance construction of the project. This additional fee allowed FDOT to accelerate the widening project by moving it up in the work program.
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