Hillsborough County Jurisdictions Must Address "Financial Feasiblilty" for Annual Capital Improvements Updates
A new State Law requires all adopted Schedule of Projects in Capital Improvement Plans to be “Financially Feasible”
Storm drains east of Himes Avenue being replaced.
Each summer, as required by law (Chapter 97-351, Laws of Florida), the Planning Commission reviews the Capital Improvement Plans (CIPs) of Hillsborough County, Tampa and Temple Terrace. Each CIP is reviewed for consistency with the priorities in each jurisdiction’s Capital Improvements Element (CIE) and for overall conformity with each of the adopted Comprehensive Plans.
Once the reviews are completed and a recommendation is made by the Planning Commission at a public hearing, each jurisdiction then officially adopts its new fiscal year CIP “Schedule of Capital Projects” in September.
The schedule of capital projects is then adopted into the CIEs. It includes only those projects that affect a jurisdiction’s level of service. There are seven capital service delivery programs with these requirements in each of the jurisdiction’s Comprehensive Plan. These include transportation, potable water, sanitary sewer, solid waste, stormwater, parks and schools capital projects.
In 2005, the State of Florida enacted a new State Law (s.163.3164(32) requiring all adopted Schedule of Projects in CIPs to be “Financially Feasible." This requires 
sufficient revenues to be currently available, or will be available, in a jurisdiction’s committed fund for the first 3 years or will be available in a committed or planned fund for years 4 and 5, of a 5-year CIE Schedule of Projects in order to finance needed capital improvements. These funds typically come from such sources as: ad valorem taxes, bonds, state and federal funds, tax revenues, sales tax, impact fees, developer contributions, etc.
The Planning Commission has been working with local jurisdictions towards this effort for some time. Planning Commission staff has attended Department of Community Affairs (DCA) workshops to learn about the new Capital Improvements Element update provisions and has met with local governments in an effort to assist them with these new requirements.
December 1, 2008 was the deadline to incorporate these new DCA changes in the Capital Improvement Element Annual Updates. This past November Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa submitted their annual Capital Improvement Element Updates incorporating the new requirements. The City of Temple Terrace submitted their update this December. All three jurisdictions are currently awaiting DCA’s approval.
