9.2 Coordinate strategic planning for water quality within and across agencies and organizations with local jurisdiction

Key Message: Coordination of water quality protection and restoration in Sarasota County can be improved by aligning common goals and policies across multiple federal, state, and local management plants. Improved coordination can leverage limited resources, build partnerships, and generate momentum to achieve progress.

Importance

Coordination of water quality protection and restoration in Sarasota County can be improved by incorporating state and regional water quality goals, objectives, and activities into local strategic priorities. State and regional organizations have comprehensive strategic plans that guide priorities and resources. These organizations include the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program (SBEP), Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership (CHNEP), Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). Where aligned, the water quality goals, objectives, and activities of these organizations should be incorporated into the comprehensive plans, land development regulations, or other guidance documents of county and municipal governments. Improved coordination can leverage limited resources, build partnerships, and generate synergies to achieve more comprehensive water resource protection. Identifying additional opportunities for coordination and collaboration will improve water quality protection and restoration in Sarasota County (see Chapter 9.1).

Overview

Multiple state and regional strategic plans address water quality protection and improvement in Sarasota County. Many were developed using collaborative processes involving local organizations, residents, businessowners, elected officials, and other stakeholders. Priority water quality goals, objectives, and activities of these plans should be incorporated into the comprehensive plans, land development regulations, or other guidance documents of county and municipal governments to implement their broader vision.

National Estuary Program Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plans (CCMPs)

Sarasota County is located within the program areas of two National Estuary Programs. The SBEP area within Sarasota County includes coastal bays and their watersheds from the Manatee County line to Venice Inlet. The CHNEP area includes the rest of the county, where watersheds drain east into Myakka River and west into estuarine waters south of the Venice Inlet including Lemon Bay. National Estuary Programs develop and implement CCMPs with goals, objectives, and actions to maintain or restore the health of Estuaries of National Significance. CCMPs are developed through an iterative, consensus-building approach together with local, state, city, state, federal, private, and non-profit stakeholders. Both NEP CCMPs include Water Quality Action Plans that prioritize activities to protect and restore Sarasota County waters.

Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) Strategic Plan

SWFWMD’s Strategic Plan (SWFWMD 2019) establishes two regional goals for water quality: 1) Collect and analyze data to determine local and regional water quality status and trends to support resource management decisions and restoration initiatives, and 2) Develop and implement programs, projects, and regulations to maintain and improve water quality. SWFWMD also developed Surface Water Improvement and Management Plans for the Charlotte Harbor area (SWFWMD 2000b) and Sarasota Bay area (SWFWMD 2002).

Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Long Range Program Plan

FDEP’s Long Range Program Plan for fiscal years 2020-2025 establishes goals, objectives, and measures for the Department to increase the protection, conservation, and restoration of Florida’s water resources. The Plan focuses on water quality in Florida’s aquifers, springs, lakes, rivers, and coastal waters.

City and County Comprehensive Plans

City and County Comprehensive Plans establish goals, objectives, and policies to direct decision-making to achieve a community’s vision. Plans are amended periodically, with public input, to adapt to changing opportunities. Comprehensive Plans typically address measures for environmental protection and sometimes restoration. Comprehensive Plans have been adopted in: Town of Longboat Key, City of North Port, City of Sarasota, City of Venice, and Sarasota County.

Community Action Plans

Gulf Coast Community Foundation (Gulf Coast) has produced this Playbook for the Sarasota County region. The Playbook’s vision is for county waters to meet their designated human uses for drinking, shellfish harvesting, or swimming and fishing, while sustaining healthy and resilient natural ecosystems. The vision is brought into focus by three interrelated goals:

• Goal 1: Reduce anthropogenic-based nutrient loading in natural systems;
• Goal 2: Remove excess anthropogenic-based nutrients from natural systems; and
• Goal 3: Build capacity and resilience of ecosystems and human systems to Sustain Goals 1 and 2 in perpetuity.

Organized by topic, the Playbook integrates community-wide activities to develop public policy, engage and educate the community, and use applied science to effectively manage anthropogenic nutrient pollution. While the Playbook uses the Sarasota County community as an illustrative and real-world example, proposed activities are intended to be adaptive, scalable, transferrable, and customizable to other regions and communities along the Gulf Coast and beyond.

Approach

Commission a study to crosswalk the water quality goals, objectives, and activities detailed in the strategic plans of SBEP, CHNEP, SWFWMD, FDEP, and Gulf Coast’s Playbook with the comprehensive plans of the Town of Longboat Key, City of North Port, City of Sarasota, City of Venice, and Sarasota County. The study should prioritize relevant water quality goals in state and regional strategic plans suitable for inclusion in local government comprehensive plans and other frameworks, such as development regulations. A matrix should be developed to crosswalk the prioritized suite of state and regional goals, objectives, and activities with similar elements of existing comprehensive plans to identify alignments and gaps. The study should provide model language for local government officials, planners, and resource managers to adapt and adopt into their comprehensive plans. Further, local comprehensive plans should incorporate policies for nutrient management across chapters so that governmental operations consider nutrient impacts. For example, the explicit goals of wastewater and stormwater divisions should be managing nutrient pollution, in addition to other operating criteria.

Resources

• Comprehensive Plans of the Town of Longboat Key, City of North Port, City of Sarasota, City of Venice
• Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan
• Sarasota Bay Estuary Program Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan
• Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan
• Southwest Florida Water Management District Strategic Plan
• Florida Department of Environmental Protection Long Range Program Plan
• Gulf Coast Community Foundation WaterQualityPlaybook.com

Status

No activity.

Performance Measure

• Development of a crosswalk matrix that details alignments and gaps between state/regional strategic plans addressing water quality and local government comprehensive plans.
• Number of goals, objectives, or activities incorporated into local government comprehensive plans, development regulations, or other guidance documents.

Experts or Leads

Planning departments of Sarasota County, Town of Longboat Key, City of Sarasota, City of Venice, and City of North Port; Strategic planners from SWFWMD, FDEP; SBEP; CHNEP; Shafer Consulting.

Cost Estimate

$50,000-$100,000

Related Activities

Chapter 9.1