Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Commission to Address City Walk Request

Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Commission to Address City Walk Request

On December 14th, the Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to address the recommended approval of a transitional residential facility on Mahan Drive.

Previously, a State of Florida, Division of Administrative Hearings, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) issued a recommended order concerning City Walk’s application for the facility located at 1709 Mahan Drive. The ALJ recommended approval of the permit with conditions. 

The administrative review came after City Walk filed a petition for quasi-judicial proceedings to review the preliminary decision of the Development Review Committee (DRC) denying the City Walk application.

At the December 14th hearing, City Walk will request that the Planning Commission accept the ALJ recommended order but eliminate the two proposed conditions included in the order. These conditions concern the housing of persons with prior convictions and prohibiting feeding or clothing non-residents.  

The City of Tallahassee has requested that the Planning Commission return the proceeding to the ALJ for additional fact-finding concerning the application and enforcement of the proposed conditions in the recommended order.

At the public hearing, attorneys for City Walk and the City of Tallahassee will be allowed to make presentations.  The parties have requested one half hour each with an additional five minutes for rebuttal at the conclusion of the public comments period. Members of the public will be allowed to comment and will be limited to three (3) minutes. 

In addition, the agenda notes that “No party, including city staff, may submit new evidence to the planning commission; presentation must be confined to evidence made part of the record before the administrative law judge.” 

According to the agenda item, the following criteria must be satisfied for approval of a Transitional Residential Facility:

(1) The operation and location of the facility as proposed is consistent with the comprehensive plan and applicable land development regulations;

(2) The facility would not create or cause a private nuisance, including but not limited to noise, odor, health hazard, glare and unlawful activities, to adjacent properties;

(3) The facility will implement adequate security and supervision measures to address the needs of the facility’s residents as well as residents of adjacent lands and their property;

(4) The facility is served by or easily accessible to mass transit;

(5) The facility will be of adequate size and design to reasonably accommodate its projected capacity;

(6) The facility and its features are designed to be compatible with the general architecture theme, appearance and representative building types of adjacent properties and uses; and

(7) The intensity of use of the proposed facility does not unreasonably adversely impact upon existing uses or change the character of the area in which it is located. Intensity of the use of the proposed facility shall be determined based upon its size, the number and type of accessory services to be provided, either by itself or in conjunction with other group homes, community residential homes, and transitional residential facilities located within a 2,400-foot distance of the site boundaries. Adverse impacts shall be evaluated particularly with respect to existing residential uses and districts within 500 feet of the site.

2 Responses to "Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Commission to Address City Walk Request"

  1. City Walk had two deaths over Thanksgiving week last month. Both residents were in a locked room and were not seen for several days. Both had rigor mortis. The police were called.
    The same week during the time of the deaths there was an aggravated battery on a person 65-years of age or older. Again, the police were called. City Walk told the officer that they would keep possession of the offender’s possessions.
    City Walk’s attorney Gary Edinger, Esquire wrote, and it was published on 2/8/20; “There are no conforming locations in the City which would not experience a change of character of the community.”

  2. Another problem created by failure to act on other problems.

    Elected officials and we know who they are have misdirected funds to special interests, campaign managers, and publicity stunts rather than providing more funds for mental health services, creating more jobs, addressing the high crime rate, and failing to control pandering which would make inroads into alleviating some of the homelessness and high crime rate issues.

    When will common sense kick in?

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