On Thursday, June 27, 2002, after years of exhaustive discussion, planning and lobbying, the County's new school concurrency ordinance takes effect. Implementation of this plan makes Palm Beach County the first jurisdiction in the state to complete the lengthy and complicated approval process.

School concurrency is a growth management tool aimed at ensuring that construction of new schools keeps pace with construction of new homes. It means that from now on, before any new residential project is approved, there must be enough school classroom space available to accommodate the students expected to live in that development.

There are three main components to the concurrency plan: 1) Joint planning between cities, the County and the School District; 2) a financially-feasible five-year school construction plan that will enable the School District to catch up and keep up with growth; 3) regulatory review by School District planners for all new residential projects.

The ultimate goal of school concurrency is to have all schools in the County operating at no more than 10 percent over capacity by 2004. In the past, some schools have had more than twice the number of students they were designed to hold. "We want to maximize the use of school capacity while maintaining the same adopted level of service standards," said Palm Beach County Planning, Zoning and Building Director Barbara Alterman.

Under the leadership of the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners and the Palm Beach County School Board, consultant Leo Noble went door to door to each of 26 municipalities over a two-year period, explaining the merits of the program and the responsibilities of each government entity. Eventually, the elected officials, business leaders, builders and real estate professionals endorsed the plan.

If just one jurisdiction had said no, the proposal would have failed. That did not happen. The plan received near unanimous support. In fact, only three elected individuals from the 26 municipalities countywide voted against it. (Note: 11 smaller municipalities were allowed to opt out, either because they have no schools within their boundaries, are more than 80 percent built out, or have approved fewer than 50 new homes in the past five years.)

Noble now serves as chairman of the School Concurrency Technical Advisory Group, a five-person panel that makes recommendations on the School District's five-year capital facilities plan, helps set concurrency parameters, and identifies schools that may trigger a school capacity study.

After the County, the School District and the 26 municipalities signed an interlocal agreement to become planning partners, the County and the cities each had to amend their long-term growth plans to include the School District's five-year construction plan and a public schools facilities element. Those changes underwent close scrutiny by the Florida Department of Community Affairs before being approved. It took approximately three years to get everything in place.

While many of the commitments in the interlocal agreement fall to the School District, the cities have their share as well, said Kris Garrison, Director of Planning for the School District. "The municipalities are committed to doing cooperative planning with us, not just in terms of growth projections, but with the actual planning of the schools themselves," she said.

To implement school concurrency, the County has been divided into 21 geographic zones known as concurrency service areas (CSAs). When a residential development application is filed, School District planners look first at the CSA directly affected. If there is no available capacity at the nearest school(s), they look to an adjacent CSA. If there is still no capacity available, the developer must hold off or pay for more classroom space to be built (mitigation). For a proposed project to receive concurrency credit, a school does not have to actually be physically standing, as long as it is scheduled to be built and opened within the next three years.

School concurrency will not cause the home construction industry in Palm Beach County to grind to a halt, as some have suggested. In fact, the opposite may be true. "We feel this will be an asset to the construction industry because it will ensure having good schools available to serve their developments," said Isaac Hoyos, school concurrency project manager for Palm Beach County Planning, Zoning and Building. "There has been a tremendous amount of new school construction already in the past two years in anticipation of this new policy."

Commissioner Karen Marcus said she is very proud that Palm Beach County has achieved this long-awaited goal and was the first jurisdiction in Florida to do so. Commissioner Marcus, along with former School Board member Jody Gleason, initiated the drive for school concurrency about eight years ago. "We could not have accomplished this without the cooperation of the School District, the cities and a number of professional organizations," said Commissioner Marcus. "It is truly a countywide partnership that's good for everyone, especially our children."