School Concurrency

The concept behind Florida’s concurrency system is that public services must be available concurrent with the impacts of development. If services are not readily available, developments may be delayed or phased out until the impacts on services are addressed either by the developer or the local government or, until available mitigation measures have been negotiated and accepted. The system also allows for a few exemptions from concurrency, for projects providing specific public benefits.

The Concurrency Management System includes the following mandatory services: roads and mass transit, potable water and wastewater, stormwater, parks and recreation, solid waste and fire/rescue. Schools are an optional component allowed by the state statutes. Palm Beach County, the municipalities of Palm Beach County and the School District opted to add schools to the concurrency management system.

School concurrency officially commenced on June 27, 2002. Implementation of this plan makes Palm Beach County the first jurisdiction in the state of Florida to complete the lengthy and complicated approval process. See press release

School District’s and zoning officials of all participating local governments including the county currently administer the process. It is now an integral part of the overall concurrency management system in Palm Beach County. Proposed new developments are now checked against the nine-concurrency services before obtaining final development orders.