Strategic Plan Priorities Focus of Annual City Commission Retreat

January 12, 2023

The Tallahassee City Commission will hold its annual retreat on Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Parkview at Cascades Park.

At the retreat, the Commission will receive and discuss updates on progress toward the priority areas, initiatives and goals within the City of Tallahassee's Five-Year Strategic Plan. Below are highlights about several items of interest from the agenda:

• Southside Action Plan - The City works to ensure the strength of the community through targeted investments. Following robust community engagement efforts in 2021, the three-phase, multi-year Southside Action Plan is moving toward its final phase. The results of Phase 2 - feedback on the draft plan - will be presented at the retreat, and an overview of Phase 3 - the proposed implementation strategy for the plan - will also be provided. The focus on infrastructure and economic development enhancements within this area have already resulted in an investment of more than $471 million of public funding between Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17) and FY22. This concentration is also already attracting private investment, including affordable housing projects like the Magnolia Oaks development in South City.
• Affordable housing - There are more than 2,300 certified affordable housing units either completed, under construction, in permitting or in the planning stages in Tallahassee, a figure greater than the last 25 years combined. This boost is the result of the City Commission's action related to strategic policy and ordinance updates, innovative housing programs and targeted development incentives. With a growing economy, the City remains well-positioned for affordable housing options to continue expanding.
• Attracting new jobs - Economic development is creating jobs in Tallahassee at an accelerated rate. The City is leveraging its strengths to attract new businesses, including Amazon, North American Aerospace, Burrell Aviation and others, to the community. Combined, these businesses are slated to create thousands of local jobs, adding to an already strong employment rate. The area's employed workforce increased by 5,700 between October 2021 and October 2022.
• Public Safety - As violent crime continues an upward trend across the nation, the City is committed to fostering public safety through community-based policing, youth engagement and innovative initiatives. Additionally, preventative efforts such as the TEMPO program and the TEAM unit allow first responders to better support at-risk citizens. The City is also working to leverage technology to combat crime in real time and fortify its cybersecurity capabilities.
• Savings for utility customers - With the goal of building toward a more sustainable energy future, in FY22, the City provided nearly $2 million in residential and commercial energy efficiency loans and $1 million in rebates and grants for energy-efficient home upgrades to customers. Average residential electric bills for City Utility customers are $106 and remain well below the state average of $154. In FY22, the City also took proactive measures to save utility customers $75 million through price hedging agreements for natural gas. Total savings from these agreements through the end of FY24 are projected to be $212 million.
• Clean Energy Plan - In 2019, the City established a comprehensive goal of achieving 100 percent net, clean renewable energy across the entire community by 2050. To accomplish this, the Clean Energy Plan (CEP), a community-based strategy to guide solutions and adoption, is being developed. As part of this process, the City has conducted extensive community outreach over several years and a comprehensive study of the community's electric, gas and transportation needs, known as the Energy Integrated Resource Plan (EIRP). As the planning process nears completion, the retreat update will set the stage for future discussions about clean energy policies and program recommendations that emerged during community engagement and from the EIRP.

The City's mission is to be the national leader in the delivery of public service, and with guidance from the Five-Year Strategic Plan, progress is being realized. In addition to the aforementioned items, in FY22, the City broke ground on the International Processing Facility at the Tallahassee International Airport, provided 87 grants to fund exterior home repairs in the Greater Bond Community, transitioned 30 percent of StarMetro's fleet to electric, completed construction on the new state-of-the-art Water Quality Lab and much more. A snapshot of FY22's success is available at Talgov.com/YearInReview.

Following the retreat, the Commission will host a regular meeting at 3 p.m. in the City Commission Chambers, second floor, City Hall, 300 S. Adams Street. Agendas for both the retreat and meeting, as well as details about how to share public comment at the meeting, are available at Talgov.com/CitizenInput.

The retreat and meeting will stream live on the City's government-access television channel, WCOT (Comcast and CenturyLink channel 13), as well as online at Talgov.com, YouTube.com/CityofTLH, Facebook.com/CityofTLH and Twitter.com/CityofTLH.

How to walk from the public parking garage to the Parkview at Cascades Park