By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida
Tallahassee — While the stories of red tape in Tallahassee are legendary and will be chronicled on this site, Red Tape Florida is also committed to showing when things are done the right way. The City of Tallahassee’s urban design studio, called DesignWorks, is a good example of a local government success story.
Here’s how it works: DesignWorks serves as a problem-solving hub for builders, developers, and citizens navigating local regulations. Citizens, builders and developers bring a problem to DesignWorks. The team goes to work coming up with solutions, all the while getting input from all the potential stakeholders, such as the local government teams that regulate stormwater, traffic and engineering, etc.
The DesignWorks team then comes back with potential solutions that have already incorporated feedback from all the individual departments from which the builder would have had to seek approval.
The result? A collaborative approach that helps projects move forward efficiently, with solutions crafted upfront to avoid bureaucratic roadblocks later.
Todd Sperry, of OliverSperry Renovation, is a big fan.
“Regular permitting is black or white,” Sperry said. “But with this you can work with them more conceptually. The attitude is ‘how can we make you compliant with regulations.’
“If they can’t, they can deviate on the project because they have been in it with us from the start,” Sperry said.
The list of DesignWorks-aided projects is impressive – Champions Ranch, the new Charlie Ward-led sports and recreation complex; Camelia Oaks, a 55-plus residential neighborhood off Mahan Road; Il Lusso and the Ballard building, an urban project in downtown Tallahassee; and smaller projects in the Bond neighborhood.
For Sperry, it was a project in the All Saints neighborhood.
“We had a lot that stretched between two streets – it was in violation of four different zoning regulations,” Sperry said. “They said: ‘We aren’t going to let a black-and-white interpretation get int the way of the whole project – we’re going to look holistically first.’”
The project was ultimately completed successfully.
Artie White, the Director of the joint city-county organization PLACE, which is over DesignWorks, said the program has its roots as far back as 2000, but was formalized in 2012.
White says that while 75 percent of DesignWorks projects are in the private sector, government projects are also run through the program to maximize efficiency and creativity. The department handled 151 projects in the last full fiscal year.
Mike Alfano, Administrator of Special Projects and Neighborhood and Urban Design, said inquiries to DesignWorks are usually quite open ended. “People reach out or are referred to us from city or county growth management. They come into us and the ask can range from ‘hey I have a piece of property and I don’t know what I can do.’
“Or, ‘hey I want to do some things but how?’”
Alfano said DesignWorks planners then develop site plan concepts that can jumpstart the development process.
Both Alfano and White hasten to add that the program isn’t just for big builders – individuals can go to DesignWorks for smaller projects on the property.
One thing DesignWorks does not want to do is take business away from private sector engineers or architects.
“We are very cognizant of not competing with the private sector,” White said. “It’s more ideation and hand-drawn sketches.”
Sperry is hopeful the collaborative mindset and spirit of DesignWorks can permeate into the lower-level regulatory departments.
“Everybody – from environmental codes, building codes, zoning codes, solid waste, driveway people — everybody is pass/fail,” Sperry said. “If you have a problem with one, you’ve got to figure it out or you don’t move forward.”
With the design studio, it’s more collaborative and “can do,” he said.
“They have a mindset there that I wish we had on the regulatory side – they try to help you rather than restrict you.”