Broward County continues to be a national leader when it comes to protecting the environment, and minimizing waste and pollution.
A 4-Star Community
In 2014, we became the first county government in the nation to achieve a 4-STAR certification under the Sustainability Tools for Assessing & Rating (STAR) Communities, a national rating system that measures local government’s environmental, economic and community efforts to achieve sustainability.
STAR measures everything from how safe residents feel, how successful schools are and how fast emergency response times are, to workforce readiness, housing affordability and civic engagement. Through the STAR process, Broward County broadened its view of sustainability to showcase Broward as a place with beautiful parks and beaches, clean air and water, a diverse and caring community with a vibrant art scene, home to innovation, a gateway to the international marketplace and a great place to live, work, play and visit. Beyond being a measure of where we have been, 4-star is a celebration of where we are going, with all of the benefits gained as a resilient and sustainable community. 4-star celebration of where we are going.
In order to achieve a STAR rating, the Environmental Planning and Community Resilience Division collaborated with more than 50 individuals and dozens of County departments, agencies and non-profits to report over 500 community-wide initiatives.
Beaches and Climate Change
Broward County made significant progress in the protection of beaches. Permits are underway for the Segment II Shore Protection Project and Bypass Project at Port Everglades. Concurrently, the County secured the final $18.1 million in federal reimbursement for the Segment III Shore Protection Project.
Broward played a prominent role in the organization of the 6th Annual Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit, which benefited by the participation of White House officials and members of the State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Resilience and Preparedness. Broward County has played a lead role on the Task Force.
Broward County led the regional geographic information system (GIS) mapping of living shoreline features that incorporate natural elements versus hard structures to provide shoreline stabilization and habitat protection. This supports a multi-county collaborative focused on shoreline resilience as part of the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact. This collaboration with The Nature Conservancy with a focus on natural system integration in shoreline resilience has garnered the attention of the White House.
Looking Ahead to the Next 100
As Broward County prepares to celebrate its centennial in 2015, Broward County and the Broward County Planning Council are working to ensure it will thrive for another 100 years with #BrowardNEXT, a comprehensive planning initiative.
With Broward’s growing population of 1.8 million and 14 million visitors annually, there is a lot to plan for. The goal of the #BrowardNEXT initiative is to ensure the County’s land use and comprehensive plans reflect Broward’s current and anticipated growth and priorities. That includes maintaining a positive and balanced relationship with the municipalities and important topics of community-wide significance such as transit and mobility, affordable housing, climate change mitigation and adaptation, regional economic development, environmental protection, enhancement and protection of recreation and open space areas and disaster preparedness.
Environmental Licensing and Building Permitting Division revised the Broward County Floodplain Management Ordinance to coordinate with the Florida Building Code and adopted updated flood maps from Federal Emergency Management Agency. This was the first major revision to the flood maps since 1992 and approximately 60 percent of parcels previously in the floodplain were removed.
A major initiative introduced in 2013, ePermits, is making electronic permitting more efficient, less costly and enhancing customer service.
Pollution Prevention Division conducted 6,300 field inspections discovering 1,100 violations. The Division received a Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant for $35,000 to produce a series of videos to help owners/operators of storage tank facilities achieve/maintain compliance with applicable state and county regulations.
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