THE PLANNING COLLABORATIVE

Having over twenty years of experience in the planning profession, Allara is versatile regarding the projects she is involved with. She has worked for both the private and public sectors; writing policy documents or interpreting them for clients. Works include authoring several local government Comprehensive Plans and Land Development Regulations/Codes, assisting companies or land owners with development entitlements, and other strategy needs. Allara prides herself for never missing a deadline, delivering all client applications on time and in excellent order.

Selected Projects Completed

Consultant to Florida Power & Light Company, to assist with the issuance of development entitlements for several solar power generation facilities, 2019 – present. These include the Cotton Creek and First City Solar Energy Centers (Escambia County), Blackwater River Solar Energy Center (Santa Rosa County), Chautauqua and Pecan Tree Solar Energy Centers (Walton County), and Wild Azalea Solar Energy Center (Gadsden County) in Northwest Florida.

Gadsden County, Florida Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code updates, 2017 – 2019. TPC was hired to write updated policies and regulations to the local Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code. TPC also conducted the public hearing process with presentations to the Local Planning Agency and Board of County Commissioners as the draft documents moved forward.

Mexico Beach Florida Comprehensive Plan updates, 2017 – 2019. Consultant to the city to receive public input, conduct data and analysis, and update the goals, objectives, and policies of the 2007 Mexico Beach Comprehensive Plan. This project included presentations to the Local Planning Agency and City Council. The project was completed after the landfall of Hurricane Michael, which caused late-in-the-project changes to the final product. TPC was able to accommodate the needs of Mexico Beach during this time.

City of Parker Florida Evaluation and Appraisal of the Comprehensive Plan, 2017. Provided a detailed review in report form to the City regarding the status of the existing Plan and how it related to current statutory requirements, and those requirements adopted since the last Plan update.

Plan4Health Florida, 2017. A state-wide program funded via a grant by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to integrate the planning and public health professions in planning for the built environment.

Additionally TPC is the consultant of choice for Teramore Development regarding entitlements for enabling commercial development on specific sites throughout Northwest Florida. TPC has been working with Teramore Development since 2017.

Allara has additional experience while as an employee of the public sector. Selected projects include:

City of Panama City Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR)-based amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, 2009-2010. As a result of the EAR, goal, objective and policy (GOP) updates are made accordingly to the local Comprehensive Plan. These GOPs are proposed to the Local Planning Agency, through public hearing, and subsequently adopted by the City Commission. I managed the project and made all public presentations through adoption.

Panama City Post Disaster Redevelopment Plan (PDRP), 2007-2008. Panama City was the only city state-wide selected for the Florida Department of Community Affairs pilot program initiative regarding post disaster redevelopment planning, as a result of my lobbying efforts for this opportunity with state representatives.
This project was developed to provide guidance in decision-making during “blue skies” environments to prepare the community for the aftermath in the event of a natural disaster such as flooding, wildfires, or storm surge. I guided the formation of the document by or organizing local stakeholder group meetings and finding consensus for the makeup of the Plan. The Panama City PDRP was adopted by the City Commission in September 2008, after a year-long effort to compile data and construct strategies.

City of Panama City 2007 Evaluation and Appraisal Report, 2006-2007. Authored several sections and managed the compilation of the Report for submission to the Department of Community Affairs (now DEO) and subsequent adoption by the City Commission. This document is an intensive evaluation of the local comprehensive plan against Florida Statutes, the Florida Administrative Code, and the local preference and determines needed updates to the goals, objectives and policies of the Plan.

Integration of the Local Mitigation Strategy into the Comprehensive Plan, 2005-2006. The Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) hired PBS&J (now Atkins) and CSA to study the Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS) and the local Comprehensive Plan for all 67 counties state-wide to determine how well each document addressed the other. The objective was to create a profile for each county to report how well the LMS was reflected in the policies of the Comprehensive Plan, and make recommendations on how better to relate the two documents. The profiles were made available to each of the counties and the DCA (now DEO), to bring light to the importance of integrating the two documents through strategy and policy. (completed while Allara was with PBS&J)

Bay County West Bay Sector Plan, 2002. Project manager and primary policy writer for this plan. A 75,000 acre comprehensive master plan adopted as policy into the Bay County Comprehensive Plan in 2002 as the over-arching guide for growth and development within the sector boundary. Subsequent Detailed Specific Area Plans were adopted, but began simultaneously to the master sector planning process. Several citizen- involvement presentations, scoping meetings with other local and regional agencies, and public presentations were a part of this project.

Bay County implementation and adoption of zoning regulations. 2002-2003. Until this time, Bay County did not have a zoning map nor zoning regulations. As the lead staff member, Allara managed the writing of these regulations and the assignment of the categories to the zoning map.