The Tallahassee-Leon County Multimodal District   Vision   This Multimodal District is a vibrant, multifaceted city within a city supporting a life style that frees the individual from the automobile for completing the activities of daily living. Within it, you will be able to go to work or school, shop, meet health care needs, have a choice in housing and entertainment - without an automobile - because the pedestrian, bicycle and transit facilities will meet your mobility needs. Walking or cycling down a major thoroughfare to the coffee shop, you feel safe sharing the street with cars, and are pleased by the shops, offices, and dwellings opening onto the sidewalks. Whether you live in a single-family neighborhood or in a high-rise apartment building, you can quickly access all the services and products you need. Because many uses and dwellings are located close together generating many people coming and going, transit comes frequently and you can reach any other part of the District with ease.
For many decades, transportation planning had one major goal - move as many cars as possibly as efficiently as possible.  This often degraded the pedestrian environment, as can be seen along West Tennessee Street in front of Florida State University. The Multimodal District is an 18 square mile area in the center of Tallahassee, and represents a complete change in philosophy.  Within this District, the City of Tallahassee, Leon County and State of Florida have committed to planning primarily for the pedestrian, bicyclist and transit.  That means the design of infrastructure and new development will make the pedestrian and bicyclist experience a safe and pleasant one, and moving cars comes last.  Transportation planning is now about moving people, not cars.   To do this, in 2008-9, the City of Tallahassee and Leon County amended their Comprehensive Plan to formally create the Mulitmodal District.  The District was officially approved by the State of Florida, and became effective in April, 2009.  The full data and analysis supporting this amendment is linked to the right. Within this district, different standards for roads will apply, even on state arterials, and any developer mitigation paid to offset transportation impacts will be directed toward pedestrian, bicycle and transit improvements instead of road widening.  Also, the Community Code is currently in development and will update the Land Development Regulations to support more compact urban buildings within this District.	The MMTD Plan: Introduction & TOC Ch 1:Why? Ch 2:Stakeholders Ch 3:Past Efforts Ch 4:Infrastructure Ch 5:Land Use Appendices   Additional Documents: MMTD Fact Sheet 2009 National APA Presentation
To achieve the Vision above, the Multimodal District is founded on the following principles: A healthy, vibrant urban core is more than just a downtown business district. It is an interconnected network of neighborhood and employment centers containing a mix of residential types and densities, job opportunities, retail, and open space. Multimodal infrastructure investment by the government is critical, but real changes to the urban fabric will occur through private development and redevelopment along major corridors and at neighborhood and employment centers. A simplified regulatory environment should foster this development and redevelopment, recognizing that “time is money” for potential investors from the private sector. The district should be large enough to truly provide mobility options by offering a choice in housing types, connecting neighborhoods to services and jobs via all modes, thereby: reducing greenhouse gases supporting active, healthy lifestyles preserving capacity on roadways for longer regional trips relieving pressure on rural lands in light of the 100,000 population increase projected in Leon County over the next 20-25 years. Urban design along corridors and at centers should recognize that existing, stable residential neighborhoods are the backbone of a healthy urban core. Central core development standards should allow more intense development than those for suburban areas, and should allow various residential types and a mixture of uses with enough intensity to support frequent transit headways, establishing transit as a true mobility choice. The district boundaries should include existing commercial areas that are likely to redevelop within the next ten years. A safe, efficient system of bikeways and greenways should support bicycling as a true mobility choice. The transportation system should have three layers: Residents and employees should have access via sidewalks, shared use paths, and bike lanes to corridors and neighborhood centers where they can shop, be entertained, eat, play, and visit. At the neighborhood centers, convenient access to transit should provide connections to other centers that may be out of walking distance, and to other parts of the City, County, and region. An interconnected system of bike routes should also connect these centers and regional destinations Funding to create this mobility infrastructure should come from a combination of local, state, federal, and developer proportionate fair-share funds.
As always, please feel free to Tell Us What You Think at any time. For more information, please contact the Multimodal District Project Manager, Cherie Horne, at Cherie.Horne@talgov.com or (850) 891-6400.