Proposed Changes To Growth Plan Foresee Subdivisions Everywhere

Published: Sep 16, 2007

Lots of people are trying to amend the county's growth plan this year. Most want to build many more houses in remote areas than rules allow.

If the 16 proposed amendments to the county's comprehensive growth plan are approved, they will move the county away from its fiscally conservative philosophy of keeping new housing developments inside reasonable limits.

What is behind the rush to change the growth plan? The answer is Hometown Democracy, a proposed constitutional amendment that if passed next year would require voter approval of any further "comp plan" changes.

Hometown Democracy would make the land-use plan much more difficult to revise, so developers want to get their changes approved now.

An irony is that big pushes for wholesale changes are what motivated supporters to launch Hometown Democracy. Plans are now so changeable that people can't count on them. Defending plans has become an endless battle that wears folks down.

But citizen approval of every amendment would require voters to understand technical issues that are not always what they seem. Indeed, it's difficult to read the proposed plan amendments and immediately know if they are good or bad.

And plans do need to change as local circumstances and politics evolve.

The independent Hillsborough City-County Planning Commission, which is working on its own suggested updates to the comp plan, is right to ask for more time to evaluate the stack of precedent-setting requests. A few are not controversial, but others are a surrender to sprawl.

Surprisingly, the biggest surrender is proposed by Hillsborough County's planning staff, which is likely to find itself at odds with the independent planning commission. The county's new South County Transportation Plan foresees a Brandon bypass and other new or widened highways crisscrossing the county's sparsely developed southeastern corner. Many of the proposed roads are too far out to be of much use to existing residents.

Planning so many major roads outside the urban growth boundary will invite developers and land speculators to pressure officials to expand the boundaries prematurely.

The county's planning and growth director, Peter Aluotto, says his proposed amendment recognizes that fast growth is coming to Hillsborough. Once the rights of way for new roads are placed on the map, the county can begin to preserve the land. It's smart, he says, to avoid the congestion of New Tampa where traffic funnels onto one road, Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

Yet the county can't supply adequate infrastructure needed to support existing homes and apartments. As a result, residents associate growth with crowded schools, water restrictions and longer commutes.

It seems Hillsborough lacks consensus on how to grow best: put more people in existing population centers, put more people in rural areas or make it harder to build in either place.

The county's proposed amendment wrongly assumes sprawl will win.

Instead of assuming growth trends will continue at all costs, the county should erase roads drawn into largely uninhabited areas and improve transportation for existing residents. The plan includes many projects closer in: two new bridges over the Alafia River, a new four-lane road in Sun City Center, two new Interstate 75 exits, passenger rail and ferry lines, and many other improvements needed by residents in Brandon, Progress Village, Riverview, Ruskin and Summerfield.

The county should follow the lead of Gov. Charlie Crist, who ordered the state Department of Transportation to stop planning superhighways in remote areas of the state. "I want them to build roads where people are," Crist told us.

Hillsborough County and the new Tampa Bay Regional Transportation Authority should follow the same philosophy. Let's solve existing problems before opening new lands for sprawl.

Already, tens of thousands of unbuilt housing units are ready for construction inside Hillsborough's urban growth boundary, enough to handle many years of expected growth.

How the appointed planning commission and elected county commissioners rule on the proposals will say much about how Hillsborough wants to grow.

If they fail to support an orderly, efficient plan of growth, they will make the unfortunate case for Hometown Democracy.

Sample Of Proposals To Amend Growth Plan

Roads Too Far: Would preserve rights of way for highways in mostly rural areas of south Hillsborough. Would add 126 miles of lanes to existing roads and build 119 lane-miles of new roads.

Homes Around Pits: Would allow increased residential density along old borrow pits that fill with water in agricultural areas, adding suburban lakefront homes to farming areas.

Higher Urban Density: Would increase density 500 percent in a part of the Thonotosassa Planning Area south of I-4 and west of McIntosh Road. Another proposed amendment would increase density 300 percent along Bloomingdale Avenue east of Lithia-Pinecrest Road.

Higher Rural Density: Would double allowable density near Balm/Wimauma southeast of State Road 674. Another proposed amendment would double the density of a tract near Lithia Pinecrest Road and County Road 39.

Rural water: Would allow county water connections in a rural area along Van Dyke Road west of Gunn Highway.

Bypass Community Plans: Would remove a 269-acre tract from the Keystone-Odessa Community Plan, along Lutz Lake Fern Road west of the Suncoast Parkway, to allow higher density.

Bend Rules For Jobs: Would extend urban services up to 1,000 feet outside the growth boundary if the project created jobs.