Special projects update and Pasco 2050 comprehensive plan
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
It is a stretch of the recording that this archive identified as a separate matter — a call to order, a recess, or something taken up that the agenda does not list. There is no official title, no staff recommendation and no disposition, because the county never recorded one. Everything below is inferred.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Planning Commission, Jul 24, 2025
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 1h 17m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 45% of 311 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Well um good afternoon, Planning Commission. Uh Victorious Pitos, Planning Development Economic Growth uh Department. Um I think this may be one of the first times I've presented under miscellaneous business. Um so uh given the short uh agenda for today, um we thought it would be a good idea to sort of pull back the curtain a little bit and kind of talk about some projects that will be coming up to Planning Commission over the next couple of months with a special special project update.
Oh yeah, taking the goalie. One second for a technique. Okay.
You're doing well so far, Terry.
It's It's just the technical difficulty.
That's right. That's right.
Okay, here comes the rescuer.
Well I think uh a five minute recess.
I think it's probably a good idea. Okay. Five minute recess.
Pull its plug. No, just turn it on. Turn it on and turn it back on. Yeah, kick it. Wait ten seconds.
All spales.
Yep.
sort of interface with AI when it decides it wants to do what it wants to do while we care what we say.
It's gonna tell us
We don't care about your special property.
That special dogs.
Patty, did you try the turn off and turn back on method.
Yeah. Eminem.
You have to give it a technical tap.
Yeah,
well the butt.
It's a good thing we don't have a big crowd today. When I was a kid you had to move the aluminum foil on your ashes.
I remember those days, I had to say.
Move the rabbit ears. Yeah. Go out and turn twisty.
Now I get three black and white channels.
Yeah, UHF.
See what happens when we turn it over to Patrick. You know? Just all goes in the f falls apart. Right, Patrick.
We're
blaming you. I said, see what happens when we turn it over to you, it just falls apart. He's
very serious
today.
Uh-huh, hey.
Got it.
That's it. I'd love that. Thank my wife. Please.
Yeah.
Are we making progress? We are. Dot flowers.
It's a little out of pressure there. You can see what's on Gianna's computer.
Yeah. Yeah.
Projection. Yeah, right, project.
Stuff that like melt on the projector when you put it on there to film to like melt. That's right. Some strips? Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Hey
Hey, that's starting to look like something out there.
Yeah.
I was just wondering if the public is watching that. No. When they put us in recess they just get the meeting is in recess. Scrolls across the screen. I've never watched
it, so I don't know.
Well I've gone back and watched him and now I know why they Why when you see Trump he's always orange. Why is that? Because we look pretty pale when we're
suggesting you show movie fans?
Yeah. Right.
Yeah, where's our makeup evil, you know?
When I was a young engineer, we used to have to come in with the I don't know, with the foam boards and on a measle
and make the
Yeah. That wasn't that long ago.
I thought you had it there for a minute. I saw the special projects thing.
Yeah.
The show must go on.
All
right.
Okay.
Bringing the m meeting to order.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um Atarius Petals Planning Development Economic Program.
It's like magic, Terry. He came back and there it was.
As I mentioned before, right before the break and the technical difficulty, the Planning Development Academic Growth Department learned a little special projects update to the Planning Commission slash local planning agency about some of the projects that are going to be coming down the pipeline. This isn't an exhaustive list of all the projects that we're working on. working on just some of the immediate few that are uh coming up for us. So um what are special projects? Special projects are non-development application
projects that are completed by the Planning Services Division within the Planning Development Economic Growth Department. That would be my team and the twenty or so planners that are involved within planning services. It includes the development of new ordinances, uh land development code various types of land development code amendments, the creation of special area of plans, study. programs and the and the working of and execution of grants. So those are those are what
constitute what we call special projects. Everything else is what's known as a comprehensive plan amendment or a rezoning or a conditional use permit, special exemption, variance, community development districts, all that kind of stuff is also So our core function, it's generally all the stuff that the public bodies see more commonly, more frequently from planning services and of the planning, development, economic growth department. So these are some of the upcoming ordinances and land development code amendments that
you can expect coming up. First is the tree preservation and replacement update. This has gone back and forth a little bit with the Planning Commission. It's basically enhancing the protection of trees to reduce clear cutting and improve tree canopy retention. We're currently targeting bringing this to the local planning agency before you all for the August 21, 2025 meeting, uh next basically the next meeting in the Port Richey. I know that uh Mr. David Engel has also had some additional conversations
about this. If if you want to jump in, David.
Good afternoon, David Engel Planning and Economic Growth Director. Just wanted to let you know we had a collaborative meeting yesterday on the fly with the Tampa Bay Builders Association. Initially, when we were when staff and our technical team was working with the TBBA. They had requested certain provisions in the tree mitigation and tree pro protection ordinance. They had asked for grandfathering in on projects that have been submitted and for zoning. They wanted
a per acre cap on the fees that we could assess for tree preservation and tree mitigation, and they wanted to have a three-year um phasing process, the phase in the fees and um we negotiated a little bit on that. We had two years We had instituted that with the original repurposed draft. and then after meeting with the Planning Commission, uh I wasn't here, I was at a conference with one of the commissioners but The team was here, uh we got your input, and we also uh spoke directly briefing
commissioners, and as a result of that we removed the uh the the CAP grandfathering and the phase-in process. The view was uh universally that we've our fees have been too low for years. and we have to immediately address protecting our canopy. So that that was really uh the essence. They they were very upset about it.
And I said, well we have time. We've been asked to expedite and fast track this this uh ordinance change but you know we the the BCC won't get to it until the second meeting in September and we have to go to the Planning Commission first. So I just wanted to uh let you know that we have stakeholder input and and from the development community has not been positive. They they want us to do more refinement to the scheduling of the fees and the way we uh roll them out. Anybody. Anybody
have
questions on that or comments?
So wasn't some of this already brought to the board or in the resolution was?
Well it was, and uh that resolution uh did not have uh the cap, did not have a phasing process. What we did do is uh one of the commissioners had asked us how did how does our new fee process proposed proposed speech school relate to our peers. So uh we have we have we did an analysis, we had a table and our fees are like right dead center. And you know if you went down to Hillsborough County and you had to pay for tree preservation through their mitigation process, the fees are very similar. So we're we're not onerous
Um but uh the TBBA representatives said, hey, you know, we're we're very financially stressed now. The housing market is under fire because of the economy and the interest rates and uh doing it this way immediately will not allow them to pencil out projects and they're not gonna have to they're not gonna be able to close on properties. So that that's their position. I'm not supporting it, I'm just articulating what it is.
So like I guess what is the status? Because I I I watched a board meeting where they the board approved the resolution, but then there were still questions about could the fees be changed by resolution or did it have to be changed by ordinance.
Right. And uh
clients that are asking.
So the assigned attorney is Elizabeth Blair. She was out of the office last week. She's back Monday. We've reached out to her. We haven't had a resolution on the path forward yet from the CAO, but that's pending.
So there is a simple fix to the issue that was raised, which is if you look at the current code it it says that the fees will be adopted by resolution but then for whatever reason the the old fees were put into the code, so You could just simply strike them from the code and let them be adopted by resolution to fix the issue. Um
But I'm not sure whether what Terry's out talking about here is a different initiative than just raising the fees.
Because As far as I'm concerned, the board effectively already took action on raising the fees. It's just a matter of cleaning up the code to match that board action. Is is this item that's on this slide, is that a different initiative than raising the fees? I assume that it is.
Um this one is the actual Land Development Code amendments that deal with how to mitigate the tree canopy loss. So when trees are being clear cut and what are the code requirements for that is section 80802 of the Land Development Code. So a couple uh last month actually, at the last Newport Ritchie planning or multiple planning agency meeting. Um there was the workshop with the Planning Commission where it was various ideas was shared were shared
with us. Actually, I think it was a Date City. It was Date City, yeah, beginning of June. Um and so we've been in working those ideas. that the Planning Commission had shared with us at that time, um, checking other codes and working those other c other communities codes, other counties, et cetera, that have similar ordinances. We've been working that into the section able to draft um part of the commentary of the of the Planning Commissioner
Oakley, so these are really two different issues. The issue that David Ingle just talked about is relating to the update to the fees that the board basically already took action on. Is that right? David, that's correct. So what's what is what K Terry's bringing forward is the results of the workshop that you all had about wanting a better way to handle tree preservation. Am I summarizing that accurately?
Yes, I mean it is two two two questions or two sides to the same coin so to speak. Um 802 does have the fees in it, but the fees discussion is slightly different um today. David's points uh than the actual um requirements and standards that we would establish and update in section eight oh two. But it's the fees are are in eight oh two so that it can be addressed if needed. So
is there a Draft. of this already. That's been presented to the T VA.
You
can answer that question.
All kinds of glitches.
We we we have a working draft and actually have a meeting with Amendela Hill tomorrow to review it before we resubmit up to the CAO. Um that that draft has been circulated to the TBBA as of l yesterday afternoon. I sent it out to them. Is it possible that we can get
a draft of that? Might
I have some concern in that when we've had major changes to ordinances which can affect the cost of development. that we've always had some type of stakeholder meetings and participation where the you know, we can hear their before an ordinance is presented to the Planning Commission, there's a chance where those stakeholders
can say what they like, what they dislike, and then staff can take that into consideration. And I know we've been doing that through the horizontal round table, but it seems like the past few ordinances, the HRT meetings were held literally the day before the Planning Commission meeting. I just want to make sure we have a fair vetting of the ordinance, that's all.
So I just just as a point of history we we were doing that. Um many of the Board of County Commissioners members um they want us to move quickly on the fees because our fees haven't been updated since uh they were originated I think back in two oh two thousand nine or so. And um they also are Wanted us to expedite the use of funds. So that's what we did with the tree mitigation ordinance. So we we removed that process out of the tree protection. And now we're doing the tree protection phase.
And I was called to the Rostrum two board meetings ago, and basically I was instructed to expedite moving forward with tree protection. Because the board was concerned that we're losing our canopy as we go through this deliberative process. So that's what occurred. We had extensive interaction with TV BA. We've been it's been going on for over a year now. We received their input and again we didn't include their input, but their input was rejected by my my leaders and leadership of the county.
And uh you know, we haven't and when then we got the the planning commission input and we made alterations to the draft, we would be glad to circulate that draft. I just wanna have it have it cleaned up a little bit and get it out to you next week. It's pretty rough right now. Um, would you like to have a meeting um and invite the T B B A um before that we bring it formally back to you as an agenda item? Personally speaking, yes. I don't know how the rest of the board feels, but that's I would.
Yeah, if you're only coming over here. Yeah.
Well
I think beforehand that would eliminate anything when we actually could ordinance.
I think it would definitely be helpful because I I mean not that it matters. I mean I heard you say you disregarded the T B BA's feedback on the fee increase, but I have a feeling a lot of stuff's being done and the T B B A is not even aware.
Well, um that's not totally accurate. I didn't we didn't disregard it. We were told that to eliminate it, that that our leadership didn't didn't want to opt in that in favor of those things.
Well when I say that I'm not sure they were aware. I'm not sure that the TBBA was aware that that fee increase was buried in that resolution that was approved by the board last
Tuesday. And when I spoke to the TBBA, uh I said that it's really on me, David Engel, because we had correspondence and exchange. of information back in April and I did not follow up and let them know that that their suggestions were rejected even though we included them in the original draft. So um you know I I'd be glad if if if that's a consensus, uh maybe the first meeting we have in in August we can bring the TBBA in and have a meaningful discussion with them. Again, they're not against the fees.
They they they agree the fees are were way too low and we should have updated the fee schedule a long time ago. Just at this point in time they want some business consideration phasing.
I think it's great. I think it's a good idea to have a meeting personally. Unless there's somebody that objects to that meeting.
Right, sir, we'll we'll get it on the agenda. Thank you.
So another ordinance that the Planning Development and Climate Growth Department is currently working on is known as the Backyard Chicken Ordinance. This would allow chickens in appropriate residential zoning districts that currently exclude uh the maintenance of livestock for agricultural purposes or livestock for the use or need. So the ability to have chickens in one's backyard for for um generally speaking I suppose eggs and and other food sources.
Sorry, one question about this does it?
Is are the backyards for personal if they're the for the needs of that family?
Correct.
So it's not a for profit chicken coop. Mm-hmm.
Specifically for the family user.
So I can Might be So I raised chickens. And get a lot of games. If you want to sell eggs in Florida, you can get what's called a small egg producer permit, but simultaneously you must also get a food outlet permit. And I'm not certain that getting a food outlet permit in a residential zoning would comply with some of our residential
zoning regulations.
Yeah. I I was really asking the question for the local reasons because Well, the legislature expanded the definition of commercial any zoning district that allows a for profit business and so I wanted to make sure we're not allow any for profit Chicken farm in residential areas.
that concern would lead me to like what does one do with
regard to home occupations. There's an exception for home occupation these businesses. There's not an exception for chickens though.
Terry wouldn't. Unless that's a home base. Can you give me an example of a a residence that would fall into that category where they could have chickens?
I suppose. Yeah, I mean I suppose uh Um
that we just thought it was a very important thing.
Area. Um
they have to be on an acre, is that what you're saying?
Well I'm not I don't know the exact uh space limit that the ordinance might have off the top of my head right now. But I'm just giving you an example that somebody who has a house in a res one uh one one dwelling in a per acre area um might be able to put uh a little chicken coop back there with a couple of chickens and have some eggs for their family, basically. need for other
zoning districts other than the agricultural districts like AR and A C the like. So like in an E
R or
an R one for A.
I think E R R E allows it, doesn't it?
Okay. Well I mean I'm sure that's one of the questions that's gonna be asked, so I just like does the
Does the proposal so Newport Ritchie has a backyard chicken ordinance and it's common. Most of these backyard chicken ordinances would prohibit roosters for good reason. No. Newport Ritchie's prohibits the slaughtering of the chicken on the property. Is that a proposal in our ordinance?
I I think that's a consideration in the current draft. As well as the ban on looseners and things like that.
Another land development code amendment that we're working on in the backyard chicken we're bringing in September 4, hopefully, is the target date. And another ordinance we'll we'll target for September 4 is the bicycle and pedestrian facilities update. This is going to provide consistent standards and greater code flexibility for different street typologies. types that we get to build um within the county. Um and I think this is basically Current current drafts are looking at potentially consolidating the sidewalk
standards with trails or multi use path standards and just making it clearer when each type of facility is going to be required within the country, particularly when you're dealing with frontages on collectors' materials, etc. Um and then One last ordinance that we're uh currently working on um of a number of others but in in this case on the up for the update we are working on an open space zoning district to add a new zoning district to the collection
of zoning Districts in Chapter 500 of the Land Development Code. We currently don't actually have a zoning district that directly correlates with a pure conservation area. And so as part of some of our glitch amendments, we noted we noted this and said, Well, it's probably a good idea to have a specific zoning district. that can cover conservation areas. There's an example that triggered all of this on the west side of the county along the coast. Set
for conservation and it's a expired MPUD that had other entitlements in it. So it kind of left it in an unbed in an ambiguous situation of sorts. It'd be good to be take and it's county owned property, so it makes it a little interesting to m further interesting. So it could presented a good t test case for us to um develop an open space or or
is this just creating the district or is it actually rezoning
property? It's just the creation of the district.
So if there be some feature action to rezoning. Property.
Yeah.
So that's some of our immediate special projects that are coming up in the next two months. Some of the other special projects that we do are special area plans. And one of the area plans that we're working on right now is
that we're working on right now is the Grand Boulevard Form-Based Code. And for that I'll bring off the project manager, Amy Heiler. She wants to talk a little bit about this one.
Good afternoon, Amy Toll with Planning and Development. So Grand Boulevard, we ended up doing a series of workshops. There were three workshops that we conducted between April and June to seek community input to determine how the Grand Boulevard area or corridor would be visioned essentially and what the community needs and the input was for this general area. So we received a lot of good feedback. Essentially the
common theme is ensuring walkability, making sure we keep our transportation corridor or not our transportation corridors in place, don't detract from the existing residential, and just give it a nice revitalization. Landscaping, pedestrian facilities, those were some of the common themes. We ended up surveying or sending out a survey to the public. So the survey was from the beginning of April to the beginning of June. So about two
months, around two months we had it going on. We received 108 survey results. So, with that, we were able to kind of get a good sample of what the community is looking for. So the area here is The area for the visioning for Grand Boulevard originally extended from the city limits down to Moog Road. And in our analysis, we actually conducted
a study on from the city limits all the way down to Milestra. So on the map it's as far down as Grand Boulevard as you can actually see, or at least the collector roadway of Grand Boulevard, and then it ships over to 19. So that was our ending point. We evaluated all of the raw data, so your land use, zoning, transportation, we did walking studies, we went out into the community, gathered all this information, and as a result we have Conducted our findings. We have a finalized
report. Some of the results was a strong appetite for walkability, as I stated, mixed use centers. There was our original when we went out to the public, our original boundary, like I said, ended at Moog Road. We had some individuals that actually wanted us to extend it all the way down to Mile Stretch because that area actually. had a lot more public services so it has the library, it has the uh post office, uh fire stations I believe. And so uh at
the end of our um uh or at the end of the workshop after gav gathering all this information our finalized uh boundary for Grand Boulevard is from the city limits all the way down to Mile Stretch. We are also in coordination with the city itself. Newport Ritchie was there, the mayor was there, we're working with their planning department to coordinate the form-based code requirements and the design standards on the county's side to essentially kind of align with what's going on in Newport Ritchie
to make sure there's a cohesive design on that segment so you're not seeing that break between the county and the city limit. So again, some of the feedbacks was strong public appetite for walkability, they wanted to see more recreation, open spaces, a desire to revitalize the commercial corridors, placemaking and public art was a popular theme. And then we also have areas that they identified for more institutional civic infrastructure.
So what are we doing too? supervise property owners in the corridor
sure
to redevelop because I've had many inquiries from property owners to redevelop their sites. There are a lot of a lot of circumstances which inhibit their sights from you. First and firm foremost is the proposed corridor width of the comp plan for Grand Boulevard. Sure. Um so Wanna know if something's doing that? You need to to keep in
mind that Grand Boulevard was a two lane roadway, still is in many cases. But as there have been takings throughout the year, properties that had a limited amount of depth now have less amount of depth, which make it almost impractical for them to redevelop in some sort of commercial fashion. I see this a lot too along US 193 Newport Ritchie. So I want to make
sure that we do something in there that there are that the code contains provisions which incentivize the development. And then the other question I would ask is what's the catalyst to for the area to re Do that love. Elfers is where Elfers was because it was a hub to transport citrus and we had rail and unfortunately we let that for
one reason or another we let that rail through there go. There is no more rail through there. And that area has since died. So I want to make sure if we do something, we're doing something that brings it back to life. We can draw the form-based codes we want, but if there's no economic incentive to go in there and do something with those property owners, then nothing is going to get done.
That's a great question comment. So um yes, we have been thinking about that. We're coordinating with our economic development um section of Planet Development Economic Growth. Um so we're strategizing to hire a consultant to establish um to uh update the to create an update to the code to establish a form-based code. In that uh exercise or in that in that scenario. We're going to be working on a supplemental document to the form-based code to identify some
of these properties that might need assistance in up being updated or coming into conformance. through grants, landscaping initiatives and other incentives that that we're kind of working on. We have been thinking about that.
He I'm not going to claim to have all the answers here, but I think we should be looking at things like No impact fee. Tax abatement. That's how we get that's how we get that area redeveloped because we we don't have a way to reinsert the rail in the citrus industry back into the area that historically once was there. So there's going to have to be a lot more incentive for somebody to do something there.
Yeah, that's great. Yeah and and that was some of the feedback from the visioning as well is that the community really wanted to reestablish those criteria.
Mr. Moody, I I'm really glad that you identified uh incentives because redevelopment is the heaviest lifting we can do in the county because we're trying to stimulate and motivate development where it wouldn't naturally go organically in the marketplace. And look at look at look at the West Market area. We've been giving mobility impact fee breaks and doing other things, but we've had really no pickup or traction. And I think we really have to step up the game because redevelopment of the West Side is critical for the financial and social and economic wealth of the county the, you know,
health of the county. So we're agreed and uh we will we will do that. Thank you. Great.
No, if you guys have any questions, I'm here. Otherwise that's pretty much it. Sure.
Apparently not. Mueller? I'll just okay. Just as far as a consultant, uh do you need that for staffing levels? Because I think that you guys would do a better job because you're here on the ground. You know the county better.
Um the consultant that we're inquiring is actually um an expert in form-based code, and so uh their knowledge base would be helpful. Helpful in us kind of establishing that integration.
Amy to the point. It's not the code that's going to get the area redeveloped. The code will guide the form of the redevelopment in the area, but it's not the impetus to redevelop the area. What you need is a is a consultant to talk about how we're going to spur. the economic development and redevelopment of that area. Um Tarpon Springs has a form based code. They've had it for quite a while now. There's not a mass rush of people. In fact, everybody
every call that I get in my office is nothing but people frustrated with the city's form-based code. So the code itself The code itself can provide a great guide for development. But I can tell you one of the s one of the big mistakes that Tarpon Springs has made Is some planners created all of these transects and decided that literally these types of businesses will go here and these types of businesses will go there. You've provided there's no incentive for any of those businesses to go there, there's no
impetus for any of those businesses to go there. And I hate to see us make the same mistake that the city of Tarpon Springs has made. for them.
Sure. That's the intent of the technical document that's going to run alongside this. So those types of variables are going
to
be within that document to kind of help relieve some of the property owners, give guidance, give incentives to really try to execute the update to the code. That will most likely be h done in house. So too.
Yeah, I I just uh I don't really have much to add. I just wanted to say that the form-based consultant is just basically um technical expertise that we feel that we could do some purchasing of. But uh the entire project we can do that internally. I have extensive experience on redevelopment projects. And you know, it's a multi-profit approach, not only incentives, it's grants and creating in a backdrop for an attractive environment where the organic commercial market wants to develop. So we are working on that now. And we're also doing
uh an affordable housing study and we can plug that in. And uh we're working on missing middle and some of the other options and we're prepared to um explore and also recommend incentivization. I think you'll find
if you go study that area part of the problem in that area and problem of problem in the West Market area. is we have a housing stock which was built fifty and sixty years ago, aimed at retirees that no longer occupy those homes and there needs to be some incentive incentives to re-establish better housing
stock in
that area. We we understand that in case case important holiday in the old nineteen seventy five uh residential areas, most of that is renter occupied and not by seniors but by people looking for affordable housing options. They're distressed communities.
I
guess
my concern is is that And I know I'll probably get a call from Commissioner Starkey for saying this. The smart code is Andres Dwani's code. Well, Andres Dwani's code works great for celebration, which is Disney. but and and for seaside. But Show me one of his other communities that has delivered on people live and work in the same neighborhood. He hasn't produced one yet.
Well, sir, I I don't agree with
that.
Some of the very early ones. I know Mr. Deswane and I know some of his current projects and he has successful projects internationally and nationally.
Yes, in places like Wellington. I question whether or not he can make that
work in holiday. Well he's got things uh in Rhode Island and Cincinnati area. He's he's done quite a bit of work but it's not holiday. No, it
is
not holiday. It's it's basically a more attractive or greenfields project. I understand. I'm very familiar with it. Yeah. Look, the form base is just part of a part of an implementation strategy. It's not the driver of the redevelopment corridor. It's important to get the city to buy in, establish uniform land use processes and procedures. and then bring the forces to bear. What do we need to meet the delta of getting things done that
is acceptable to the commercial development market? I'm not saying I
don't support you promoting a certain form of development. What I'm saying is the only way it will work is when there's money behind it.
Agreed.
And and one of the things that I'll just mention is we
transition into the next discussion. um is that we are looking at this on a multiple levels, as we've been mentioning. Even in the comprehensive plan day, um the future land the proposed future land use map is taking this area into consideration and what the community is envisioning for Grant Boulevard. Which brings us to the Commission Plan update itself, ESCO twenty fifty. Um we are in the midst of uh the Summer of Engagement two point O as we've been calling it. We've
had a number of open houses. Here's some pictures of the various open houses we've we've uh we've held this month in July. We've conducted four out of five open houses with the community, which was aimed to inform the community and gather feedback about the proposed changes to the comprehensive plan and to the future land use maps. Our next, yesterday we had an open house in holiday at the South Holiday by. And uh next Monday, uh July
28th, we will be at the New River Branch Library in Wesley Chapel for the last open house related to Pasco 2050. That doesn't mean people can't continue to contact us and share their feedback with us. Um our website is Pasco2050 dot com. It has contact information on on that website for the public and various stakeholders to send us emails, ask questions, and do whatever else they feel like they need to do with us. At these open houses this month.
Um we felt that it was it would be important to um broadcast to the public but also inform the Planning Commission that some of the key topics that were discussed included the proposed future land use map, which we went through here at the planning at the local planning agency. We discussed future land use categories and a lot of residents were really interested in particularly uh with regard to the residential future land use categories. So we there was a lot of discussion about residential densities. There was a lot of discussion at the open houses about rural
areas, not just in the Dade City open house, but also in the Shady Hills open house actually. Because the rural character area covers much of of uh the Shady Hills area. So there was actually a lot of good questions and good con good discussions on on the rural character area, on the rural transition area, and on the Northeast Rural Mm uh area as well. There were quite various questions on utilities and what that meant, what kind of extensions could could people possibly expect
in different parts of the county. I think one of the big ideas that people just wanted additional confirmation on on was whether utilities would be extended into northeast rural. There's no plans for that. So um other I other key topics that were discussed included the vision roadway system. And that was kind of really interesting um as it relates to the rural discussions um because it they noted it was noted by some of the stakeholders that there were no vision roads that were going north into the rural transition
area, which would help keep the that part of the rural transition area rural because there's no vision roads that would extend development of the area. Um and then of course natural resources protection uh across the county. So I did want to provide a little bit of feedback overview for what was being talked about in terms of the residential future land use categories. So basically the discussions from both the Dade City and the
Shady Hills open houses earlier this month included conversation on the new AGR agricultural rule. the RDR rural density residential and the SDR suburban density residential feature land use categories. And essentially what they were talking about pretty consistently from open house to open house was a consideration to slide the resid the zoning to slide the density scales down a little bit. it. Um one one comment was straightforward that
the minimum density in AGR should actually be zero so that you could just have an agricultural uh use on property, not necessarily have to have a dwelling unit on it. Um which made sense in that regard. Um and the other was our our previous uh our current proposal and previous to the open houses anyway was that the AGR should have um up to point two nine A density level of up to 0.29, which is approximately 1
12 unit per three acres, or one unit per two and a half acres. And um a lot of residents commented that, you know, we've had one dwelling unit per ten acres and one dwelling unit per five acres for a long time. Maybe the upper bound should just be one dwelling unit per five acres. So we're currently studying sliding the scale. to the left, if you will. Um and so we're looking into that right now. Uh if we do that, it kind of cascades into the discussion on
RDR. And we might change the minimum density on RDR to pick up where HR leaves off. So if AGR stops at point two, then we can pick up point two one and on in the rural density residential category itself. And then there was some final discussion that occurred, um, I believe at the Land O' Lakes Open House, where um Some private sector stakeholders planners, stakeholders in the TASCO planning
community, uh commented that it might be difficult to obtain a minimum required three dwelling units per gross acre in the SDR if we're not Allowing 40-foot-wide lots. And so if we if we're passing the requirement 50s and 60s. that minimum density requirement might actually drop to 2.5. So we're kind of we're studying that right now to see if that makes sense right now. So other
comments that we've had from open houses, this one came from last night's open house. The question of residential versus non-residential on the frontages of US 19. Some of the commentary we got was that there was a need for a variety of uses along US 19. How does the core, commercial office residential, which is the new version of COM and ROR, and the mixed-use transit centers, which would be the community squares and the urban centers? um accommodate or plan for residential. So
we're currently looking into that whether or not we should be mandating a vertically integrated mixed-use building with commercial on the first floor and residential on top on the US 19 corridor or uh allow for multifamily residential for example. You you would have to think about a higher intensity user like high density residential, a high intensity corridor like 19, but since single family homes wouldn't do very well on 19. Um what
would whether we would allow the multifamily residential right on the US nineteen frontage and how might we limit the application of residential if we were to allow it for taking over the whole court um and make sure that we ha we still have space for commercial enterprise and employment generation, etc. So we're looking into those comments that we got. Some other comments that we got from the Dade City Open House, a lot of discussion on the Dade City transition area, which is the Dade City
transition area appears one time in the current comprehensive plan. It's a reference to a generic area in the Northeast Pasco County Rural Area study from 2006. Um, but we wanted to make sure that we could recognize the Dade City transition area as a buffer zone between urban development and Dade City and the Northeast Pasco County rural area. And we were defining the Dade City transition area within our comprehensive plan. These are rough boundaries. It's kind of uh Swiss
cheese at the moment between unincorporated and unincorporated Pasco County and Dade City jurisdiction right now. So these these roads are it's not a simple box. And then finally there was some discussions that we had at the Land O' Lakes, open house as well. About vision roads and particularly the subject of connections to Hillsborough County came up, eased to Bruce Bowns and South at 56. Caliente Boulevard was called out. There's missing segments that
would be part of the Rangeland Boulevard Tower Road extension. And then some a lot of discussion on the 52 I-75 interchange area. Um area residents were commenting how fifty-two really was one of the only ways to get across to the east part of the county, eastern part of the county, eastern 75, other than overpass and fifty-four and fifty-six. But if you live north, fifty-two is the way to go. So we talked a little bit about um what our Vision Road Network is
doing and how it's gonna uh how we're providing some parallel network to 52 that'll cross uh under 75 but north of the interchange and give some relief to 52 and what kind of projects are out there and how the development community is helping to bring that to fruition. Uh those are some of the major uh feedback. Uh some of the major feedback that we got during our the open houses this summer. We have like I said what we have one more. That's uh July twenty eighth,
six PM at the River River that braid just stopped.
Sorry, I can ask you a question.
New River. New River branch library, sorry. Yes.
So when the updated comp plan comes to the LBA What what is your plan? Because It's a lengthy document. Mm-hmm. I mean, for what I've heard there's no numerous revisions to the text that go well beyond the stuff that you just talked about. And I think you know that the Planning Commission is certainly not a rubber stamp. They read these things. So Wha what are you gonna do like
a workshop where you kinda with the Planning Commission first to go over the text of it? Or wha what is your
th this is not as simple as the Backyard Chicken Ordnance, okay. This is a major update to the way Pasco County is planting its growth. So I don't think this is something you can just do in a single public hearing in front of the Planning Commission. It's I think it's gonna require more extensive discussion. So what is your plan of action?
Well, we're we're currently putting the drafts on the website, and we've been encouraging everybody to be looking at the drafts that are that are there. Today we have Pasco Lives, which is the housing element, Pasco Plays, which is the recreation element, Pasco Conserves, which is the conservation, and Pasco Adapts, which is essentially the coastal element plus resiliency. Um those chapters are on the website right now. We're going to be publishing specializes, which is
basically the it's the extension of of the future land use element for Pasco 2050 that con that includes Connected City, DOPH, um Central Pascoal Employment Village, Connerton, Newport Corners, uh Gateway Hub. All of those are not changing, so that's an easy chapter to tak take and digest. Uh Pasco Partners, which is the intergovernmental piece of the comprehensive plan. Pasco Serves, which is the utilities piece, Pasco Works, which is the economic development
piece. Pasco Moves, which is the transportation element. All of this stuff is gonna be on our website within the next two two two weeks or so. And then within by the end of the month, uh by the end of towards the middle to end of August, I would say that Pasco grows should be online as well. Um that's our target. Um
So we've been encouraging, check the website, read the documents and the materials that are there. We wanted to do this today to provide update on what are the kinds of comments that we're receiving. So to the extent that we can, you know, uh do additional minor workshop type events with the Planning Commission and local planning agency that's doable. Right now the plan has been to publish these early, a couple months ahead, and
then take it, bring it as a whole to the Planning Commission, could be set at the end at the end of September, early October.
So the expectation of the Planning Commission members should be reading it in advance as it appears on the website.
That's the encouragement right now, yes. Um and I would say too that the comprehensive plan update is not a whole new comprehensive plan. It's an optimization and uh it's updating existing policies, bringing them up to current statute, up to current code. There's a lot of times where a land development code got a little ahead of the comprehensive plan, so
Well the only thing I'm gonna caution you on is the Planning Commission members are in a unique
a role because they can't communicate with each other they can't have a dialogue with each other about what they read online except at this notice public meeting or a workshop notice public workshop, so even if they are able to read it in advance they have no ability to discuss it in advance. So Are you just envisioning that their only opportunity for discussing it will be on th this one public hearing that you're Plain
to have. I I'm I'm It's up to the Planning Commission. I you all need to direct staff what you want, but I I just I find it hard to believe that a document as important as this is gonna be able to just be handled in a single public hearing, but Maybe I'm wrong.
But but and to be clear, we have been communicating with various stakeholders on the Planning Commission on on particular chapters as well. So it's it's not like we're not engaging the Planning Commission on s on the various subject matters that we're dealing with.
I think the point uh that David's making is that we don't have the ability to talk to each other about our concerns if we have any. um because we're we're we're per not permitted to do that. So would it be more I I think it's uh probably a good idea to to bring it back to a meeting and so we can have a discussion at least. It may not be uh may not be any um any big items to discuss, but at least we'll have the opportunity.
I mean I guess um to add to that, this is the local planning agency. This is the one entity that whose input on this update is probably more I would arguably more important than anybody else that you've spoken to today. I mean this is their role. So I I don't think you should be giving them too little time to fulfill their role.
So that worked for the right-of-way.
Should we be having maybe workshop on element at a time or something?
Uh only thing I've seen to date and part of that's my own fault 'cause I haven't gone and looked at it on my own, but the only thing that's been brought here has been on um with these lane use items. I mean the the result. whole lot of other information out there and like hey go read it yourself and let us know if you got any questions.
We'll tell you that I've had the pleasure of working with some of our with staff and some of our land use attorneys in and out of the county. on some of the language of the element, but there's still a lot of I'll call it disagreement. as to the appropriateness of the content that's in those elements right now and that that's not resolved at this time. And I can tell you that group is expecting to have more meetings and workshops
to try to resolve some of those issues.
Okay. We'll t we'll take another
page. Yeah, I uh Terry, I'm just I I've seen I mean if something as you know
if something as simple as a parking ordinance gets sort of derailed because of not a lot of communication, advanced communication with the Planning Commission. I'm fearful that the comp plan is gonna Be even more of 'em monumental task. If we don't Give Planning Commission adequate time to digest it and debate it.
So I'm not sure that just telling them to read it in advance on the website's sufficient.
Just um. back to my previous comment, maybe one section at a time, 'cause I can tell you when it comes to the conserves element. I guess that's what we used to call the coastal element and Yeah. It can be conservation element of your plan. There's a right now a I'll just say a lot of professional disagreement with some of the language that's been proposed by staff that's
still yet unresolved. And it would I think it would be better to do this one at a time and little bits at a time where we can come in and get these things resolved because I can tell you that Yeah. I I don't wanna put words in the land use community's mouth, but my sense is that the land use community is not
satisfied with the langu I'll leave it at that, satisfied with the language.
So Terry, is it would it on that idea would it be po for the elements that are th that staff feels are sort of close to done?
Could you put one element each for each Planning Commission meeting from now until Whatever we're trying to get this adopted. put each element that's done at the end of the agenda. So Yeah. Every Planning Commission meeting they're tackling one element.
It's an idea that we can consider.
Yeah. I mean I'd have to go back and check the project timeline and see and and check in with um our internal stakeholders and my leadership. But we'll take that into consideration as a potential way
forward. Or maybe two at a time. I don't know what the right answer is, but I mean but
That that's a great idea and and I think we should prioritize what what gets the Planning Commissioner earliest. So obviously th the land use element which we call Pasco Grows that should be right up front and some of the issues that we've had a lot of interaction with our stakeholders like uh you know our our open space and recreation element and things like that. So we'll we'll bring you the uh not the contentious but the most um interesting items that are activating the community first and and we could do that David
with all due respect in some of the drafts that I've been involved in the working group on There is I'll call it major disagreement out there over whether this document is becoming a guiding document or a regulatory document. And until that issue is resolved I'm not believing this is going to be a peaceful, easy process. Well,
uh
it never ends with common. That's got that's gotta get aired out and vetted and there needs to be a lot of discussion on that. There is a there's a lot of disagreement out there about this and it's probably better for us to do it where we can all talk openly about it than Have than ultimately resulting in continuances that drag on beyond the expiration of the concept.
Well that was the whole point. You know, let's bring the the the hot chapters in first, invite the stakeholders in like we're doing with tree protection. And you know there's a there's a variety of opinions. Uh I understand.
Of course. Some people are saying we're doing too much, so we have to thread the needle and do the right thing. But
I don't have a problem with you bringing the the contentious ones in first, but I guess I'm also sensitive to your time because you do have a schedule. If you got elements that you think are done that even are that you may consider not contentious Why not bring them to the Planning Commission sooner so that you can get their feedback on
them. That's fine too. If they're close to
done, why not get them on the agenda?
Well in the spirit of saving time because we are time constrained, the the contentious items are the ones that are gonna take longest to resolve and work through. But a as as we are done with um things that are universally or mostly universally accepted, we can bring that too. I just wanted to get the contentious stuff as early as possible out to the commission so we can meet And talk about it.
Yeah, good. Bring them however you think. I'm just My my general concern was that I don't know that this can be handled in a single polo carry. Especially would this is it would be their only opportunity to Have dialogue. about the contents of the document. And hear from the public about the contents of the documents because they're gonna be There'll be public hearing items. So
I would think that You'd want to allocate a little more time to I mean today was great. Today would have been a good idea to handle two chapters.
that's true. So would the Planning Commission Uh consider that maybe um for September and October we could have an extra meeting just to deal with the comp plan. I would not object. Right. Yeah. And then we could really give a f effective and deliberate amount of time and get all the parties engaged and have meaningful discussions. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. We'll work on that and thanks David. That's a good advice you've given us. Yeah. Once again.
I've been here long enough to see what happens when you guys don't get enough time to look at something. So I know it's
resources.
So one of the things that we've developed to help uh property owners, residents and other stakeholders understand some of the future land use changes that are taking place in terms of category name, but not necessarily in type of in in terms of uh content as to whether or not they can do a particular land use on their property. property is the swipe map that we call is what we call it that takes you from the future land use map that we have today and then you
can swipe across the map to show you what Pasco 2050 is talking about for your particular property. So you can zoom into your site, swipe it across, see what the difference is between what future land use you have today, what the proposed future land use is and then you can research it um on our website and and or ask questions to the planning development and economic growth department to get some better clarity on what Pasco 2050 can mean for your project or your site. Um and I think they're working on something.
Uh we were gonna do like a little short tutorial on how the swipe map works so that people when they click it on the Pasco twenty fifteen dot com website they can actually uh operate it correctly.
Carrie, how are we doing on the when you made the presentation to us about your new names and them kind of sliding ranges of densities.
talked about how we decide what land uses are compatible with what land uses today and that now you're going to be taking the approach that we'll look at compatibility based on what's on the ground, not what's in the matrix. How are we doing with developing that criteria? Because I think that's important to the success of your proposal here.
Well th the the criteria is being established in the comprehensive plan, but we're not identifying what those dimensional standards are going to actually be, because that would be the job of the land development code to do. So the comprehensive plan is merely providing the policy direction, not to necessarily regulate to the operations plan. So to the extent that the the policy direction is given, we're going to be developing uh the land development code update coming up. I think project
schedules indicating February twenty twenty six are that's when we're going to be actually putting meat to the bones of the policy that's being established by the competency plan. So
I So the concern is and I don't want to say I'm alarmed, I just say the concern is I could see the potential where somebody's planning on making a comprehensive plan amendment request and they're looking at the matrix in the current comp plan going, Okay, well based on that matrix, this should be an acceptable change to the proposed future land use. How
does someone Who's trying to plan today?
address address the unknown. That's why I asked the question. So they know what they can do today, does that mean they should hurry up and rush their amendment in before whatever day we're gonna adopt this thing, or
People have to be able to
plan their land and when we're talking about
some developments that require millions or tens of millions of dollars that planning goes on over a long period of time. These are not decisions people make in haste and overnight. That's hard to do when you when the regulation is when when the rules are in flux. Sure.
Okay,
well I think that was a great suggestion. Both David's made. And I think we're all in agreement that we're willing to do an extra meeting. Yeah.
Yes. Um on the overhead, just really quick to return to the tutorial. Mm-hmm.
Um wait, can I can I get a clarification on the extra main thing? So is it your preference to handle all of the component interview in solely in the extra meeting or do you You don't want it to interfere with your regular agenda, is that the goal, or were you okay with Did they add elements to your regular gender if it's a slow day. I'm not sure what your desire is. I don't have a problem.
Oh
Oh okay.
Right. Um but we have a lot of ground that goes
Okay. I mean realistically we're talking about three meetings if we're talking about middle of September, right? So I mean,
just not a lot of time. No, I think you're gonna need extra meaning, so it sounds like you probably do need to add it to your some stuff to your regular agenda too.
Oh bring a water call. Yeah. That's
right. Yeah. Could we could we do the dominance day? Could we do the special purpose meeting earlier in the day than the normal one thirty slide? Is that would that be possible? We can meet whenever you want to meet whenever they can
stop.
That'd be my preference. And for records have to be here as well, but we have to coordinate with them. But yes, that is possible.
Are there any s statutory requirements we have to comply with or Like meeting notice and times and
I mean you're you're
Your meeting agenda, as long as it's published properly like it normally is, should be adequate.
So we would if we were to do like your workshop in the at ten AM, let's say, on Thursday, ten AM, we could put that on the same agenda as the one thirty meeting. Yeah, so you can do that. Nothing stopping you from doing that.
Yeah.
Sounds good.
All I have is chomp. Yeah, that's it. If you want something better than that,
you're gonna have to get your own food. Who's bringing the French fries? We got water.
So
um In terms of the tutorial, this is what the uh swipe map looks like. It looks just like Pasco Mapper. Um if we open the Legend box that you can toggle between uh the current future, hold on.
Yeah I gotta open the toggle box different type if you wanna show it.
Right, so here we'll have a very short menu. It'll give you the roads, the market areas, the future land use for 2050, and the future land use for 2025, which is our current comprehensive plan. If you just click uh the 2025, um it'll just give you your your traditional
Uh
Yeah. Turn that one off. So if you're just starting off, you'll see this as your default setup. So you'll have the 2025 click, and that's the current feature land use map that we have today. Now if you turn that off and turn on 2050, you'll only get the 2050 math. Yeah, it takes a little bit of a minute to look.
Oh yeah. That's the 2050 map, not not too different. It's again been talking about it in terms of optimizations. And then if you click both of them, if you have to toggle both like that, and what'll happen is you go down to the far right to the swipe button and it'll give you a sliding bar.
Yes. You you ta you toggle the swipe on and then you get the the swipe bar and you can actually zoom into any part of the county and transform th from the current feature menus to the Basco twenty fifty feature menu. So if you want to just zoom in on some random part of the county. Yeah, counter took it fine.
It's just
And you get the and you get the idea then to zoom in on your particular property, zoom in on your house, zoom in on your business, whatever, and swipe back and forth to kind of get a sense of what's going on and then you can click into the map, either side of the swipe bar, to see what you were or what you are today and when you could be tomorrow.
Are the parcel lines in there today?
If you can if you have the most important thing,
okay, if you go zoom if you zoom in enough.
Okay, I gotcha. That's pretty cool.
So Yeah, and I it's just saying you can open up the legend by clicking the little menu boxes on each side of the shape file later and see what you know what the colors are referring to.
And yeah, if you have any questions, if anybody has any questions, please, um, they can always reach out to the Playing Development Academy Board Department and provide us their commentary, feedback. Hey, this was this for me, what does it mean for Pascoal 2050? We can give them an answer.
And that'll complete the presentation.
Great, thank you, Terry. Appreciate that.
Hey, anything else?
Amy, did you have a speech? No? Okay.