Director David Engel update on stormwater, binding plans, Connected City
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, Dec 12, 2024
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Planning Commission, Dec 12, 2024
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 4m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 100% of 11 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Yes, thank you. I'll be very brief. Um my name is David Engel. I'm the Planning and Economic Development Director for Pasco County. I'm not here to rebute uh the comments that were made. I'm just here to update the public as well as the commission on some of the things that are taking place that are attempting to address some of these perceived problems and issues that the public has. Number one, uh the Board of County Commissioners is requiring now that binding concept plans be submitted with MPUDs to hold a level of accountability on
these large planned unit developments. We're working uh vigorously towards uh a definition of binding plan, and we will be presenting that to the board shortly. Number two, uh the stormwater situation has ravaged many areas of the county. According to the National Weather Service, um bec the the the level of rainfall from Milton exceeded the 200 year storm event statistically. We realize that the climates are changing. We had Debbie, we had uh Helene and then Milton all,
you know, and then the ground was saturated, it was no place for water to go. The the board has directed us to map out through our GIS system where the damage is, and the board will be holding a workshop shortly to talk about ways that we could step up our regulation of stormwater management to mitigate these problems in the future. Thirdly, on open space and preservation and uh in the way we we develop property, the board has directed us and we will have a more aggressive tree preservation
and tree mitigation program in front of the board for adoption in the next 60 days. We're just finishing up on the uh increased fees to the development community. Uh on the business district in Connected City, I I I you know I we had uh the board meeting on Tuesday, some of the people came out and spoke about um the fact that uh we're not maintaining the Connected City employment model, but they weren't aware that on that board consent agenda was an approval for double branch to increase their entitlements by three million
square feet. Moving away from the distribution model and and advancing life sciences and advanced manufacturing. So they did that. The county didn't pay them an extra nickel, so they're gonna reprogram some of their marketing strategies. And also there is an active eatertainment gathering can component of Double Branch. It may not be visible to you, but it was approved in the the original MPUD and we are proceeding with planning and design of that. We're also
working vigorously in connecting Tyndall Road through VOPH in Northern Connected City to get people to the jobs and people to the entertainment and entertainment. And that's underway right now also. So um that's basically the overview. Again, I'm not trying to rebuttal anybody. I'm just trying to keep the information current and constant. And uh I heard uh uh this week that the board has invited uh Metro Development to come in and give us an update on Connected City, so that'll be at a public meeting. Thank you.
Um
I think about a year ago the board asked for a workshop on both the villages of Pasadena Hills and Connected City and To the best of my know I d realize it's predated you, but to the best of my knowledge those workshops have not occurred yet. So is there a plan of action to For the board to kind of hear an update on where we stand in Connecticut City.
As I just said, we've uh we there was an invitation sent out to Metro Development to appear in front of the board and give us an update and discuss the fact uh you know what's going on in the ground and how we're gonna accomplish the ambitious goals of Connecton City. Number two on B O P H the Board has directed a workshop on their the financial plan But uh we're we're convening an analysis using Bill Oliver as our consultant to evaluate the financial plan and report back to the board. And we're working on that right now, sir.
Okay.
If I would I was just gonna say if anybody you know during the meeting We could talk afterwards if anybody wants to speak with me as far as the school things and also Our door is open, our phone lines are open, you can call us, uh go to Pasco Schools Department's Planning Department and we'd speak to you about anything. So please contact us anytime you want us to talk.