the livable communities element
tommyI’m encouraged by the handful of people who have contacted us in recent weeks about the BOCC ignoring the citizens‘ wishes. Many of you are sick of the way we are being ignored, and you are getting involved. Some others want to get involved, but are not quite sure of the effect of these plans, and have asked me to explain the “livable communities element” of the Hillsborough Plan. So I asked Mariella Smith of the Tampa Bay Group of the Florida Sierra Club and Joseph Narkiewicz, Exec. VP of the Tampa Bay Builders Association for the specifics. Unfortunately, Mr. Narkiewicz did not respond to email:
What’s in the Livable Communities Element?
Mariella Smith:
Compact walkable & bikeable town centers with mixed uses; a whole section on sustainability, green building and energy conservation; Livable Roadways features like well-designed bike lanes, sidewalks, and medians; lots of support for accessible alternative transportation; smart growth policies that cluster development and preserve green space; design standards that raise communities above the blandness of cookie-cutter tract housing; town streets connected in a grid so traffic flows more easily (Developers like to fill subdivisions with dead-end roads & cul de sacs, forcing all cars to funnel onto big boulevards that become increasingly congested, unappealing and dangerous.) See it all here:
More from Mariella:
… the developers cast this as an issue that pits Planning & Growth Management (P&GM) against the Planning Commission. It looks like certain commissioners and developers are trying to pit one department against the other, with the ultimate goal of discrediting our Planning Commission. Our public process needs the balance provided by both these departments, each doing their own job. The Planning Commission is set up by state law to be in charge of our Comprehensive Plan, but county commissioners are now handing the Plan’s update over to P&GM for a rewrite, much to the developers’ glee…
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April 10th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Why don’t you contact the Planning Commission directly since the “element” you speak of is what they wrote to to potential add to the county’s Comp Plan.
April 10th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
The Planning Commission committed a grievous error in the eyes of the developers by taking policies found throughout the comp. plan, adding in a few new policies to address those concerns the citizens of this county present to the BOCC almost EVERY time there is a rezoning, and then putting it all in one place–the new Livable Communities Element.
This element contains such radical ideas as developing a list of allowable tree plantings on county rights of way so neighborhood groups can beautify roadways.
Even scarier are the sections on bike paths that might remove us from #1 in bike deaths in this country (Hillsborough County needs to take those #1 placings anywhere they can get them!)
But most of all, it puts these policies in a format and language that even our BOCC can understand, if they would only bother to read it.
You see, the elected officials really don’t want things spelled out so clearly. They would then be expected to actually follow good growth management principles rather than just voting the way their campaign contributors want them to.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
[...] public meeting to discuss the Hillsborough County Growth Plan is tonight, and once again the Tribune is begging commissioners to have a serious debate on the [...]