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Plan Will Enable Tampa To Greet Coming Growth With Enthusiasm

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 18, 2008

The last time Tampa created a plan for growth, the city was hardly growing.

Between 1960 and 1995, Tampa's population barely bumped from 273,000 to 280,000 as families chose the suburbs instead.

But fueled by a revived interest in urban living and a growing frustration with long commutes, the market is changing, and local planners say Tampa will add 92,000 new residents by 2025.

Whether that growth brings prosperity or gridlock, opportunity or degradation, depends on how well the city plans for its new popularity.

Thankfully, a thoughtful update to the city's comprehensive plan - developed by the City-County Planning Commission and city staffers - gives citizens and businesses hope for smart growth.

Unlike the current plan, which planners say was "protective against growth," Tampa's revised plan will encourage development in places that need it.

Redevelopment - especially near the University of South Florida, East Tampa and Westshore - better describes the envisioned future. The goal is to get more residential units in the Westshore area, more businesses in East Tampa and more corporate and research facilities in the university area.

The plan that city council will consider in the coming weeks also emphasizes tight development along major roadways, such as Hillsborough Avenue. Properly done, a mix of stores, offices and mid-rise residential buildings along arterial roads will allow people to live closer to where they work, shop and play. And the improvements would be designed with mass-transit lines in mind.

Proposed changes to the comprehensive plan - which must be updated every 10 years - should ease the fears of those living in stable, vibrant neighborhoods where new development is neither welcomed nor needed. Rather, by encouraging development in areas that could benefit, the plan would relieve pressure on established neighborhoods. At a minimum, the plan would give neighborhoods new tools to determine their destiny.

People in rundown neighborhoods should be excited, too, because the plan embraces the building blocks of livable cities. That means developers would be highly encouraged to include sidewalks, bike lanes and appropriate landscaping in their projects.

So far, the process of updating Tampa's comp plan has gone more smoothly than in Hillsborough County, where the update hit a wall over sidewalks and bike lanes. County commissioners said they didn't want a plan that encourages such amenities because they add to developers' costs.

In the city, the public was heavily involved in preparing the document. Planners held a series of neighborhood meetings and public workshops. They also held "study circles" where diverse residents met three to six times to discuss what they valued in a city. They said safety, economic opportunity, mobility options, the preservation of resources and heritage, and a sense of community and place.

The document's hundreds of proposed policies also address water conservation, neighborhood playgrounds, historic buildings and flood-prone zones.

While there may be some quibbles about various changes, council members should see the 500-page proposal as a sensible guide for anticipated growth.

Still, because the plan is full of "shoulds" and "encourages," it'll be up to city council and Mayor Pam Iorio to put some muscle behind the vision. Adopting the plan will mean little unless its goals guide zoning decisions - even in the face of intense pressure.

Ray Chiaramonte, assistant executive director of the planning commission, says the city's new comprehensive plan will benefit developers, too. "If developers understand the rules, they don't have much of a problem following them," he said. "It's when it's not clear up front."

Thanks to the planning commission, the city's staff and residents themselves, the city should be able to face its population boom with a considerable degree of confidence and enthusiasm.

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