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Hillsborough Growth Planner Retiring

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By MIKE SALINERO

msalinero@tampatrib.com

Published: November 28, 2008

TAMPA - Robert Hunter, who helped guide growth planning in Hillsborough County for 21 years, will resign at the end of this year as executive director of the planning commission.

Hunter, 66, said he has to step down because his state-deferred retirement period is ending. The planning commission makes recommendations on land use and zoning matters to the Hillsborough County Commission and the city governments of Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace.

Hunter oversaw development of the original comprehensive growth plans for the county and three municipalities in 1989. Known as "comp plans," the documents were required by Florida's 1985 Growth Management Act.

"We had to get them all done in the first two years I was here," Hunter said. "Law required they all be done at once, and we did them."

Since then, the planning commission has updated the comp plans twice. Under Hunter, the commission also created an urban service boundary to hold the line on sprawl. County services, such as water and sewer, are not extended outside the urban boundary, encouraging development to fill in pockets inside the urban area, while protecting the rural character of the land outside the line.

"The other issue I always worked on is that growth isn't subsidized, that it pays its fair share as it enters the community," Hunter said. "Some of that was controversial, but I worked with real good planning commissions over the years."

Hunter also led the commission and its staff in helping unincorporated communities such as Ruskin, Lutz and Seffner draw up community plans. The plans incorporated residents' wishes as to how the communities would develop recreation, conservation and sustainable business areas. The community plans were amended onto the county comp plan.

Hunter said the biggest challenge facing the planning commission is developing regulations to fill undeveloped pockets inside the urban service boundary.

"We already have roads around the land and we have oversized utilities, so we might as well find a way to develop on that so that it becomes an asset instead of a vacant parcel," he said.

Planners also need to find ways in the comprehensive plan to encourage light rail for mass transit, Hunter said.

Bruce P. Cury, chairman of the planning commission, commended Hunter for "an excellent job in leading this community's planning efforts."

"He has contributed significantly to making this a better place," Cury said.

Hunter is president of the American Planning Association and intends to stay active in the organization after he leaves the office in May. Other than that, he says he has no immediate plans.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303

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