Adopted Long Range Comprehensive Plan

Frequently Asked Questions about the Comprehensive Plan

 

Legal Status of the Comprehensive Plan

 

Capital Improvements Element

The Capital Improvements Element (CIE) is the fiscal guidance and implementation document for the Comprehensive Plan. It is to "...consider the need for and location of public facilities... " (Section 163.3177(3), Florida Statutes). The CIE identifies public facilities that will be required during the six fiscal years following adoption of the new plan and be updated annually thereafter. The CIE must include the location and cost of the facilities, and the sources of revenue that will be used to fund the facilities. It must also be "financially feasible". In other words, dependable revenue sources must equal or exceed anticipated costs.

Capital Improvements Element Maps

 

Coastal Management Element

The purpose of this Coastal Management Element is to provide a plan and policy direction for development activities in the coastal planning area. This plan and policy direction includes restrictions on development activities where such activities would damage or destroy coastal resources, protection of human life, and limitations on public expenditures in areas subject to destruction by natural disaster. The objectives of this element are to ensure that development in the coastal area does not prohibit public accessibility to the coast, that human life is not endangered, that adequate public hurricane shelter space is available to coastal inhabitants, that levels of service on coastal evacuation routes do not deteriorate, such that safe and timely evacuation is adversely impacted, that water-dependent and water-related land uses are given priority, that public expenditures do not encourage growth in coastal high hazard areas, and that public decisions will include consideration of coastal hazards in each land use and public infrastructure decision-making process.

Coastal Management Element Maps

 

Conservation and Aquifer Recharge Element

The purpose of the Conservation and Aquifer Recharge Element is to provide a plan and policy direction for the preservation, conservation, and management of the natural resources of Hillsborough County. This element is intended to provide guidelines for future governmental programs and decisions related to the protection and enhancement of the County's natural environment, as well as the public health, safety and welfare. The objective of the Conservation and Aquifer Recharge Element is to ensure that the air, land, water and living resources of Hillsborough County remain an asset, rather than become a liability, to the quality of life of all existing and future inhabitants.

Conservation and Aquifer Recharge Element Maps

 

Economically Disadvantaged Groups Element

The purpose of this Element is to improve the quality of life for the economically disadvantaged populations in Hillsborough County by addressing their special needs and promoting their full participation in the community. The basis for planning this Element is the awareness that the quality of life for a considerable number of economically disadvantaged people needs improvement if those citizens are to fully participate in community life and become independent, self-sufficient individuals.

Future Land Use Element

The Future Land Use Element is the foundation for the Comprehensive Plan, as it affects each Element within the plan through its designations and distribution of land uses. The basic Concept Plan, originally established in 1988, provides the physical structure to the Comprehensive Plan and the Future Land Use Element. The two most important features of the concept plan are the activity centers and corridors and the urban/suburban/rural choices available for living and working environments. This concept of choice has been overlaid upon the structural focus of the Comprehensive Plan (i.e., activity centers and corridors).

Future Land Use Element Map Series

 

Housing Element

The Housing Element addresses government activities and provides direction and assistance to the efforts of the private sector in meeting the housing needs of all residents of Hillsborough County.

Potable Water Element

The purpose of the Potable Water Element is to identify capital improvements and establish goals, objectives and policies that will ensure Hillsborough County is able to supply sufficient quantity and quality potable water for current and future needs.

Potable Water Element Maps

 

Intergovernmental Coordination Element

The purpose of the Intergovernmental Coordination Element is to identify and resolve incompatible goals, objectives and policies and development proposed in local government comprehensive plans and to determine and respond to the needs for coordination processes and procedures with adjacent local governments, and regional and state agencies.

Livable Communities Element

This Element contains Community and Special Area Studies. These Community and Special Area Studies are intended to be extensions and refinements of the County’s Comprehensive Plan. The studies should discuss the special and unique characteristics of the areas under study and examine the issues and problems facing the areas and provide strategies for solutions. They are meant to portray a vision for the future and may have an impact on zoning. Community and Special Area Studies are to be developed through an extensive citizen participation program. The Comprehensive Plan is general in nature and provides guidance on an issue county-wide. A community or special area study is more detailed in nature and is intended to provide specific recommendations on issues in a particular area of the county.

Public Schools Facilities Element

In 2005, the Florida Legislature mandated that the county and each municipality within the county must adopt a Public School Facilities Element that is consistent with those adopted by the other local governments within the county. The purpose of Plan Amendment CPA 07-33a is to adopt a Public School Facilities Element (PSFE) for Unincorporated Hillsborough County. Unincorporated Hillsborough County’s PSFE is consistent with all other local governments within Hillsborough County. The PSFE for all four jurisdictions within Hillsborough County includes the following: • Policies addressing population projections, growth and development trends; • Policies regarding school facility siting and availability and procedures relating to community design and compatibility; • Policies encouraging shared use and co-location, bicycle and pedestrian access, and use of schools as emergency shelters, and land use and school facility coordination; • Policies to implement Public School Concurrency, which include establishing level of service standards, school concurrency service areas, applicability standards, capacity determination standards, availability standards, and proportionate share mitigation; and • Policies providing for the monitoring and evaluation of the Public School Facilities Element.

Sanitary Sewerage Element

The purpose of the Sanitary Sewerage Element is to provide reliable, efficient, and environmentally safe collection, transmission, treatment, and disposal of all wastewater generated throughout the Unincorporated Hillsborough County Wastewater Service Area.

Sanitary Sewer Element Maps

 

Solid Waste Element

The purpose of the Solid Waste Element is to provide standards to guide Hillsborough County in developing plans and policies in accordance with Chapter 9J 5, FAC, while demonstrating a commitment to eliminating identified and projected deficits in the solid waste management system. The Solid Waste Element addresses activities, and provides direction and assistance to the efforts of the private sector in meeting the solid waste needs of all residents of Hillsborough County.

Solid Waste Element Maps

 

Stormwater Management Element

The purpose of the Stormwater Management Element is to address significant issues related to stormwater quantity, stormwater quality, and stormwater management system maintenance. The County's Stormwater Management Program (Program), and thus the Stormwater Management Element which defines the philosophy of this Program, will focus on issues directly related to the impacts, both actual and potential, of stormwater runoff. This focus eliminates from consideration in this Element coastal issues strictly related to tidal flooding and other tidal impacts. Also eliminated from consideration are other surface water management issues (i.e., non stormwater sources of pollution, etc.) and other water resources management issues (i.e., groundwater withdrawals, non stormwater sources of groundwater pollution, etc.) which are not directly related to the impacts of stormwater runoff. Such issues are considered in other Elements within this Comprehensive Plan update (i.e., Conservation and Aquifer Recharge, Coastal Management, Potable Water, Sanitary Sewerage, and Solid Waste).

Stormwater Management Element Maps

 

Recreation and Open Space Element

The purpose of the Recreation and Open Space Element is to provide guidance to unincorporated Hillsborough County to enhance recreation and open spaces, while designating adequate and appropriately located land for recreation facilities to meet the needs of the anticipated population.

Transportation Element and Maps -Adopted parts only

purpose of the Transportation Element is to plan a transportation system to accommodate future motorized and non-motorized travel in Hillsborough County. A transportation system is a group of different transportation modes, such as roads, transit, bicycle and pedestrian ways, which work together to satisfy our transportation needs. This element combines traffic circulation, mass transit, congestion management, intermodal and bicycle and pedestrian considerations, into one element so that transportation would be looked at as an integrated system, rather than several disjointed pieces.

Transportation Element and Maps - Not Adopted

These parts of the document provide the background data and analysis used to develop the adopted portions of the Plan including the Goals, Objectives and Policies of the Transportation Element.

Intergovernmental Unadopted Background.pdf