Temple Terrace Approves Its Comprehensive Plan Update for State Review

This major Plan update was five years in the making, and followed the community-derived blueprint outlined in the City’s Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR), adopted two years ago.  With this transmittal, all four jurisdictions represented on the Planning Commission have had their Plans updated.

The Temple Terrace Plan Update focused on developing a strategic vision for the City’s future, which capitalized and leveraged key assets to give the City a unique identity and a competitive niche within the larger Tampa Bay metropolitan region.  These assets include the City’s proximity to the University of South Florida (USF) to the northwest and Vandenberg Jetport to the southeast, the City’s unique history and distinctive architecture, the Hillsborough River bisecting the City, its neighborhoods’ oak tree canopy, its internationally diverse population with the highest education attainment of any area in the County, and its overall sociability and livability.

The City’s Plan Update also provided a solution to the biggest challenge standing in the way of its future development – a Level of Service (LOS) “F” arterial road network.  All of the arterial roads going through the City are owned, maintained, and funded either by the County or the State, and are out of the City’s jurisdictional control.  Additionally, ninety percent or more of the traffic is “pass through”, originating and terminating outside the City.  Yet the failing condition of the arterials creates a concurrency block to the approval of any significant infill and redevelopment improvements to the City.

The Plan Update’s solution is to designate the entire City as a multimodal transportation district (MTD), create and commit to a 15-year schedule of capital projects designed to implement greater local mobility through an infrastructure of sidewalks, pedestrian and bike trails, and mass transit, all of which are well interconnected into a viable network.  Further, it provides for more form-based design regulations reflective of new urbanism principles promoting multimodal links.  The MTD identifies and commits a range of revenue sources to its 15-year capital improvements plan, relying on funding from gas taxes, HART ad valorem taxes, proportionate fair share funding, and various grants and federal programs.  The State Department of Transportation has given tentative approval to the City’s MTD, and recommended it to several other jurisdictions. (photo at left: Busch Blvd. and 56th Street, The commercial center of Temple Terrace)

Upon State approval and final City adoption of its Comprehensive Plan Update, expected in late spring of 2009, Temple Terrace should be well-positioned to realize its potential as a “City for Living” – the motto on the City seal.