Public meetings on Ruskin Community Plan code
In response to citizen push-back, the County has pulled the Ruskin Community Plan’s Guidelines back out of the trash can, and promised to insert the Guidelines into the Land Development Code (LDC) where they can be used to guide new development as the community intended. Citizen attendance is critical at the meetings while they are codifying the Guidelines, to make sure that Ruskin’s Guidelines don’t lose any teeth in the process.
Since all Community Plans will soon be reviewed with an eye to moving parts of them into the Land Development Code like this, anyone concerned about maintaining the integrity of Community Plans throughout the county may want to be involved to ensure that the process honors the intent of the Plans.
The first meeting is on the Ruskin Guidelines amendment only:
Public Meeting
Monday, March 24, 6:30 p.m.
SouthShore Regional Library
15816 Beth Shields Way, Ruskin, FL 33573-4903
(see public notice)
The rest of the meetings are public hearings on ALL the proposed Land Development Code amendments, including # 14-0474 which codifies the Ruskin Plan’s Guidelines.
County Commission Preliminary Public Hearing
April 24, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
County Commission Boardroom, 2nd Floor, County Center
601 East Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL 33602
Planning Commission Public Meeting
May 12, 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Planning Commission Board Room, 18th Floor, County Center
601 East Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL 33602
County Commission Final Public Hearing
May 29, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
County Commission Boardroom, 2nd Floor, County Center
601 East Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL 33602
Dates subject to change, so check back here for updates, or keep an eye on the LDC schedule and the County Calendar & Planning Commission Calendar, or contact your County Commissioner for info.
When you come to these meetings, bring the original Guidelines & Neighborhood Map with you, so you can help make sure the County “interprets” these correctly as they write them into the Land Development Code. Even better, bring the whole Ruskin Community Plan with you to help the county understand the Guidelines within the full context of the Plan. The Guidelines are on page 20, and the Neighborhood Map is on page 22 of the Plan. Goal 5 of the Plan, on pages 12–13, relates to the neighborhood character defined by the Guidelines within the 4 areas of the Neighborhood Map. The 4 areas are also described in the Introduction. The Vision Statement, on pages 8–10, describes the community character which citizens expect the Plan to protect and enhance, specifically identifying the 4 areas defined in the Map & Guidelines.
For more details and background, see these previous posts:
