County Commissioners tearing “opt-out” loopholes in Community Plans

UPDATE: We won! See my full report on Creative Loafing’s news & politics blog. (Also reprinted here.)

The Hillsborough County Commission is trying to allow certain influential landowners to “opt-out” of Community Plans. This would set a dangerous precedent that could allow developers to “opt-out” of ALL Community Plans in the county, as well as all manner of Comprehensive Plan policies. The state Dept. of Community Affairs is objecting to this undermining of the planning process, the county Planning Commission objects, and we citizens should object as well.

You can help:

Contact your county commissioners and ask them to protect the integrity of ALL of our Community Plans by removing the “opt-out” loopholes from the 2 Community Plans they are currently considering for the Seffner-Mango & Brandon areas.

Attend the hearing on Oct. 14, 6:00 pm, 2nd floor County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., downtown Tampa (see flyer for details).

Commissioners Kevin Beckner & Rose Ferlita have stood firm against the opt-outs (thank them!), but Mark Sharpe, Ken Hagan, Al Higginbotham, Kevin White & Jim Norman have so far voted to allow developers to disregard our Community Plans, so we need to convince them to protect our plans.

More information:

• Flyer calling for citizen attendance at the Public Hearing for the first 2 Community Plans to include the “opt-out” provision, with more detail about the issue from the citizens’ perspective.
• The State Dept. of Community Affairs (DCA) objections to the “opt-out” provisions
• St. Pete Times article, “Hillsborough shouldn’t allow opt-outs from community plans, state says“
• Tampa Tribune article, “Allowing ‘opt outs’ hurts county planning, advisers warn“
• Tampa Tribune article, “Activists: Exempting some from growth guidelines is harmful“