February 2021 – The Unincorporated Hillsborough County Comprehensive Plan is a long-range blueprint for future growth and provides policy direction on issues that affect the quality of life in our community. Last updated in 2008, our agency is pursuing updates to the Comprehensive Plan in a phased, integrated and collaborative approach.
Following the recent adoption of One Water in November 2020, several other portions of the Comprehensive Plan are now in the preliminary development stages including Environmental and Sustainability, Coastal Management, Solid Waste, and Recreation and Open Space. Later in 2021, we will be begin looking at the Housing, Mobility, and Future Land Use elements.
Public outreach is an integral part of the update. The first phase of this outreach is intended to gain input from Hillsborough County residents via telephone surveys and interviews that will shape policies on growth and future community form. We also invite the public to participate in virtual public meetings, such as that for Environmental and Sustainability, in 2021. Additional opportunities for the public to provide feedback will be forthcoming over the next several months.
To help inform this update, staff has also been working on a GIS-based tool to examine multiple datasets and previous planning recommendations in one location. This mapping application is one tool to help identify corridors and nodes for focus, and explore where geography-based policy changes and incentives may be appropriate.
