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Suncoast Pasco News

Panel Says Pasco Will Add 260,000 People By 2030

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: September 20, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Like holding up a mirror, Urban Land Institute experts recently released the final report of their recommendations on where Pasco County has been and where it's going.

Growth is coming whether people like it or not, the ULI panel concludes. The advisers expect 260,000 more people will flock to Pasco County within the next 20 years.

The advisory panel from ULI, a nonprofit education and research organization, spent a week in April in Pasco interviewing more than 100 community and business leaders. The panel distilled its findings in a full-color, 48-page brochure, which is available online through the county's Web site.

The panel helped inspire county commissioners to chart an overhaul of Pasco's current patchwork of land development regulations. Evidence of the goal was the first meeting this week of the the Land Development Code Stakeholder Committee, a 17-member advisory group comprised of local experts.

The ULI advisers would reconstitute Pasco's development services functions into a planning department.

The development review process needs to become "predictable and timely."

"Curtail the use of variances and exceptions," the ULI panel further advises.

"Support a departmental culture that celebrates innovation, embraces best practices and focuses on customer service," the recommendations continue.

Pasco also should delegate routine decision making to staff for projects consistent with development standards.

The ULI report shows the county divided into five "market areas."

"The general consensus is that the process is broken and has failed to create a consistent vision," the ULI authors wrote, in part, referring to development review.

Other highlights include:

"The development services branch has been overwhelmed processing applications."

"The development review process is so complex that neither the development services staff nor applicants know with any reasonable certainty all the conditions to be met for project approval."

The ULI panel favors an "executive level planner" to help carry out changes.

"The county should scrap its current development code and replace its current process governed by nearly 25 separate ordinances with a single clear code."

To find the entire report online, go to the Pasco County Web site's home page and click on the link, "Urban Land Institute Panel's Final Report on Pasco County Now Available Online."

Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.

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