Live Grow Thrive 2045: Tampa Comp Plan update focuses on resiliency, climate change

Tampa’s Comprehensive Plan, the long-term policy vision for the city’s future, was last updated back in 2016. Since then, there’s been increased attention and awareness of the threats of climate change and sea level rise. With the Coastal Management, Future Land Use and Housing sections of the plan now being revised as part of Live Grow Thrive 2045, the Comp Plan update that local planning agency Plan Hillsborough and the City of Tampa have been working on section-by-section over the last two years, resiliency, climate change and seal level are priority policy areas.

“There’s more policy language on the importance of those issues and dealing with them locally,” says Plan Hillsbrough Director of Strategic Planning, Environmental and Research Shawn College.

One significant proposed change deals with the coastal high-hazard area, the area of the city computer models show would be inundated by the storm surge of a category one hurricane. State law requires local governments to have policies in place to mitigate the risk of storm surge in that high-hazard area, College says. The Coastal Management section of Tampa’s Comp Plan has long had policy language saying there can be no “net increase” in residential density in those high-hazard areas. But it’s brought more confusion than clarity.

“Over the years we have noticed that has been really hard to interpret,” College says. “What do we mean by no net increase? Does it mean on a project-by-project basis? Does it mean since the inception of the Comprehensive Plan in 1985?”

To clear things up, the proposed update largely prohibits amendments to the Comp Plan that would allow increased residential densities in those hazard areas. Essentially, a developer or property owner could not apply for a Comp Plan change allowing more residential development than the Comp Plan already allows on a property.

“In this update, we’re trying to make that more clear so everybody - developers, the public - understands where you can ask for more density and potentially get it through a plan amendment and where we don’t want to see anymore over what is already planned because it’s a hazard area,” College says.

The goal, College says, is to not place more people and more property at risk in these hazard areas. The proposed prohibition has some exceptions in designated coastal development areas, which are primarily in the city’s community redevelopment areas. The ongoing update also moves the policy on residential density in these hazard areas to the Future Land Use section, which covers how and where development occurs. 

Another resiliency-focused policy proposal encourages freeboard, or constructing the lowest floor of a building above the predicted flood level.  

With 108,000 more people, 77,000 new homes and 258,000 new jobs projected in the city limits by 2045, the proposed changes to the Future Land Use section look to guide growth toward regional activity centers like downtown, the Westshore area and the Fowler Avenue corridor, as well a designated transit-ready corridors. Plan Hillsborough has an interactive map tool that lets users look neighborhood-by-neighborhood at the areas affected by proposed policy changes to the Future Land Use section, such as bonuses that allow more residential density in exchange for a public benefit such as affordable housing or following green building standards. 

Plan Hillsborough is accepting written comments on the Comp Plan update through September 9th. A briefing to the Planning Commission is also scheduled for September 9th. The Planning Commission’s public hearing and vote on the Comp Plan update is expected in November. The Tampa City Council, which has decision-making authority over the city’s Comp Plan, is expected to take it up in early 2025.

For more information, go to Live Grow Thrive 2045