1. Do You Know Your LDCs?

By: Joe Moreda, AICP, Manager, Zoning/Code Administration

In 1992, as required by the State Growth Management Act, Hillsborough County compiled its various individual land development regulations into a single document known as the Land Development Code or LDC.  The LDC is often misunderstood as a zoning code; however, it is much more.  While zoning is a component of the LDC, it contains regulations for multiple aspects of development including but not limited to signage, subdivision, commercial site development, transportation, landscaping, wildlife habitat and the related review and hearing processes.  The LDC is the primary tool used to implement policies stemming from the Hillsborough County Comprehensive Plan.

The LDC is amended bi-annually with a focus on streamlining review processes and staying current with emerging trends in land use planning or changes to the Comprehensive Plan.  The LDC amendment process is typically a six-month process filled with peer reviews, public workshops, meetings and hearings.  Once an application is submitted, the text is sent out for internal peer review.  Subsequently, the text is transmitted to the County Commission for workshop and is concurrently transmitted to several hundred contacts including neighborhood groups, individual citizens and industry contacts for review and comment. 

A public workshop is held to seek input from these various groups and individuals prior to preparing the final language which is packaged for the public hearing process.  A workshop is also held with the Planning Commission. Subsequently, when the amendment enters the public hearing/meeting phase, the final text is prepared and distributed to the Planning Commission and County Commission. 

The Planning Commission conducts a public meeting and determines consistency with the Comprehensive Plan. Finally, the Board conducts two public hearings to review the text and makes the ultimate decision on the adoption of the proposal.  If you would like to get more involved in participating in amendments to the LDC, see the online 2010 Amendment schedule and timeline.

2. PGM Helps With Planning for Local 2010 Census

For the past two years, Hillsborough County PGM has performed numerous activities in connection with technical aspects of the 2010 Census.  PGM partnered with all other jurisdictions in Hillsborough County to develop the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA).  The LUCA program entails the creation of a database of all addresses that should be updated, altered, or deleted since the last decennial Census.  As a result, 73,435 addresses were added, updated, or verified with a few that were deleted. 

The Census challenged around 14,000 addresses based on its physical canvassing of the Unincorporated County area.  PGM then took the lead in the official LUCA Appeal Program.  Of those addresses challenged by Census canvassers, PGM was able to successfully appeal 12,411 of them.

PGM is also taking the lead in the Census New Construction Program.  This entails adding new addresses because of newly-constructed residential structures between March 2009 and projected April 2010.  PGM was successful in identifying 1,003 new addresses to be added.

For more information on the 2010 Census, visit the Hillsborough County Census website.