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It will take years, but thanks to a change in the county's Land Development Code, State Road 60 is on the road to becoming a thing of beauty.
County commissioners on June 3 approved a zoning district that will improve the appearance of SR 60 from Interstate 75 to Dover Road.
The changes take effect Oct. 1.
The road will change slowly because the ordinance only kicks in for major improvements or new construction.
Property owners who make improvements worth more than 20 percent of a building's assessed value will have to meet architectural, landscaping and other guidelines. Those who build from the ground up would also have to follow the new standards.
The SR 60 beautification plan divides the road into three areas: an urban core with suburban areas on either end of the 5-mile stretch.
The plan bans pole signs, requires ground signs to be no more than 6 feet tall in the urban core and 8 feet tall in the outlying areas, and enlarges landscaped islands in parking lots.
In the urban core, buildings need a 10- to 20-foot front yard setback. They will have to have pitched roofs with decorative architectural elements such as dormers, steeples or cupolas, and windows as 20 percent of the facade.
"This is all very good for each one of us who lives in the community," said Jim Swanson, a Valrico resident and member of the community group that helped shape the ordinance. "I have been down here 32 years and I am just really tired of the ancient, dated, stagnated Highway 60."
Busy resident lauded for serviceIf you live around Brandon, odds are good that Randy Wolfe has touched your life.
Bloomingdale residents know him as a longtime former head of their homeowners association. He has served on the leadership board for Center Place. Not to mention his service with the Presidents' Roundtable, which works with various charities in the greater Brandon area.
The Presidents' Roundtable honored his longstanding work on June 2 by naming Wolfe the 2004 recipient of the Alice B. Tompkins Community Service Award.
"I'm a lot more accustomed to giving these out than to getting them," said Wolfe, 41, an attorney who lives in Brandon. "I owe you guys a lot more years."
Hillsborough County Sheriff Cal Henderson received an award for integrity in government.