Plan aims to keep 'small town' feel

By creating a zoning overlay and regulations schedule, the neighborhood could guide development away from suburban sprawl and toward neo-traditional towns.

By JACKIE RIPLEY

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 26, 2000

CITRUS PARK -- If planners and residents have their way, Citrus Park will maintain its "small town" feel despite the development rapidly replacing the area's citrus groves and pasture land.

On Thursday, county planning and growth management staff will hold the first of two public meetings to discuss zoning regulations for the Citrus Park Neighborhood Plan, part of a larger Northwest Community Plan endorsed in October by the County Commission.

The Northwest Plan aims to shape future growth in northwest Hillsborough, particularly Citrus Park, in part by creating a zoning overlay and regulations schedule that would guide development away from suburban sprawl and toward neo-traditional towns.

The plan envisions roads within subdivisions connecting to roads outside, lots of open space, and shopping, work and recreation within walking distance at "town centers."

The purpose of the public meetings is to review the zoning overlay and regulations schedule, define the study area and establish a working committee.

Citrus Park resident Janet Hiltz, who helped craft the Northwest Plan, said this last leg of the process will include deciding what should and should not go into the final blueprint.

"We'd like public uses such as a college, a community hall and library, and for anything commercial not to be over two stories," Hiltz said. "We don't like all the dense apartment building in the area and the homes need to fit in with the kind of planning that we've done."

The meetings, which are open to the public, are Nov. 30, at 6:30 p.m. and Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 6:30 p.m., both at Citrus Park Elementary School.

County staff members will be at the meeting to discuss the plan and answer questions from property owners.

The first phase of the project begins Jan., 2001, and will involve refining the planning concepts into a set of development regulations.

-- Jackie Ripley can be reached at (813) 226-3468 or ripley@sptimes.com.

For recent coverage

County approves community plan (10/15/00)

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