Urban Corridors

Ord. 16-06, Adopted on Nov. 15, 2016 & Ord. 16-07

Background

Since the late 1990s, new development has been generally focused east of Interstate 75 and Southwest County has been in a slow, but steady decline in terms of indicators such as property values, average household income levels and other factors in comparison to the overall county. The age of infrastructure, housing, code enforcement cases, crime, and numbers of rental properties in established neighborhoods have been increasing over the years.

These trends have been recognized in various plans, studies and by the public for over a decade.

It is the hope that the the Urban Corridor amendment will improve opportunities for infill, redevelopment and development, along the major corridors in the district. These major corridors include portions of the Tamiami Trail, 15th Street East, 53rd Ave/SR 70, Cortez Road, Manatee Avenue, and 1st Street within the Urban Service Area of the County.

The amendments generally provide greater flexibility in the regulations, allows for moderate increases in density and intensity of development, and allows residential and mixed-use development patterns to occur along the corridors.

Maps

Countywide Amendments

Background: In addition to the changes for the Urban Corridors, the Board approved amendments to both the Comprehensive Plan and LDC that are applicable countywide. These changes include moving some language internally, between the two documents, reconciling language, and some various clean-up amendments.