The Plant City City Commission approved a proposal to allow more residences to be incorporated on property for the Future Land Use Map Amendment on Monday.
The property’s developer requested to change the property’s future land use designations from one residence per acre to four residences per acre, increasing its density.
This is also known as altering land use from Hillsborough County Residential-1 to Plant City Residential-4.
The property, which is in the process of being annexed into Plant City, is located east of James L. Redman Parkway, south of East Trapnell Road, west of CA Bugg Road, and north of Kilgore Road, spanning approximately 118 acres.
James L. Redman Parkway is an arterial street, Trapnell Road is a collector street, while CA Bugg and Kilgore Roads are local streets in Hillsborough County.
At one residence per acre, there was potential to build 117 homes and now the change will grant space for 471 homes.
It’s also west of the site for the Mixed-Use Gateway District development project which is allowed 16 homes per acre.
Access to the property is from East Trapnell Road, a two-lane undivided collector road from S.R. 30 to Wiggins Road.
Although Trapnell Road does not have bike or pedestrian facilities, Redman Parkway has sidewalks on the west and east sides and 5-foot bike lanes on both sides.
As far as educational institutions, Trapnell Elementary, Turkey Creek Middle, and Durant High School are all expected to reach or exceed their capacity given the existing currency reservations and the impact of the new map amendment. Total school capacity for Trapnell Elementary is 488 students, 1,226 students at Turkey Creek Middle, and 2,738 students at Durant High – all reported to the Florida Inventory of School Houses (FISH).
In these instances, state law requires the school district to consider if additional capacity exists in adjacent concurrency service areas.
The property for the future land use consists of wetlands that will be protected and maintained by the rules of the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County, Southwest Florida Water Management District and/or the City of Plant City.
The natural features will provide an additional buffer between the parcels and the properties designated at the Mixed-Use Gateway. Also, enough potable water and wastewater capacity is available per the city’s utility department.
There will be an estimated demand of 164,850 gallons per day (GPD) for both water and sewer, which can be reached with the existing capacity of Plant City water treatment plants and the water reclamation facility.
However, seeing that the water distribution and collection systems are not accessible near those parcels, the developer will be responsible for extending the services to the point where those systems are accessible.
The Hillsborough County Community & Infrastructure Planning Department objected to the initial map amendment due mostly to the lack of an accompanying in-depth transportation analysis.
The Hillsborough County Planning Commission – Transportation staff conducted a traffic analysis which found that the initial land use plan category could possibly generate up to 59 average peak-hour peak-direction trips. Now with the approval for four residences per acre, it could potentially rise to 238 trips. The city will perform an in-depth transportation analysis for this project as part of its required Planned Development (Zoning) District.
The current municipal policy mandates that both the map amendment and rezoning be heard and considered for adoption on the same hearing date before the city commission.
The Plant City Comprehensive Plan foresees the municipality eventually having a population of more than 70,000 people in Plant City.
The Imagine 2040: Plant City Comprehensive Plan describes Residential-4 as areas that “..offer safe, quiet, and attractive environments for people to live…” and that “…single family homes on individual lots are the predominant use in these areas…”.
The Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission found the map amendment to be consistent with the Imagine 2040: Plant City Comprehensive Plan, approving the proposal with a vote of 7-1.
The Plant City Planning Board also agreed that it met the guidelines and passed the proposal by 5-1.