By B.C. Manion
If Pasco County wants to gain a competitive edge in attracting businesses and jobs, its land development code needs to be more specific so people who want to build or expand their businesses will know exactly what to expect.
The county also needs to shorten the time it takes to get through the process, to eliminate duplication in reviews and to refrain from adding last-minute requirements for issues that should have been covered earlier through staff reviews.
Those are among the general recommendations offered during a 2 ½-hour meeting Friday morning of the Competitive Task Force of the Pasco Economic Development Council Inc.
The task force — made up of experts from the development community — is weighing in on a county effort to make itself more attractive to employers by streamlining the land development code.
In making the changes, it is important to eliminate language that is overly broad, task force members agreed. When the language is too broad, it is too hard for businesses to predict what will be required and how long it will take for approvals.
It is also important to eliminate logjams, they said.
One of the biggest obstacles is how long it can take to get a final plat, they said.
The final plat has a 30-page checklist and is often used by county staff to address issues that should have been addressed earlier in the process, they explained.
Another problem can occur at the front end of the process, when agreements reached between the applicant and staff are not written down and made binding.
There are also issues with the county’s parking requirements, duplicative stormwater reviews and lengthy delays between parts of the process, task force members said.
When it comes to parking, for instance, the standard for spaces at industrial sites should be based on the number of employees there during its peak period of operation, not on how many workers are employed by the company.
At a retail site, on the other hand, the number of employees at the business is less important than the people using the business.
When it comes to stormwater reviews, the county’s stormwater department is reviewing the same things as the Southwest Florida Water Management District — with SWFMD sometimes issuing a permit before the county review is even done.
The county should also take a look at creating a faster process for small projects which already have proper zoning and comply with the county’s master plan.
The county also may want to consider creating a “glitch committee” which would look at issues that continue to pop up, as applicants work their way through the process. The committee could address issues that keep popping up and suggest ways to fix the problems.
Recommendations from the task force will be considered by county staff before it takes its final recommendations on the streamlined code to the Pasco County Commission, which has the final say.
