Pinellas County Mobility Plan
At their September 11, 2013 meeting, the MPO endorsed a proposed Mobility Plan concept that is intended to replace local concurrency management requirements in Pinellas County. The Plan puts forth new procedures and requirements for development projects impacting congested roadways. It would allow smaller scale projects to move forward with payment of an impact fee while larger scale projects impacting the operations of congested roads would need to implement mobility improvements to offset their impacts. These improvements would be commensurate to the scale of the development project and could range from intersection modifications and commuter assistance programs to sidewalk construction and transit enhancements.
Concurrency management provided the teeth to Florida’s 1985 Growth Management Act, requiring local governments to ensure that public services and facilities needed to accommodate the impacts of development projects were in place concurrent with their approval. This State concurrency mandate was removed from Growth Management Law with the passage of Senate Bill 360 in 2009 and by its successor, House Bill 7207 (a.k.a., the Community Planning Act), in 2011. As a result, whether and to what extent concurrency management programs across the State would remain in effect was left to the individual local governments.
In the wake of the Community Planning Act legislation, the MPO formed the Mobility Plan Task Force to develop a coordinated countywide approach to development review that was more closely aligned to the mobility goals of the County’s local governments. The Task Force was comprised of representatives of the County’s local governments as well as the Pinellas Planning Council, Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, Florida Department of Transportation District 7, citizens and business representatives. 
Following the MPO’s endorsement of the Mobility Plan, the Task Force proceeded to develop model comprehensive plan policies and land development code provisions for adoption by the individual local governments. These model polcies and codes were approved by the MPO on July 9, 2014. Local governments were subsequently requested to adopt amendments to their respective comprehensive plans and codes accordingly and to repeal their concurrency management requirements tied to the Growth Management Law prior to Senate Bill 360.
Pinellas County took the first step in this effort in October 2014 when the Board of County Commissioners held a public hearing to review proposed amendments to the Pinellas County Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code (Chapters 134 and 150) associated with the implementation of the Pinellas County Mobility Plan. The Board approved the proposed amendments and transmitted the Comprehensive Plan amendments to the State Land Planning Agency for review. Earlier this month, the County received correspondence from the State Land Planning Agency that they had completed their review of the proposed Comprehensive Plan amendments. They identified no comments related to important state resources and facilities within their authorized scope of review. None of the comments received from the other review agencies called for any changes to the proposed amendments. Therefore, the proposed Comprehensive Plan and code amendments are ready to be scheduled for Board adoption.
As the Mobility Plan is a countywide initiative, it is important to ensure that all of the local governments are ready to implement the Mobility Plan recommendations at the same time. Recognizing the importance of establishing an effective date that accommodates the adoption schedules of all the local governments, the proposed Pinellas County amendments are being delayed until an appropriate effective date can be determined. The MPO is currently working with the cities to identify an appropriate effective date for the proposed amendments. Below is a listing of Mobility Plan documents and proposed implementing ordinances amending the Pinellas County Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code.
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