3 Community Plans Hillsborough County began preparing community plans in 1998 for more specific planning relative to the needs of the many distinct and growing unincorporated communities in the County. Community Plans in the project study area include Ruskin, Riverview, Apollo Beach, Wimauma, Gibsonton, Sun City Center, and Balm. Community Plans were adopted into the Comprehensive Plan Livable Communities Element in 2008. The Livable Communities Element compiles community and special area studies for Community Plans that identify each community’s character, vision, goals, and proposed strategies. Each plan was examined for the purpose of identifying nodes (town centers, main streets, downtowns, and community facilities), overlay districts, and multimodal transportation needs. Many of the community plans identified a desire for town centers, which have generally been described as community gathering areas that are walkable, mixed-use, and support a variety of community activities and employment generators. Below is a summary of the community and special area studies in the project study area. A draft conceptual map showing a visual representation of the community visions can be found in Appendix C. 3.1 SouthShore Areawide Systems Plan The SouthShore Areawide Systems Plan developed in 2003 (Figure 13) was updated in 2015, and is on the Planning Commission ’s community based plan work program. The plan emphasizes balancing growth with conservation and preservation, and ensuring a balanced transportation system that is well integrated into communities. The desired transportation system will accommodate existing automobile traffic, support activity centers, is connected to an efficient transit system, and is designed to connect to a rapid transit system. The plan identifies a desire for mobility choices including walking, biking, driving, and bus or rail transit. To expand on these community desires, the plan indicates that the community wants to identify areas where greenways and corridors can co-exist, preserve current and future rights- of way to accommodate current and future transportation needs including pedestrian traffic, support ferry connections between St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Sarasota, and support existing emergency management plans. The plan calls for scheduling improvements identified in the SouthShore Areawide System Plan in the Capital Improvements Program (CIP). It emphasizes the importance of coordinating future development with the need for adequate space for alternative modes of transportation along appropriate corridors, and consideration of additional buffering and wildlife undercrossing(s) for Rhodine Road Extension and Big Bend Road Extension.
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