3. RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation 3: Reconstruct E. 131 st Avenue as a complete street using the land use context to develop typical sections. Based on the analysis of projected future traffic volumes on E. 131 st Avenue in the Existing Conditions section, the existing capacity of two lanes is anticipated to be sufficient for future traffic volumes. Given the fact that future traffic projections don’t warrant widening, the high percentage of zero vehicle households and the prevalence of pedestrians, cyclists, and wheelchair users in the area, multimodal improvements were considered. Instead of adding more capacity for vehicles, roadway improvements should make E. 131 st Avenue a complete street and address mobility for all users. These improvements will include items to increase pedestrian safety and comfort, like wider sidewalks and parkways with street trees, traffic calming enhancements like on-street parking and other context specific items. This recommendation will be elaborated on more in Recommendations 3A, 3B and 3C. Recommendation 4: Prohibit vacating public rights-of-way in the E. 131 st Avenue area. One of the challenges in maintaining a compact urban form in the E. 131 st Avenue corridor is a lack of connectivity in the local street grid. In many places streets or unimproved rights-of-way have been vacated to create a larger developable area. While this may entice development, it also creates larger blocks and reduces walkability. To reduce this phenomenon from further
Recommendation 2: Create a Future Land Use category for Form Based Code areas and T-4/T-5 development. As mentioned in the existing conditions section of the document, future land use is a limitation of density and intensity and a general land use designation. The future land use designation sets the framework from which zoning can be constructed, and zoning that does not match the future land use category may not be valid. Currently, no future land use category fits well with future T-4 and T-5 zones. Many of the mixed-use and residential categories do not have the density required for T-4 and T-5 and are too broad in the typical uses and specific intent categories. Other future land use designations such as the Office Commercial-20 do not offer sufficient residential density and are aimed at a more connected suburban form. Thus, an existing designation such as Regional Mixed Use-35 or Residential-35 would need to be modified to fit the Form-Based Code T-4 and T-5 zones. Another option is explored in Strip Commercial and Mixed Use Development in Hillsborough County which examines using the compact urban, connected suburban, and modern suburban categories to create or lend context to future land use categories 3 . Thismay be a preferred method to create Future Land Use categories that better fit with the proposed Form-Based Code districts. The specific future land use category around the Robbins property will be elaborated on more in Recommendation 2A. 3 Dover, Kohl & Partners and Spikowski Planning Associates for Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission, “Strip Commercial and Mixed Use Development in Hillsborough County”
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E. 131 ST AVENUE PLAT STUDY PRELIMINARY LAND USE AND TRANSPORTATION STUDY
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