› › Provide transportation choices for users improving sidewalk connections and filling gaps, adding bicycle facilities and offering more public transit options › › Making connections for trails to provide better access and fill in gaps to create contiguous paths for recreational and non-recreational users › › Enhancing or maintaining a “sense of place” for communities as the growth in southern Hillsborough County continues by adding gateway signage, landscaping, recreational and public spaces, as well as type and form of buildings future development › › Support and encourage economic development by analyzing lands and sites available for economic development An important part of the PLAT process is balancing these wide-reaching goals and objectives for the overall improvement at the corridor level within these geographic zones. 4. Community/Corridor Characteristics Big Bend Road between US 41 and US 301 is a 4-lane divided roadway in southern Hillsborough County. There are commercial, residential, industrial, educational, and institutional (schools, medical/hospital) uses along the corridor, but also large areas of undeveloped parcels. The roadway is intersected by the following main crossings: › › US 41 at the western limit of the study area › › a CSX rail line with an at-grade crossing › › Waterset Boulevard (entrance to the Waterset residential community)/Kings Lake Drive › › Covington Gardens Drive › › I-75 › › Simmons Loop › › Lincoln Road › › US 301 at the eastern limit of the study area › › Sidepath trail along US 301 › › SouthCoast Greenway 4.1 Existing Socioeconomic and Demographic Conditions 4.1.1 Population Growth and Trends Southern Hillsborough County has been experiencing high growth in population and an increase in development, with accompanying increase in traffic congestion over recent years. According to the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) at the University of Florida, the April 2017 estimated population for HillsboroughCountywas 1,379,302. The2017estimate representedan increaseof 150,076, or 12.2% over the 2010 census count of 1,229,226. BEBR’s 2040 projection for Hillsborough County population is 1,901,400, which is nearly the population of the state of Nebraska. For unincorporated Hillsborough County the population estimate for April 2017 was 941,536, an increase of 107,281 or 12.9% over the 2010 census count of 834,255 (Florida Estimates of Population, 2017, University of Florida, Bureau of Economic and Business Research). The study area has an estimated population of 16,553 people which is 1.25% of the total population in Hillsborough County. The population density of the study area is 2,117 people per square mile, or 3.3 people per acre, and is higher than the overall density in the county of 1,297 per square mile, or 2.02 people per acre.
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Hillsborough County • October 2019
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