New Urbanism concepts to be in land development codes

During his campaign, Bob Buckhorn promised to modernize land development codes to incorporate "New Urbanism concepts and form based zoning in order to encourage the development of our urban neighborhoods."

That was likely a case of over-enthusiasm. In an interview with PolitiFact Florida, Buckhorn acknowledged changing land development codes is a lengthy process.

Still, he said he remains committed to changing codes at neighborhoods' requests, to make more livable areas where people can work and play.

"It's allowing a neighborhood to dictate the growth patterns within the confines of its neighborhood,” Buckhorn said. "You have a series of meetings, as they did in Seminole Heights, and you come to a consensus about what type of retail you want, what type of pedestrian activity you want, what kind of zoning you want to allow. Then you create a form-based zoning code specifically for that neighborhood.”

New Urbanism typically refers to pedestrian-oriented zoning, with retail at street level, wide sidewalks and other amenities, he said.

"It takes a long time for a neighborhood to implement it, because it's citizen driven. But out of it will come some much better projects,” he said.

Buckhorn specifically mentioned the neighborhoods of 40th Street, Davis Islands and Tampa Heights as candidates for updated codes.

The city has also received recommendations for incorporating New Urbanist concepts near the Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa.

In ruling on this statement, we note that Buckhorn said he would change the codes in his first year. In retrospect, that time frame seems so unlikely as to be impossible. Buckhorn still supports for the ultimate goal, though. Given that support, we're going to rate this promise In the Works.