Pasco County planning commissioners debated proposed policy ADAPTS 1.1.0.13, which staff drafted to “discourage shoreline uses that are vulnerable to coastal hazards or contribute to environmental degradation.” The discussion focused on whether the wording could unintentionally bar water‑dependent utilities such as power plants, desalination facilities or cooling intakes for data centers.

Commissioner John Moody raised the point that future needs for large power generation and cooling water — for example to serve data centers or power plants — may require shoreline siting. He said he wanted to “make sure that we have policies that are going to allow us to seize upon that opportunity and not leave ourselves out” of potential economic or infrastructure needs.

Morgan Dean of the County Attorney’s Office and other staff advised the commission to re‑word the policy so it targets uses that would be vulnerable and, if hit by a hazard, would cause environmental degradation. Dean suggested language that ties discouraged uses to circumstances where a coastal hazard would cause the environmental harm rather than broadly listing critical public facilities as examples. Andy Foss, the county’s emergency management director, and natural resources staff noted that vulnerability assessments and facility hardening studies are standard tools to determine whether a facility can be sited safely.

The nut graf: commissioners asked staff to “wordsmith” ADAPTS 1.1.0.13 to distinguish between inherently vulnerable uses that should be discouraged and water‑dependent or hardened facilities that can be sited with mitigating measures. Staff agreed to revise the text and link it to vulnerability assessment language elsewhere in the chapter.

In the ensuing discussion the group proposed options such as terminating the policy sentence after the phrase “environmental degradation” or qualifying the examples with “certain critical public facilities” and adding explicit references to vulnerability assessments and hardening measures. Staff and the county attorney said they would bring revised draft language back for review; no formal action was taken.

Ending: The commission did not adopt new policy text at the workshop; staff will return with clarified wording showing how exceptions, vulnerability assessments and mitigation/hardening measures will be treated in Pasco ADAPT.