Pasco County Local Planning Agency staff presented the draft Pasco ADAPT chapter — the county's updated coastal and floodplain management element — at a workshop, outlining a new resilience and sustainability goal and a set of consolidated objectives and policies intended to guide coastal development and hazard planning.

Hyatt Mazzaley, senior planner with Planning, Development and Economic Growth, said, “Pasco ADAPT is the new name for the existing coastal and floodplain management element.” She told commissioners the chapter now contains nine objectives (four new) and 81 policies (33 new), and that many of the new policies draw on the county’s Resilience and Sustainability Action Plan and the 2024 Living Shoreline Plan.

The nut graf: the update aims to strengthen coordination across the comprehensive plan’s other chapters — Pasco Grows, Pasco Conserves, Pasco Serves and Pasco Invests — and to convert prior action items into non‑regulatory policies that promote resilience without unduly imposing new regulatory requirements. Staff said much of the proposed language was adjusted after stakeholder meetings and more than 10 community workshops and public comments posted on the Pasco 2050 project website.

In the body of the discussion, staff described three organizing goals: protecting natural, archaeological and historic resources; protecting people and property from coastal hazards; and the new Goal 3, which promotes resilience and sustainability. Mazzaley said about 29 policies were adapted from the Resilience and Sustainability Action Plan and were rewritten to be more encouraging than prescriptive.

Commissioners and department staff questioned where some policy directions should live (comprehensive plan versus future land development code) and asked staff to cross‑check statutory references. County attorneys and staff recommended rewriting certain policies to align with state law language for coastal high hazard area review and to reference the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council’s evacuation study where evacuation level of service is invoked.

Staff said they will bring refined wording back to the commission. The workshop produced no motions or votes; attendees directed staff to revise policy text for clarity and legal consistency and to coordinate with emergency management and natural resources on technical references and implementation steps.

The session continued into detailed line‑by‑line questions on floodplain, evacuation, and infrastructure policies that staff said they would revise before the next public hearing.