Hillsborough County staff outline infrastructure needs, costs and timing tied to proposed urban service area expansion

Hillsborough County officials presented a cross‑department briefing to the Hillsborough County City‑County Planning Commission on planned infrastructure to support proposed expansions of the urban service area, saying the changes will require coordinated capital investments and careful timing to avoid service shortfalls.

Greg Bridal, Deputy County Administrator, said the Board of County Commissioners transmitted plan amendments in March and asked county staff to explain how utilities, fire rescue, public works and parks would plan for growth. "We have for years been wrestling with how, when, where to expand the urban service boundary," Bridal said, and the county wants to avoid getting "behind the 8 ball" on roads, water, sewer and other services.

The briefing gave commissioners estimates of scale and a range of likely outcomes. County staff described the RP‑2 study area as about 23,000 acres in total, which the presenters said reduces to roughly 16,000 acres when already‑included urban land (FishHawk, existing PDs and conservation areas) are removed. Staff said the mapped area between the highlighted parcels contains an estimated 6,200 acres, and that an estimate of developable land after excluding many small parcels was about 4,500 acres. County staff presented a range of dwelling‑unit outcomes based on those assumptions: a lower bound of roughly 8,100 units and a high‑end theoretical figure near 13,500 units; staff repeatedly emphasized those are estimates and depend on parcel consolidation, market choices and how infrastructure and open space are configured.

Fire Rescue: capacity and stations

Jason Ockney, Hillsborough County Fire Chief, summarized current coverage and plans. "We have seven existing stations currently that are fully operational," Ockney said, and listed…