City moves forward on comprehensive Land Development Code rewrite; council approves several rezonings

Tampa — City staff and consultants outlined a plan Monday to rewrite Tampa’s Land Development Code, aiming to modernize rules that have been amended piecemeal for decades and to draft clearer, more transit‑supportive zoning rules.

"The LDC is one of the most important building blocks of the community, and it establishes the rules that govern how the city can grow and develop," Jeff Green, principal at Clarion Associates, told the City Council during a presentation of the consultant team’s LDC assessment and road map.

The assessment, the first public deliverable in a multi‑stage process, reviews the current code against the city’s land‑use priorities and recommends organization, new zoning districts and updates to review procedures. Abby Feeley, the city’s administrator for Development and Economic Opportunity, summarized the need: "The land development code has not comprehensively been updated since the late 19 eighties," she said, noting the city currently lacks modern definitions for uses such as dog daycares and relies on many isolated text amendments.

Why it matters: Council members said the rewrite is a once‑in‑many‑decades opportunity to…