Commissioners transmit two Energy Industrial Park plan amendments after extended public opposition, add testing conditions

Hillsborough County commissioners voted to transmit two related comprehensive-plan text amendments that would change the rules for the county’s Energy Industrial Park, sending the proposals to state and regional review and attaching new environmental conditions after extended public comment and amendments on the dais.

The board transmitted HCCPA 23-15 (Energy Industrial Park — text changes) and HCCPA 24-06 (Energy Industrial Park — allow residential uses south of the CSX railroad) after adding language requiring expanded testing and monitoring for a 14‑dioxane groundwater plume and other site-specific protections. Commissioners approved the main transmittal motions and the new conditions by 6–1 votes (Commissioner Cameron Spada voted no on the substantive motions and related amendments).

The amendments would modernize the Energy Industrial Park policies and allow limited residential development in a roughly 476-acre area south of the railroad tracks if the applications meet new environmental and design conditions. Planning Commission staff and the applicant said the changes reflect modern renewable-energy technologies and co-location (for example rooftop solar) and would concentrate the…