Oldsmar Council backs Forward Pinellas housing regulatory toolkit
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Summary
The Oldsmar City Council voted to support Advantage Pinellas' housing regulatory toolkit after a presentation from Forward Pinellas staff explaining model zoning and incentives intended to increase affordable and “missing middle” housing throughout Pinellas County.
The Oldsmar City Council voted Tuesday to support the Advantage Pinellas housing regulatory toolkit, a package of model policies designed to help municipalities speed adoption of zoning and regulations that encourage affordable and missing-middle housing.
Forward Pinellas Director Linda Fisher, AICP, presented the toolkit and told the council Pinellas County faces a “crisis of housing affordability” and that the toolkit offers model development standards, incentives and code language communities can adopt or adapt. “The housing compact is a pledge, but there’s also a plan,” Fisher said, summarizing the countywide effort and the toolkit’s intent to provide a ‘‘menu’’ of options for communities of different sizes.
The toolkit, Fisher said, incorporates an analysis of local plans and codes from all 25 Pinellas local governments, three staff workshops (Oldsmar hosted the North County workshop), developer interviews and public-sector stakeholder input. It includes model standards for affordable housing, density bonuses, parking reductions, accessory dwelling units, missing-middle housing, senior housing, mixed use and transit-oriented development; it also contains outreach and barrier-reduction guidance and implementation steps.
Council members moved to support the toolkit after Fisher’s presentation. The motion passed on a voice vote.
Why it matters: Forward Pinellas and partner governments say the county needs roughly 3,300 new housing units a year to meet demand but currently produces about 2,700, a shortfall that has pushed most new construction toward higher-priced units. The toolkit aims to give local governments ready-made regulatory language and procedural options so cities can adopt measures aimed at producing more affordable and workforce housing without building regulations from scratch.
What’s next: Fisher said the toolkit was approved by the Forward Pinellas board in June and is available free online at homesforpinellas.org; Forward Pinellas staff also offer limited paid technical assistance to customize the toolkit for individual jurisdictions. City staff can follow up with Forward Pinellas for assistance or to request help adapting the materials for Oldsmar.
Sources: Presentation by Linda Fisher, AICP, Forward Pinellas; staff comments submitted into the record.