Hardee County planners introduce comprehensive plan amendments, extend horizon to 2050

Marissa Barbee of the Central Florida Regional Planning Council presented an overview Nov. 6 of proposed updates to Hardee County’s comprehensive plan, describing an evaluation and appraisal review that will extend the plan’s long-range horizon from 2030 to 2050 and make statutory housekeeping changes.

Barbee told the Planning and Zoning Board the state requires jurisdictions to perform an evaluation and appraisal every seven years to identify changes in state law and adjust local goals, objectives and policies as needed. She said the county will update references to agency names, revise timing language for policies that reference past target dates, and incorporate mandatory statutory requirements such as a state preemption for solar facility approval procedures.

The presentation noted Senate Bill 180, enacted by the Florida Legislature and effective retroactively to 2024 through Oct. 1, 2027, restricts local governments from adopting amendments deemed more restrictive or burdensome than state law; as a result, Barbee said most of the edits in this cycle will be administrative.

Staff identified elements to be reviewed across the plan including future land use, transportation, housing, recreation and infrastructure. Barbee said the transportation and map series will be updated to reference the latest long-range transportation analysis and that the housing element will add state-required language addressing rehabilitation of vulnerable housing and structural resilience.

The board was told the full package will return in December for a transmittal hearing to the Board of County Commissioners and that the state’s review procedures (including a 60-day review after transmittal) mean adoption is expected in spring 2026. No formal action was taken on Nov. 6; staff described the Nov. 6 presentation as a workshop-style briefing ahead of the formal public hearings.