Largo Planning Board adopts Target Employment Center overlays, sending package to City Commission

The Largo Planning Board on Jan. 8 voted 7–0 to adopt a package of zoning and map changes establishing Target Employment Center overlays in parts of Largo and recommended the City Commission take the items up at first reading on Feb. 3, 2026.

Principal Planner Jared Austin told the board the overlays implement recommendations from the county’s 2023 Target Employment and Industrial Land Study (TEALS) and are designed to preserve and attract higher‑wage, export‑oriented employers by allowing more flexible, mixed uses than older, preservation‑focused rules. “Staff finds that the proposed future land use map amendment is consistent with the goals, objectives and policies of the Largo comprehensive plan and the Pinellas Countywide rules and chapter 163 of the Florida Statutes,” Austin said, recommending approval.

The package creates two overlay designations within Largo: a Suburban Industrial overlay near Starkey Industrial Park and northeast of the CSX railroad, and a Suburban Office overlay east of U.S. 19 covering Bay Vista Office Park, TD SYNNEX and the ICON Center. Austin said the overlays would cover roughly 12.37 acres in the southern portions of the city (figure given as approximate) and that the changes are opt‑in: existing entitlements remain in place and property owners would elect to use the overlay standards and bonus incentives.

Under the proposed rules, developers that opt into an overlay could qualify for two tiers of density and intensity bonuses. Tier 1 bonuses require at least one qualifying target employment use; tier 2 offers larger increases but requires additional site‑design enhancements such as building form, streetscape and public‑realm improvements and encouragement of vertical mixed use. Austin said stacking of density and intensity bonuses is allowed when a development meets the vertical mixed‑use criteria, and that the county update explicitly considered post‑COVID hybrid and remote work patterns when projecting demand for Class A, amenity‑rich office space.

The comprehensive development code amendments would add new land‑use classifications and allowable uses for the overlays (examples listed by staff included light and heavy manufacturing, research and development, urban agriculture and indoor recreation), clarify how vertically integrated mixed‑use bonuses are applied, and add definitions tied to the target employment clusters identified in the TEALS update.

Board members questioned whether bonuses could stack and whether the county’s office‑space projections accounted for hybrid work; staff responded that stacking is permitted under the vertical mixed‑use provisions and that the TEALS work did account for changing workplace patterns while highlighting demand concentrated in well‑designed, amenity‑rich Class A environments.

There were no public‑comment speakers. After brief discussion, the board made separate motions to adopt the future land use map amendment (FLUMA25‑0002) and the comprehensive development code amendments (CDCA25‑0002). Both motions passed unanimously, 7–0. Chair Faustini thanked staff for months of work on the package.

The board’s approval is advisory. If the City Commission approves the measures at first reading on Feb. 3, staff will transmit the FLUMA as a Tier 1 future land‑use map amendment to Pinellas County for a consistency review under countywide procedures.

Planning manager Alicia Parinello also announced she has accepted an assistant director position in the Community Development department and said a new planning manager will be named soon; board members discussed scheduling a spring retreat and possible site tours of the new commission chambers. Cheryl Reed, director of Community Development, invited the advisory boards to tour the Horizon Lehi Bay commission chambers once audiovisual equipment is installed.

What’s next: both items are scheduled for first reading at the Largo City Commission on Feb. 3, 2026; if approved there, the FLUMA will be transmitted for a Pinellas County consistency review.