Hillsborough County, population 998,948 (2000), surrounds the City of Tampa, the county seat, and extends from the beaches of Tampa Bay to inland swamps. In the mid-1980s, the County adopted a TDR program with slightly different procedures depending on whether the sending and receiving sites are contiguous or non-contiguous. The program was designed to preserve farmland and environmentally sensitive areas.
In the late 1990s, the County amended its TDR program, expanding its purpose to include the preservation of historic landmarks as well as farmland and environmentally sensitive areas. In a March 2005 letter, Paula Harvey, AICP, Planning and Zoning Services Division Director, reported that the County TDR program was again modified in 2002.
The program remains primarily as described in Beyond Takings and Givings. However, the County has added clarifications which create greater differences in the requirements for transfers involving historic landmarks versus transfers from other potential sending areas: 1) Environmentally Sensitive Areas, 2) Farmland containing a minimum of 25 acres, 3) Rural Reserve Zone within a Traditional Neighborhood Development District or Community Plan, and 4) any site within the County's Rural Area designated as a sending area in the Community Plan. The receiving areas for TDRs from environmental/farmland sending areas can be any area designated to receive TDRs in The Comprehensive Plan and the bonus density allowed on these receiving sites is the difference between the underlying zoning and the density or intensity allowed to the property under the Comprehensive Plan land use designation. Alternatively, the receiving areas for TDRs from historic landmarks can be any property in the County's Urban Service Area with public sewer and water and the maximum bonus density is 50 percent.
The March 2005 letter adds that no transfers had occurred as of that date.
