Livable Communities Element of the Comprehensive Plan for Hillsborough County
Many of you are aware of the document “Livable Communities Element of the Comprehensive Plan for Hillsborough County” and how fundamentally important this document (codified as an ordinance) is to our case to defeat any application to Hillsborough County for development of the six golf courses currently zoned as PD-MU. I have been seeking to learn more about the specific processes and people who were instrumental in the citizens’ engagement to make this plan a reality. I was blessed to meet and speak with two of these folks last week.
Click here to display a scan of the Greater Sun City Center Community Plan printed by Hillsborough County in 2009.
Greenways Master Plan Update
Several of you sent me photos of the recent signs at Pebble Beach Blvd and 674 from Hillsborough County regarding Public Meeting about the Greenways Master Plan Update on Wednesday, July 27, 2022, at 6:00 pm at the Southshore Library at 15816 Beth Shields Way, Ruskin, Fl 33573. Thanks for helping keep me informed.
Here is the sign.
Hillsborough County Meeting Sign
The Greenways Project began back in the 1990’s as an initiative to harness citizens and planners to create a county-wide system of greenways. Greenways typically are multi-use natural and recreational corridors or trails that connect different areas and communities as well as recreation areas, conservation areas, and natural resources.
There is a wealth of information on the County plans and initiatives with respect to Greenways. Here is an information link:
I recommend taking a look, investigating further and possibly even attending the meeting. I see all planning initiatives regarding greenspaces and recreation very much a part of the Greater Sun City Center Area’s Livable Communities Element of the Comprehensive Plan and our effort to stop development of golf courses and greenspaces in Sun City Center. Greenways plans are one part of a larger community plans and integral to our work and potential future uses of the existing golf courses in Sun City Center for future recreational use.
SaveSCC Case Against any Application by ClubLink or Their Builder with Hillsborough County
Great news on another front. Our behind the scenes work on the case against development of the existing golf courses in Sun City Center is making great headway. We have a confidential draft that is still a work in progress but very compelling. Kudos to Doug James for his outstanding ground-breaking work on this document.
We have enlisted a very capable Land Use Expert and Professional who has had success in similar situations in the recent past. This professional does not undertake cases before the application filed. However, our situation is so compelling that even the county planning team agrees that from a 50-thousand-foot level due to the language to protect the courses in the Community Plan, our case is the strongest they have seen. That assessment led with some coaxing led this expert to agree to take a clear look. Our expert will participate on a pro bono basis with myself and Mike Newsom in an upcoming Zoom session with staff from HC Planning and HC Development Services to confirm our understandings and essential aspects of our case preemptively prior to any filing and clarify our questions and understandings as the matter proceeds.
This has been hard fought and will offer invaluable insight and additional intelligence to our case and how to most effectively and successful defeat any development application.
Petition Canvassing – Coordination’s the Thing
Members of SaveSCC and other interested parties are supporting our canvassing efforts and community outreach. Our goal is to reach the entire community so that everyone is aware of ClubLink’s plan to develop our golf courses and our actions to stop it. That is not a simple task between snow birds, folks out of town, busy schedules, and the prohibition against canvassing in CA clubs or on CA property during activities or events as that would be considered violating the rights of other CA members to enjoy those facilities and activities.
The best canvassing strategy we can strategically take is to go door-to-door throughout every neighborhood, street by street. That was the consensus at our working session on July 12, 2022.
So here is the plan to manage our activities to get it done as effectively and efficiently as possible:
Our canvassing chief – Carol Hugill is coordinating and tracking canvassing efforts on a street-by-street basis via a spreadsheet containing the details on all 220+ streets in SCC. To sign up for a street or part of a street by house number range for large streets like Del Webb or Pebble Beach, email her at SaveSCCcanvassing@gmail.com with the street you’d like to canvass including your name, email, and phone number. If that street is available, she’ll put it in your name for canvassing. We do not want to duplicate efforts or waste time and resources.
Please advise her when you are complete so we can track completions. The spreadsheet will be updated by Carol on our confidential Google WorkSpace and published weekly on SaveSCC.org on the “Take Action” menu item, under “Canvassing”. That way we gauge our progress.
We are asking all SaveSCC members to solicit petition signers and distribute SaveSCC materials whenever you’re out and about. We have plenty of printed materials. They are available at all SaveSCC meetings or by contacting us via SaveSCCcanvassing@gmail.com. We just had 6000 pamphlets and 1500 petitions professionally printed by Vistaprint and they are beautifully done. Please use them.
Keep that clipboard with a stack of petitions and SaveSCC pamphlets with. Don’t leave home without them! Take them with you to the grocery, the barber shop, the hairdresser, the nail salon, the doctor’s office, a non-CA community event, etc. Don’t be afraid to talk with folks. Engage with your friends, your neighbors, your social circle, your clubmates or teammates, or friends at the dog park, or on a round of golf, or over drinks, or even strangers. Email your buds! Don’t miss an opportunity.
Just make sure they have not signed this petition before. It has only been out since early June so hopefully they’ll remember. The only requirement to sign is you are over 18, reside at least part-time in Hillsborough County, and have not signed before.
Please do not make up additional sign-up sheets. Use the one provided as it only has 9 signatures per page and if a sheet is disqualified, destroyed, or lost – the signatures not counted are minimal. The height of the pile will be more impressive when these are hand delivered at the hearing meeting!
Anyone can also visit the Emergency Squad or Security Patrol to sign the petition or drop them off there for pick up. We also collect them at all SaveSCC meetings. The details about how to return them are on the bottom of the form. Folk can snail mail a sheet with even one signature back to me if they are out of town. Just help get the word out, in person or electronically.
Most folks we’ve approached are actually very interested and glad that you are sharing information. They support the SaveSCC effort to stop development of Sun City Center’s golf courses. The response has been very gratifying.
Remember our goal is for every SaveSCC member to get 30 signatures!
“If it is to be, it is up to “we”, and you are an integral part of “we.””
When we all do a little, the effect is a tidal wave!
Be part of the tsunami!
As I had been told many times, it was the petition effort by key CA folks that was the deciding factor in overcoming all objections from FDOT and everyone else when one Hillsborough County Commissioner took those 4,000+ petitions all the way to Tallahassee and said “ These petitions are votes!” That’s how we are blessed to have the golf carts crossing at Highway 301 to get to Walmart after they moved to their current location. No thought that could happen either!
Golf Course Adjacent Properties Project
The project team analyzing the golf course properties is proceeding. In-person and Zoom training was held for 3 team members last Wednesday and the initial pass of the property data on Sandpiper has been completed and will be rechecked for accuracy. The preliminary count is 446 home owner properties abutting Sandpiper. The North Lake Course has also been done and the preliminary count there is 418.
Work is underway for the rest of SCC ClubLink golf courses and work will begin on Kings Point courses this week. I anticipate we will find 2,000+ owners abutting the Clublink golf courses meaning probably about 10% of the community.
Wrap Up
As you can see from this update, things are moving along well. This definitely is the time for us to prepare for ClubLink or their builder’s application to the county. We must also prepare the game plan and alternatives for the next steps after their application is defeated. Our goal is really two-fold, stop development and ensure the existing golf courses are used for recreational use only.
Keep on Canvassing and Informing!
Ellie Anderson