The  Planning Commission is proud to announce the winners of our 36th Annual Planning & Design Awards presented by TECO with our marketing partner, the  Tampa Bay Times. This celebration of excellence in planning and design in Hillsborough County was held on October 25 at TPepin's Hospitality Centre. Our annual awards program aligns with the many national festivities held during the American Planning Association's National Planning Month and celebration of Great Places in America. Award winners were selected by a panel of distinguished judges from outside of Hillsborough County. Brendan McLaughlin, Master of Ceremonies, presented eight  Awards of Merit, four  Awards of Excellence, and three  Awards of Outstanding Contribution to the Community, including the  Jan Abell Award for Historic Preservation.

On October 5th, Plan Hillsborough staff once again volunteered to help Tampa Bay Watch's Community Oyster Reef Enhancement (CORE) program by creating oyster shell reefs in McKay Bay. The goal of the Oyster Shell Bar program is to provide and enhance marine habitat while providing environmental education and stewardship within the Tampa Bay community through hands-on community restoration.

Staff initially volunteered in May as part of the Hillsborough 100 Conservation Challenge, a showcase of conservation projects throughout Hillsborough County. For National Community Planning Month in October, staff decided to return to the project site in McKay Bay to continue the oyster shell reef they had started. It was a treat to see the fruits of our labor in the form of barnacles surrounding the mesh bags placed underwater five months earlier. Improving the health of Tampa Bay makes the hard work and many volunteer hours worth it!

At its October 30 meeting, the Hillsborough MPO Board approved a series of performance targets in conformance with new rules from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the federal agency responsible for transportation. State DOTs and MPOs must now assess and set short-term goals for safety performance, travel reliability, transit, pavement and bridge condition every four years.

FDOT-maintained pavement and bridges in Hillsborough County are generally in good repair, and in fact exceed national standards for bridge condition. However, local travel time reliability lags behind the rest of the state, so the MPO urged FDOT to address bottlenecks by funding projects on the MPO TIP Priority List. The new MAP-21 Performance Management Requirements will encourage greater agency collaboration and help direct investments where they're most needed and can do the greatest good. Long-term (25/yr) performance goals, approved in 2014, can be found in the Imagine 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan.

For Sam Lougheed's mother and sister, the loss is still raw. Sam was one of 121 individuals killed this year (as of October 18) in Hillsborough County traffic crashes. The first annual   Vision Zero Hillsborough Walk of Silence in memory of these victims was held Saturday, October 20 in downtown Tampa.

More than 75 survivors, family members, and activists gathered at Poe Plaza to paint pairs of shoes, representing each life lost, and then carried them to the Tampa Riverwalk where the victims' names were read aloud. The moving ceremony concluded on the Platt Street Bridge with the shoes lined along the balustrade.

 

The Tampa Metro region is ranked as the 2nd deadliest for pedestrians in America, according to Smart Growth America. The Vision Zero movement is working to reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by crashes to zero.

Al Higginbotham likes the old backpacker saying: "If you see something that's not right, fix it. If you explore nature, leave without a trace." It's a credo reflected in his legacy over the past 12 years as a Hillsborough County Commissioner and member of the Hillsborough River Interlocal Planning Board.

Higginbotham - Al, as he prefers - leaves the Commission and River Board this month. From his very first term as a Commissioner, he has served on the River Board. Trips to Hillsborough River Park were a beloved staple of his childhood, thanks to his grandfather, a farmer and naturalist. "The Hillsborough River is Tampa's backbone and front porch, and if you look at how it's changed over the years -- declined and then recovered -- we've left it a better place," he says.

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