Pasco County continues to be one of the fastest growing counties in Florida. Its comprehensive plan sets goals, objectives and policies that influence future planning decisions.

Pasco 2050 is a multi-year initiative to update the County’s Comprehensive Plan. This initiative will define Pasco County’s vision for the next 25 years and outlines the steps needed to get there.

Residents were invited to join the conversation and explore topics such as economic development, transportation, parks, natural resources, public infrastructure and how land is used, developed and / or conserved throughout Pasco County.

Fifty Residents attend first Workshop to Update Pasco’s 2050 Comprehensive Plan

A Thursday night meeting at Saint Leo University was the beginning of the public’s participation in developing the new 2050 Comprehensive Plan for Pasco County.  Inspire Placemaking are the consultants working with Pasco County planners on this updating of the several hundred page plan last developed 25 years ago.  Now this new plan, required by the state, will cover the next 25 years.

The full conference room was greeted by Pasco County staff and Chris Dougherty, Principal Planner for the consultants.  He gave a PowerPoint presentation on the growth and development of the county in the past and projections for the future.

It was pointed out that Pasco has had a growth of 63 percent in the past 20 years.  The median age of residents has dropped from 53 to 45 years old, and the diversity has increased slightly.

However, the GDP (created market value) of Pasco County is the lowest of the counties with over 500,000 population.  The largest employers in the county are Pasco Schools, Pasco Government, HCA Healthcare, State Government, and AdventHealth. 

In the first group exercise, Dougherty led individual participation through the attendees’ cell phones to a live tally screen which recorded members’ opinions on the type of developments and their terms.

The final process was for individuals to go around to six stations in the conference room and indicate by dots where they live, where they want development and note what resources are available.  ChartPacks recorded peoples’ opinions and questions on the present and future plan.

Dougherty explained that this first meeting was seeking general directions, and not specific concerns such as the preservation of the Rural Protected Area or size of developments and buildings.  These would come later.

This was the first of three themed public meetings, duplicated both in St. Leo and on the west side of Pasco County.  The next public meeting will be the same as this one on June 5th 6-8pm at the J. Ben Harrill Recreation Complex, 2830 Gulf Trace Blvd, Holiday 34691.

The next two public meetings will be scheduled in June and July with a presentation to the Board of County Commissioners in October 2023.