Wednesday, December 05, 2012 - Regular Planning ... - Polk County

• Enhance the sense of place and viability of the Highland City community by protecting
the existing neighborhood, encourage economic development, and promote civic spaces.
• Encourage uses that are complimentary to the function of the cities of Bartow and
Lakeland as centers of social, commercial, cultural, educational, and civic activities.
• Emphasize existing communities as activity centers to serve the residents of the area.
The TC future land use designation, as established, and among other future land use
designations, is intended to embody these Land Use principles. Policy 2.131-RA4.H of the
Comprehensive Plan states the following when describing the TC land use designation:
TOWN CENTER - The Town Center is the primary cultural and entertainment
district for the overall community especially for Highland City. It is not intended
for any other town Centers to be located within this SAP.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS - The Town Center will include dining, cafes,
bars and pubs, retail, boutiques, music venues, professional office, and multifamily
residential. The Town Center shall include a community focus such as a
park, plaza, or lakefront. The Town Center will exist and grow as a mixed-use
area along specific urban design guidelines. The district is envisioned to be
designed as a harmonious grouping of buildings that include cohesive
architecture, and pedestrian spaces.
The TC land use designation is not intended to entirely preclude vehicles, but pedestrian-oriented
uses are intended to be the focus. Being able to live, work and play in one locale without having
to get in your vehicle is the main concept behind the TC district.
When uses such as restaurants and financial institutions include drive-throughs, they typically do
not comport with a true town center as they introduce a vehicle-oriented style of development
and discourage pedestrian movement. This town center within the US Highway 98 corridor is
the only town center land use designation and has been envisioned as the focal point for this SAP
and the overall Highland City area. Having said that, what has been successful thus far in this
SAP are more vehicle-oriented uses; however, there is still a town center feel with pedestrianrelated
activities being encouraged and with multifamily development proposed in close
proximity to the non-residential uses. These uses have been permitted within the town center
land use designation due to the fact that they were vested uses as part of a Planned Development
(PD 02-13) approved prior to the adoption of the US Highway 98 SAP.
Due to the success with these uses and how the design has still attempted to promote pedestrian
activity and walkability amongst uses while still having drive-through uses, staff is willing to
support this amendment to allow a limited number of drive-through uses in other portions of the
TC at specific roadway intersections within the US Highway 98 SAP with the approval of a
Planned Development; thereby giving staff and the Planning Commission the opportunity to
fully vet each specific drive-through use requested. This opportunity will afford staff and the
Planning Commission to evaluate the design, how it will integrate into the overall town center
and to determine its appropriateness.
Other changes to note are that any use now proposing a drive-through will also require a PD
approval (such as a retail pharmacy use). Additionally, since the TC district is parallel to the
Planning Commission Staff Report Page 2 of 3
Level 4/JMB 12/5/2012 9:38 AM LDC 12T-09 December 5, 2012