Home--Livable Communities

The Livable Communities effort was started in 2007 with Reality Check Tampa Bay to reach out to the many separate planning efforts across the seven county Tampa Bay region and provide a forum to work collectively toward a better future. Since then, the initiative has reached out to more than 6,000 citizens across the seven-county region through a series of events to help define and express their vision for Tampa Bay's next 40 years.

In 2008, ONE BAY prepared four distinct scenarios of potential growth patterns for the region. These illustrations helped convey the cause/effect relationship of different land use patterns on transportation, the environment, water resources, and the location of jobs vs. housing.

In June 2009, ONE BAY commissioned Mason Dixon Polling to complete a survey of 1,100 adult residents of the seven county Tampa Bay region. The survey revealed that residents soundly reject "businesss as usual" when it comes to future growth in the region. Residents support a scenario for future growth that focuses on protecting water resources, followed by one that emphasizes compact design along transportation corridors to preserve open space.

ONE BAY is compiling all of these sources of citizen input and will be sharing the ONE BAY Vision for growth on Friday, April 16, 2010 at the inaugural "Congress of Regional Leaders" at the Tampa Convention Center.