1. Planning & Growth Management Department Consolidations and Closures

By: Peter Aluotto, Director, Planning & Growth Management Department

Over the past three years, the Department of Planning and Growth Management has suffered significant reductions in budget as well as staff. Since February of 2007, the Department’s budget has been reduced from $38 million to $21 million and the total number of full-time employees from 334 to 174.  Broken down by Division, the personnel losses are approximately as follows:  Building Services Division: 117; Land Development and Transportation 21; Planning and Zoning 17; and Administrative Services 5.

As a consequence of these reductions, we are consolidating our NetPark office functions into County Center and our South County Regional Services Center effective on or about December 1.  Please be advised that you may experience some delay in the delivery of the many public services we offer.  However, with the exception of the furlough days listed below, the Planning and Growth Management Department will remain OPEN for your business 8 hours per day, 5 days per week.  It is our pleasure to serve you as we strive to maintain the same high quality standards of service that you have come to expect from us.

Furlough Days
Friday, October 30, 2009
Friday, January 15, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010

2. Outdoor Lighting in Hillsborough County

By: David W. Olson, PE, Professional Engineer II
Transportation and Land Development Review Division

Property owners illuminate their sites for a variety of reasons.  Among these reasons are:

• Improving the safety and security of a property;
• Promoting natural surveillance, part of the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) standards;
• Providing visibility to an establishment; and
• Enhancing the aesthetics of buildings, landscaping, and parking areas.

A lighting designer achieves these benefits by controlling where the light is directed, the intensity and characteristics of the light, and how the lights are controlled.  A quality lighting system uniformly illuminates the intended areas and objects.  A poorly-designed lighting system creates nuisances, such as bright spots, dark spots, directing light toward neighboring properties (light trespass), or directing light upward (sky glow).  Sky glow, visible in most urbanized areas, makes it difficult to see stars in the sky, in addition to representing significant amounts of energy wasted on light directed toward outer space.

Correcting Lighting Issues
To direct the light downward and avoid contributing to sky glow, cutoff fixtures, with flat glass lenses and lamps that are recessed within the housing, are required for most lighting applications.  Pole-mounted and building-mounted versions have various distribution patterns, including wide-throw, medium-throw, and forward-throw. These are similar in concept to the various sprinkler heads available for an irrigation system.  The drop-lens cobra-head fixture shown in the photo is not allowed by Code in our jurisdiction.

Types of Lighting
The selection of the type of light source determines its energy efficiency and color rendition, i.e. how clearly colors of lighted surfaces can be recognized.  Metal halide lamps have the best color rendition and the least energy efficiency.  High pressure sodium lamps, commonly used for street lighting, produce an orange-colored light that has poorer color rendition than metal halide, but greater energy efficiency.  Compact fluorescent lamps, similar to what we use in our homes, often appear in building-mounted fixtures.  They have good color rendition and energy efficiency, but they are not available in light output levels needed for illuminating large areas.  Light emitting diodes (LED’s) are fairly new to outdoor area lighting and street lighting applications.  LED’s have a relatively high initial cost, good color rendition, and the highest energy efficiency.

Automatic Lighting Control
Lighting systems for commercial sites are automatically controlled.  The simplest system is the photocell, which provides dusk-to-dawn operation.  Other systems use astronomical time clocks, which automatically adjust to changes in sunset and sunrise times throughout the year.  They can be set to turn off selected fixtures after an establishment closes for business.

For More Information
In unincorporated areas of Hillsborough County, outdoor lighting is regulated by Part 6.10 of the Land Development Code (LDC).  Revisions that became effective on October 1, 2009 made the lighting code simpler to enforce for several reasons: it is consistent with industry standards published by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA); provides definitions of technical terms; clarifies requirements; and eliminates ambiguities.  Additional lighting regulations may apply in certain community planning areas, zoning overlay districts, and planned development (PD) zoning districts.

3. Fast Facts From Hillsborough County’s Criminal Justice Liaison:

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