Pasco County - Developers are pressing the county for a range of incentives that would help them embrace a new form of growth management policy called the Traditional Neighborhood Development.

Key county commissioners support the push for incentives, which include higher residential densities, a shorter review process and lower impact fees. Developers want these incentives written into the draft TND ordinance poised to go before a commission vote next week.

But county staffers were instead recommending that the incentives be explored separately through a longer workshop process, and they wanted commissioners to pass the ordinance without these incentives in place.

"I'll ask them to vote on it," said Deborah Bolduc, Pasco's project manager in charge of the ordinance. "The incentives discussion will occur later, and we're arranging for a special workshop with the board."

The talk of incentives came on the heels of a near confrontation between county officials and the Pasco Building Association over changes to Pasco's comprehensive land-use plan.

The association tried to stop the amendments, arguing that the key proposals, including TNDs, place new and uncompensated demands on developers.

Such developments encourage clustering residential and commercial sites within walking distance, emphasizing building styles that encourage a sense of community centered on neighborhood centers.

In other words, think old town squares, with community centers, village greens and tree-lined sidewalks.

In Pasco, shades of TNDs can already be seen in developments like Longleaf and Connerton.

But these developments were pioneers, one commissioner said, forging ahead without the benefit of a blueprint, which the TND ordinance is meant to provide.

Frank Starkey, chairman of the Citizens' Ordinance Review Committee, has asked for incentives on densities, expedited review and lower impact fees. He also asked for a slew of tweaks to the ordinance's details, down to issues like curbing and building heights.

But the developers' exact terms were unclear.

"There was never really a discussion on the specifics of the incentives," said Commissioner Ted Schrader, who got the ball rolling on possible incentives at last week's commission meeting.

"We could conceivably go from RES-3 to RES-24 as an incentive," Schrader said, referring to a possible level of density under TNDs that would allow developers to pack more bang for the buck.

But county planner Bolduc said RES-24, a level of density that allows 24 "dwelling units" per gross acre, was for heavily urbanized areas.

"When you talk RES-24, you're really talking about downtown developments, vertical buildings," she said.

Schrader thinks the incentives must happen if the county wants TNDs to succeed.

"If we're going to go down this path, we've got to offer them incentives to get developers to consider and accept it," he said.

Still, with few details firm on what developers want, county staffers are left free to frame the terms of the discussion - and, potentially, to draw out the process in a swirl of workshops and consultations.

Bolduc said impending changes to the comprehensive land-use plan, land-use classifications and review standards for commercial site applications, among other issues, would all need to be taken into account when county staff members assess the proposed incentives.

A discussion paper on incentives will be drawn up by the county's consultants, Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin Lopez Rinehart Inc., Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein said.

"It was clear that the board wanted to go in that direction (of incentives)," Goldstein said. "I can't tell you definitely that it'll be in this ordinance. Staff fully agrees with the idea of incentives ... (but) recommends addressing it in a separately held workshop, to be scheduled after the ordinance passes."

One area of obvious ambiguity lies in what "expedited review" means. Among other issues, it raises the question of whether TNDs would get precedence over economic development projects, Goldstein said.

Lower impact fees may be possible if developers can show that TNDs lessen the impact on public goods, like transportation and parks, he said.

The TND ordinance returns to the County Commission on July 25.

In the month that follows that vote, county staffers must come back to the commission with ideas on what kinds of incentives could be put on the table, Bolduc said. A special workshop will then be scheduled.

Starkey, on vacation Monday, did not return a call for comment. Pasco Building Association officials were unable to provide more details.

Chuin-Wei Yap covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at cyap@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4613.