New Urbanism Takes Hold In West Florida

"In the late 1990s, when Longleaf was just a gleam in Trey and Frank Starkey's eyes, builders didn't want to touch the developers' dream project.

Infused with something called New Urbanism, the project in southwestern Pasco County felt too newfangled, too expensive and too untested, bigger builders told them.

Now, almost a decade later, New Urbanism is getting a surprising embrace in Pasco County.

Nearly two months after some builders threatened to sue to stop it, the county on July 25 got its first Traditional Neighborhood Development ordinance, codifying standards that began life in the architecture-driven, antisprawl New Urbanism movement.

Surrounding cities and counties, like Tampa, St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, are tweaking codes and regulations to incorporate New Urbanist elements, their planners say. But none has enacted an ordinance that sets a blueprint of New Urbanist standards.

With its ordinance, Pasco is just now tuning into a 15-year-old conversation about a movement that is the rage in urban planning circles."