County Wants Feedback About Local Economy

Hillsborough County commissioners are seeking feedback from the public on recommendations they recently received from their Economic Prosperity Stakeholder Committee (EPSC) on how the government can help improve the local economy.

The EPSC was created by the County Commission in April of last year to take a fresh look at public policies and their impact on the county’s business climate. The committee, which met regularly throughout last year, included building industry representatives, subject matter experts, citizen representatives and county commissioners.

The 30 recommendations of the EPSC are divided into two main categories:

• Economic Development/Planning
• Regulatory Streamlining

There are three options to provide feedback:

• An online survey that allows for specific feedback on each recommendation and general feedback
• An EPSC Blog where comments can be posted in relation to questions about the recommendations
• By emailing comments directly to EPSC@hillsboroughcounty.org.

The 10 Economic Development/Planning Recommendations are centered on how local government makes decisions and prepares for opportunities. The recommendations centered on various topics including creating a comprehensive economic development strategy for the county; Economic Development Areas; Urban Service Area review; community planning’s role in the Comprehensive Plan; and targeted transportation investment and funding.

The 20 Regulatory Streamlining Recommendations are a call to action to improve the customer experience, remove unnecessary steps and review current codes and practices.

These centered on customer service improvements between the county government and the construction industry; decision making and process improvements within the county government regarding development issues; and modernizing of county development regulatory standards.

An At-A-Glance document is available that highlights the recommendations. Greater detail is available within the full Recommendations Report.

More information about the EPSC’s activities, background documents, committee membership and links to the video and captioning of each committee meeting also is available on the EPSC’s website at: www.hillsboroughcounty.org/epsc.