How We are Helping Pinellas Move Forward

In our role as Pinellas County’s land use and transportation planning agency, there are a lot of things we do at Forward Pinellas, from local projects in a neighborhood or community to guiding investment at the countywide and regional scales.

We are a planning agency, working to bring people together to solve problems that help create a better tomorrow for Pinellas County and its diverse communities. We do not build, operate, or maintain the transportation network; nor do we permit construction or land development activity.

Instead, our job is to focus on the big picture of how growth, redevelopment and transportation position our county and its communities for long-term success.

We do that in several ways

First, our Countywide Plan provides a framework for orderly growth and redevelopment among all 25 local governments in Pinellas County. Our Countywide Rules and Strategies help guide more intense development to the right locations and help ensure compatibility with surrounding areas and the environment.

As the metropolitan planning organization, we guide federal and state transportation funds to the county based on need and how those projects support the Countywide Plan. In this way, we identify the highways, transit services and bicycling and walking measures that help our economy, support our communities, and give people opportunity.

Our job is to be data-driven, analytical, and transparent in making those decisions collaboratively with our partners at the state, regional and local level.

One of the most important things we do is serve as a clearinghouse for data to track trends and conditions and provide technical assistance to our community partners. We provide expertise in transportation and land use matters for our local governments that do not have the staff capacity in those areas.

Whether it’s about safety, traffic conditions, population and employment, or land development activity, Forward Pinellas helps people understand the conditions that affect our county and its communities, and works to help define solutions that work to meet the community’s needs.