Pinellas County

Role/jurisdiction: Densest FL county. Public Works owns county-maintained roads (unincorporated plus county arterials/collectors that run through the 24 municipalities) — and note the county’s access standards apply to development on county-maintained right-of-way even inside a municipality (TDM § 5.1). Countywide land-use + MPO coordination runs through Forward Pinellas (unique dual planning council/MPO role), which also owns the countywide safety plan, count maps, and the multimodal impact fee framework.

Known starting points (resolved 2026-07-08 unless tagged):

• The single central document is the Transportation Design Manual (Jan 2021) — it bundles traffic study guidelines, Complete Streets, access management, roadway/signal design, retiming, and calming into one 48-page manual.
• Traffic calming confirmed: the Residential Traffic Management Program (BOCC-adopted Oct 1997) exists, but the program document itself is not posted online — see below.
• GIS confirmed well-developed: Enterprise GIS open-data hub + county app gallery (parcels, road centerlines, bike facilities, impact-fee districts).
• Signals: the county runs a countywide interconnected system; St. Petersburg and Clearwater operate their own traffic control centers — see signal entry below.
• Transportation concurrency is gone countywide — replaced by the Forward Pinellas Mobility Plan / Multimodal Impact Fee system (LDC Ch. 150 Art. II); ordinance update in progress through ~June 2026.
• Many major arterials (US 19, Gulf-to-Bay, Alt US 19…) are FDOT District 7 roads — always confirm state vs. county maintenance per corridor #status/verify.

Collect (link each as found; date it)

• TIA/TIS guidelines: Transportation Design Manual, January 2021 (PDF) — Chapter 3, Traffic Study Guidelines. Key mechanics: a methodology letter must be prepared and signed by the project’s traffic engineer and the County Transportation Division before the study starts (study area, scope, count types, and the acceptable time of year / days of week for data collection are fixed in the letter); county consults the city PW department for projects on city roads or within 1/4 mile of an incorporated area, and FDOT for state roads. Ch. 3 enumerates study types: traffic analysis, traffic impact study, signal warrant, ICE (required whenever alternative intersection improvements are considered), gap, intersection delay, travel time/delay, no-passing zone, advisory speed, spot speed, and transportation safety study (safety B/C per FDM 122). References are FDOT handbooks, HCM, ITE Trip Generation. No separate standalone TIS manual exists — Ch. 3 is it. Fee side: Multimodal Impact Fees, LDC Ch. 150 Art. II under the countywide Mobility Plan; MIFO update (Forward Pinellas + County + St. Pete + Clearwater + Largo) underway, Phase 2A runs to ~June 2026. (checked 2026-07-08)
• Parking study guidelines / parking code (with section #): unincorporated LDC — Ch. 138 Zoning, Art. X Community Design Standards, Div. 2 Parking and Loading, § 138-3602 Motor Vehicle Parking (Municode Art. X); stall quantity minimums/limits per use in Table 138-3602.a. No standalone county parking study guideline is published online — reduction/shared-parking study expectations: request from Development Review Services. (checked 2026-07-08)
• Traffic calming program/guidelines: Residential Traffic Management Program (RTMP) — adopted by the BOCC October 1997 (confirmed in Comp Plan Transportation Element, Ch. 7 “Safety, Efficiency and Goods Movement” (PDF)). TDM Ch. 16 designates the RTMP document as the county’s calming methods reference for all county roads, but says to obtain a copy by contacting Public Works Traffic Engineering — the program document is not published online. Criteria flavor from the Comp Plan: speeds < 12 mph over posted are treated as minor (enforcement, speed-limit review, education); excessive speeding triggers physical measures (speed humps, roundabouts, street/intersection narrowing, non-local traffic diversion). Request the current handbook + petition thresholds from the agency. (checked 2026-07-08)
• Complete Streets policy · Vision Zero / Safety Action Plan: TDM Ch. 4 Complete Streets — tiered corridor prioritization from the county’s Complete Streets Corridor Evaluation Report (Tier 1 = overlap of Forward Pinellas Active Transportation Plan + County Paving Plan; corridors > 45 mph posted and > 25,000 AADT excluded). Countywide grants/program: Forward Pinellas Complete Streets. Vision Zero is Forward Pinellas’s, not the county’s: Safe Streets Pinellas — Action Plan adopted 2021, zero deaths/serious injuries by 2045; High-Injury Network (PDF) (HIN ≈ 4% of network carries ~60% of KSI). SS4A-funded plan update in progress (community workshops spring 2026; public crash dashboard promised). (checked 2026-07-08)
• Roadway design standards / standard details: hub page: Engineering & Technical Information. Governing docs: Transportation Design Manual (Jan 2021) — Ch. 9 roadway design (design speeds, lane widths, turn lanes, return radii, roundabouts), Ch. 10 pavement, Ch. 11–13 MOT/signs/markings, Ch. 17 lighting; Standard Engineering Details, Feb 2022 (PDF); Standard Technical Specifications for Roadway & Related Construction — current January 2025 edition (2025 Supplemental Specifications PDF; July 2019 base specs archived on the hub page). (checked 2026-07-08)
• Access management standards: LDC Ch. 154, Art. IV — Access Management (Municode) plus TDM Ch. 5 (the working version with tables). Key numbers: driveway connection spacing by road class — Class 1 controlled access; Class 2 > 680 ft; Class 3 > 460 ft; Class 4 > 240 ft; Class 5 > 120 ft; Class 6 > 0 ft (Table 5-1); median opening spacing 1,320/990/660/330 ft for Classes 1–4 (Table 5-2). Additional access to an arterial/collector may be permitted when the project generates > 555 daily trips, backed by a county-approved traffic report. Compliance applies to all new development/redevelopment/changes of use on or adjacent to county-maintained ROW, whether or not the site is inside a municipality. (checked 2026-07-08)
• Traffic count requirements (seasonal factors accepted?): no published blanket seasonal-factor policy — the TDM Ch. 3 methodology letter explicitly fixes time of year and days of week for counts per study, so seasonal treatment is negotiated per project. Published count data: Forward Pinellas Traffic Count Maps — annual countywide AADT map PDFs, 2014 through 2024; no interactive count database found (a 2023 county RFP for a “Crash Data, Traffic Counts and Level of Service Database Program” suggests one is coming #status/verify). FDOT Florida Traffic Online covers state roads. (checked 2026-07-08)
• Crash/safety dashboard: no county-published crash dashboard. Closest public tools: Bicycle–Pedestrian Crash Analysis story map (county Enterprise GIS) and the Safe Streets Pinellas collision assessment/HIN PDFs; a public-facing crash dashboard is a stated deliverable of the SS4A Safe Streets update. Signal Four Analytics requires an agency login. (checked 2026-07-08)
• GIS / open data portal: Pinellas County Enterprise GIS open data hub (parcels, road centerlines, zoning, bike facilities, Multi-Modal Impact Fee districts) · county GIS app gallery (road closures, pavement program, crash story map) · landing: Find Maps (GIS). (checked 2026-07-08)
• Signal timing procedures & maintaining agency: county Public Works runs the countywide ATMS (“Smart Tracs”) and Traffic Management Center at the Clearwater PW campus, staffed 5:30 a.m.–7 p.m. daily — Smart Tracs Transportation System. Signal shop operations (signals, flashers, street lighting) are performed countywide under County Charter responsibilities and interlocal agreements with municipalities — most small cities’ signals are county-maintained; St. Petersburg and Clearwater operate their own traffic control centers, coordinated with the county TMC (per the FDOT D7 ITS architecture entry). Retiming procedure: TDM Ch. 15 — get existing timings from the county Traffic Control Center, deliver all analyses/timings as Synchro electronic files, clearance intervals per FDOT criteria; signal design per TDM Ch. 14 + Pinellas Standard Details. New-signal requests: online request form. (checked 2026-07-08)
• Development review process & submittal requirements: Development Review topic page — Building & Development Review Services covers unincorporated county (plus six partner communities for building services); electronic submittal via the Pinellas County Access Portal (Accela). Access management and traffic study requirements are applied through the site plan review process (Comp Plan Transp. Element Ch. 7). Example checklist: DRS Plat Submittal Checklist (PDF). (checked 2026-07-08)
• Permit forms (ROW, driveway): Right-of-Way Utilization Permit — required for private work in county ROW including new/replacement driveways, sidewalks, utility connections, temporary access; apply through the Access Portal (Development → Right of Way under Development Review Services); application form (PDF); Public Works must be notified 48 hours before starting work or the permit is voided. (checked 2026-07-08)
• Example projects (ours & public): ours live in the private vault (see callout below); no county-published example TIS/methodology-letter packages found online. (checked 2026-07-08)

Contacts, review-comment history, and institutional notes live in the private vault — never on the public site.

See also: MOC - Agencies · Forward Pinellas · City of St. Petersburg · City of Clearwater