Role/jurisdiction: Large county between Tampa & Orlando; prior corridor safety work context in this county. Unincorporated county roads only — Lakeland, Winter Haven, and the other municipalities review their own. Development review runs through the Land Development Division (Planning & Development, Bartow); roadway operations through the Roads & Drainage Division (Public Safety) — Roads & Drainage maintains 2,750+ centerline miles. FDOT District 1 for state roads.
Known starting points (resolved 2026-07-08 unless tagged):
- Polk TPO handles planning — see Polk TPO. The TPO is unusually load-bearing here: it approves count data for major traffic studies (LDC Appendix C) and hosts the countywide safety/Complete Streets programs.
- County land development code parking ratios — located: LDC Chapter 7, § 708 (rates, Table 7.10), § 709 (design), § 710 (alternative parking strategies). Note § 720 is landscaping, not parking.
- Unlike Hillsborough (mobility fees), Polk still runs transportation concurrency — the TIA process is packaged as a Concurrency Determination under LDC § 703 + Appendix C.
- Always confirm FDOT vs. County maintenance per corridor — US 17/92, US 27, SR 60 etc. are FDOT District 1
#status/verifyper corridor.
Collect (link each as found; date it)
- TIA/TIS guidelines: LDC Appendix C — Traffic Impact Study Methodology and Procedures (Municode · direct PDF) — adopted 3/01/00, last revised June 2009 (Ord. 09-023). Applies to development approvals in the unincorporated county; tiered by size: >50 and ≤750 ADT → Minor Traffic Review with any Final/Preliminary Concurrency Determination; larger projects → major TIS with TPO pre-application conference. County handout: Minor Traffic Study form (PD LDC 703 C, revised 2026-01-22) — ITE trip generation, Directly Accessed Segment on the Concurrency Determination Network. (checked 2026-07-08)
- Parking study guidelines / parking code (with section #): LDC Chapter 7 (Municode · direct PDF) — § 708 Parking Space Requirements (minimums per Table 7.10; a parking study is required for uses not in the table), § 709 Parking Area Design, § 710 Alternative Parking Strategies (the reduction path: parking study, deferred parking plan, or TDM plan, approved by the Director). (checked 2026-07-08)
- Traffic calming program/guidelines: Residential Traffic Calming Policy (PDF) — Roads & Drainage. Eligibility: local residential paved road, posted ≤ 30 mph, documented speeding, volumes > 10 trips/residence/day; petition must carry a 66% “yes” from residents adjacent to the segment. Request/petition form (rev. 2023-08-22); program overview on the Traffic Engineering & Operations page. (checked 2026-07-08)
- Complete Streets policy · Vision Zero / Safety Action Plan: both live at the TPO, not the county. Vision Zero Polk — SS4A-funded ($720k FY22 grant) countywide Vision Zero Action Plan in progress (engagement site: polkvisionzero.mysocialpinpoint.com); Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Action Plans (2016, jointly updated 2020); TPO Complete Streets (corridor action plans since 2012; annual CS project priorities). No county-adopted standalone Complete Streets policy found online
#status/verify. (checked 2026-07-08) - Roadway design standards / standard details: LDC Chapter 8 — Subdivisions (Municode) — § 820 Subdivision Design Standards, § 823 Right-of-Way Requirements, § 824 Roadway Design, which requires design/construction per LDC Appendix A — Technical Standards Manual (Municode). No standalone county roadway design manual published outside the LDC (searched 2026-07-08). (checked 2026-07-08)
- Access management standards: LDC § 705 — Access to County Transportation System (Ch. 7; last rev. 7/10/18, Ord. 18-047) — minimum access/frontage and connection standards for ingress/egress to public and private roads; § 821 (Access) and § 822 (Road Frontage) in Ch. 8 for subdivisions. State roads: FDOT connection permits. (checked 2026-07-08)
- Traffic count requirements (seasonal factors accepted?): Appendix C requires peak season/peak hour analysis — “intersection volumes shall be adjusted to peak season” — and the TPO approves all count data for major studies. Published volumes: TPO Roadway Network Database (AADT + peak hour LOS on ~425 arterial/collector segments). The county Traffic Data group runs tube counts for its own investigations but publishes no public count database. (checked 2026-07-08)
- Crash/safety dashboard: not published by the county — no county crash dashboard found online (checked 2026-07-08). Use TPO Vision Zero Polk materials (incl. the Vision Zero Conditions Assessment Study) or Signal Four Analytics (agency login).
- GIS / open data portal: Polk County Public Data Portal (ArcGIS Hub) — downloadable GIS data (CSV/KML/GeoJSON, GeoServices/WMS APIs); interactive viewer at gis.polk-county.net. (checked 2026-07-08)
- Signal timing procedures & maintaining agency: Roads & Drainage Traffic Engineering & Operations (page) — IMSA-certified Traffic Signal group maintains ~300 signals and school-zone beacons plus 100+ lighted intersections; the county ITS monitors 78 intersections with remote timing adjustments and school-zone scheduling. Signal trouble: (863) 535-2200. No written signal-timing procedures document published online — request from Roads & Drainage. (checked 2026-07-08)
- Development review process & submittal requirements: Land Development Division — coordinates all applications for the Development Review Committee (meets Thursdays 8:30 a.m., County Administration Building, Bartow), Planning Commission, and BoCC; electronic submittal via the Polk County Access Portal (Accela); Land Development applications help line (863) 534-6449. (checked 2026-07-08)
- Permit forms (ROW, driveway): Right-of-Way Permitting — Project Engineering — ROW use permits (utility work in county ROW) are issued only to registered utility companies, agri-chemical companies, and municipalities, via the Inspection & Testing section, (863) 535-2321. Driveway/access connections are governed by LDC § 705–706 (ROW Use Permits) and handled through development/building permitting — confirm the issuing desk for a standalone residential driveway
#status/verify. (checked 2026-07-08) - Example projects (ours & public): ours live in the private vault (see callout below); no county-published example TIA submittals found online.
Contacts, review-comment history, and institutional notes live in the private vault — never on the public site.
See also: MOC - Agencies · Polk TPO · Hillsborough County