Sumter County TIA: Your Indispensable Guide for New Development Success

By Ebyabe – Own work, CC BY 2.5

Essential Guide for New Development Success

Are you planning a new development in Sumter County, Florida? Understanding the Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) Guidelines is crucial for a smooth approval process. This indispensable guide for new development success summarizes the steps and requirements needed to get your development’s traffic study approved.

A TIA is designed to identify how your project will affect the local transportation system and to determine necessary mitigation strategies to offset those impacts. This guide will walk you through the key aspects of Sumter County’s TIA requirements.

Applicability to Sumter County Cities

Thanks to an interlocal agreement, the Sumter County guidelines apply to all new development within the County, including the following municipalities:

• City of Bushnell
• City of Center Hill
• City of Coleman
• City of Webster
• City of Wildwood

The County will review all traffic impact studies for development accessing the City or County road networks.

Determining Your TIA Category

Your project’s estimated net external daily trips determine the required TIA category. These are new trips your project generates, calculated based on the ITE Trip Generation Manual. For developments generating fewer than 50 daily trips, no TIA is required. Remember, for multi-phase developments, the trip thresholds apply to the project’s total buildout, not per phase.

Sumter County TIA Tier Calculator

This handy tool produces a summary table based on your project’s daily trips. It gives you an early indication of which TIA category your project may fall into. Refer to the TIA guidelines for the full list of requirements.

Submitting Your TIA Report: Key Deliverables & Validity

The TIA report must follow a specific order and format, as outlined in the County’s guidelines. Maps and graphical representations are highly encouraged for clarity.

• A draft report, including electronic analysis files (e.g., Synchro, HCS, travel demand model files, Excel volume worksheet), must be provided with your application submittal for review by County staff.

• The final approved TIA report must be signed and sealed by a qualified Florida registered professional engineer (like me!).

• One signed-and-sealed electronic PDF copy of the final, approved TIA—along with all backup traffic analysis, modeling files, and the complete associated Methodology Form—must be uploaded to the County’s Citizenserve portal.

• The TIA requirement also applies to previously approved developments that are over five years old, changing land uses within the site plan, or extending the build-out date from a previously approved TIA.

Conclusion

Navigating Sumter County’s Transportation Impact Analysis (TIA) guidelines is crucial for any medium or large development project in Sumter County or its jurisdictions. These comprehensive procedures ensure that new developments seamlessly integrate into the existing transportation network. They assess potential traffic impacts, evaluate multimodal transportation options, and identify necessary improvements and mitigation strategies.