In mid April the Tampa City Council voted unanimously “to support a Community Redevelopment District in north Tampa.”  This latest Tampa CRA district is intended to reinvigorate the neighborhoods bordered by Fowler Avenue, Busch Boulevard, Nebraska Avenue, and 30^th Street.  “Once the district is created, new property taxes collected from the district must be spent within its borders, which spurs Revitalization.”  The creation of this latest CRA area plays directly into the Revitalization of our own city.

At the May 4^th City Council Meeting, the Temple Heights Townhomes project came before Council for final site plan approval. This is noteworthy because the project will be located in the Northwest portion of the Community Redevelopment Area.  Because the Master Plan and Design Guidelines for the CRA District are not yet in place, the project was approved as merely another conventionally planned and designed townhome project. Hopefully no more of our precious CRA land will be sacrificed to the lackluster building standard that has become recently acceptable in Temple Terrace.  For more on this subject please see the Q & A section below. 

As a kick off for the June Public Charrettes, the City of Temple Terrace and our Town Planner Team hosted the Downtown Revitalization Workshops  on May 14^th and May 15th.  Nearly 350 people attended the kick-off presentation the evening of Friday, May 14^th.   The following day, 350 citizens returned to participate in the two Hands-On Design Sessions, with an open house at the end of the day.    At the Design Sessions, Temple Terrace citizens had an “opportunity to assist in planning the new Downtown Redevelopment Area. Torti Gallas and Partners, the City’s planner for the project, organized the public planning workshops (or charrettes), and during the planning sessions, every citizen had the opportunity to express ideas.”     The Charrette process is new to our area and was greeted with enthusiasm.  Since the Revitalization of Temple Terrace is a grassroots, citizen-led movement it makes perfect sense that the citizenry of Temple Terrace should play a big part in the design of our new Downtown!    

NOTE:  The 22 citizen-generated town plans that were created during the Hands-On Design Sessions later became the basis of the Master Plan(s) the Town Planner Team developed for the June Public Charrettes.   

There was a Temple Terrace Community Redevelopment Agency (TTRA) meeting on May 18th, 2004.  The three items on the agenda were 1) “Purchase Approval - 56^th Street Equity Group Partnership Property at Chicago Avenue and 56^th Street” (Dollar General, Just Brakes, and U.S Postal Annex), 2) “Purchase Approval - Former Havana Palms Restaurant (8615 N. 56^th Street), Pending Satisfactory Completion of the Remaining Due Diligence Items.” and 3) “Purchase Offer - Initial Purchaser Offer for Beacon Plaza.(117 Bullard Parkway)”.  As you may recall, Beacon Plaza is owned by the family of City Council member Frank Chillura, they have 90 days to respond to the city’s generous purchase offer (for more on “why is the City is acquiring land?”, please see the Q & A section below).  All three motions were later approved by the City Council with Council member Chillura abstaining from the vote on his own property. 

Regarding the Busch Boulevard beautification efforts from Florida Avenue to 56th Street, Tampa’s “transportation department is seeking $4 million in state and federal grants to bring the Busch Boulevard beautification plan to reality.”   With the addition of trees, crosswalks, and benches the proposed changes to the corridor appear to be mostly cosmetic, but it’s a start.  Many think the corridor needs to be completely and fundamentally re-thought from the ground up.  If the grant is approved, the money won’t be available until at least 2009. 

Drum roll please….On June 14^th the City of Temple Terrace and its Town Planner Team kicked off the Downtown Revitalization Master Plan Public Charrettes.  Please visit the City of Temple Terrace’s website for an excellent overview of the Public Charrettes.  The Charrettes lasted from Monday, June 14^th to Saturday, June 19^th and were attended by over 1000 participants!    

On Monday, Neal Payton of Torti Gallas and Partners, our town planners, opened up the Public Charrettes with a Presentation titled “Implementing the Vision: What You Have Told Us”.  At the presentation Neal described how the planners analyzed the 22 citizen generated plans created during the May Workshops and derived Twelve Guiding Concepts or Ideas for the creation of the preliminary Downtown Master Plan, they are:

1.      Sense of Place

2.      Pedestrian Friendly Environment

3.      High Density, Mixed-Use Environment

4.      Public Squares and Parks

5.      Central Open Space (Emerald Necklace)

6.      Main Street as Part of New Street Grid

7.      Improved Character of 56^th Street

8.      Concentration of Civic Uses

9.      Turquoise Necklace (fountains, reflecting pools)

10.  Unifying Architectural Character (based on own superb 1920s Mediterranean Revival architecture)

11.  Gateways

12.  Riverfront Park

On Tuesday, Retail, Residential, and Market Analysis consultant Marc McCauley of the respected firm Robert Charles Lesser & Co. LLC,   presented on the “Development Program.”  At the presentation Marc distributed a Preliminary Matrix of Projected Market Opportunities for Downtown Temple Terrace which gives a preliminary overview of the wide range of market types we could explore in the Downtown Revitalization.  These prices are preliminary and are pending development of the complete Master Plan. 

As a side note to McCauley's presentation, their was recent mention in a local newspaper of citizens attending the Charrettes, “many of them organized” who “came out to speak their concerns about the project, and the large expenditure of taxpayer money that’s going into it.”   Many folks attended all of the Charrette presentations during the week and did not see the organized group that is implied above, what we did see was about five citizens who weren’t on board with the Revitalization for varying reasons.  Marc McCauley’s presentation on Tuesday probably had the most organized opposition (by two people) of any of the presentations.   Our Town Planning Team is composed of some of the finest experts in their fields and the CRTT is of the mind that it is safe to trust their expert opinions.   Consultant Marc McCauley has done voluminous demographic and marketing research to back up his Preliminary Matrix of Projected Market Opportunities for Downtown Temple Terrace presented above, and though he has not distributed this research material to every citizen in the city for their perusal, we believe it is prudent to not only hire the best experts one can find, but it is also prudent to trust that they are capable of accomplishing their jobs with alacrity.   

Back to the Charrettes, on Wednesday, June 16^th, Neal Payton of Torti Gallas and Partners again presented, this time on “Implementing the Vision: Proposed Concepts”.  Neal presented the initial three versions of their preliminary Master Plan and pointed out the positives and negatives of each plan.  These three plans were to be later boiled down to one.  Thursday, involved a discussion about what turned out to be the most controversial issue in the May Workshops, “The Waterfront and the Public Space”.  It was pointed out that the riverfront land was the most expensive land in the Revitalization area and that their was enough acreage available to develop some of the land and still leave the land that borders the river as a public park.    

Friday, June 18^th brought a Developer Stakeholder Meeting that was attended by sixteen interested Developers, some from as far away as Charleston and New York.   The main developer concerns were taming 56^th Street, Doral Oaks Apartments, and the need for the City to acquire the last remaining Revitalization area out parcels.  CRA Director Ralph Bosek has mentioned that additional developers have contacted him since that meeting and expressed interest in the project.  Friday evening our Traffic Consultant Rick Hall of Hall Engineering presented on “56^th Street.”  Rick mentioned that narrowing the road down to two lanes was out of the question because of traffic volume, and that he had met with the local FDOT representative that afternoon and they were willing to work with the City to improve 56^th Street.  In the final preliminary Master Plan (again refer to the City of Temple Terrace website) Rick proposed adding a local access lane on the east and the west of existing 56^th Street.  Thus, local traffic would not have to venture onto the main four lane arterial in trips around town.  Landscaping would also be added on the center median and on the sides of the road.  The proposed shorter block sizes of the Master Plan would allow additional traffic lights that would make it easier to cross 56^th Street and would also slow down traffic.   On Saturday, the last day of the Charrettes, the final Master Plan was presented along with the three colored pencil renderings, all of which can be seen on the City of Temple Terrace website.  A standing ovation brought a close to the Public Charrettes.