City officials want to know what made voters reject downtown improvements twice and how to keep it from happening again.
By JENNIFER FARRELL
Published June 1, 2004
CLEARWATER - Voters have twice rejected plans to remake the downtown waterfront.
Now city officials, reluctant to abandon their redevelopment strategy altogether, want to know why.
So along with a telephone survey conducted last month, the city has posted a questionnaire on its Web site to solicit public feedback.
The four-page survey is an attempt to gauge residents' trust in local government as well as their appetite for public investment in rebuilding the downtown core.
In March, voters denied the city's request to expand Coachman Park with a marina and new amphitheater. The ballot question also included changes that would have allowed the city to replace the sprawling surface parking lot below the Harborview Center with a garage nearby, south of Cleveland Street in the shadow of the new Memorial Causeway bridge.
In July 2000, a more sweeping referendum was crushed at the polls.
City officials had pushed for both plans, hoping to jump-start downtown revitalization.
The online survey, posted at www.myclearwater.com asks why people voted for or against the park expansion and seeks to determine what, if any, improvements people might support.
Vice Mayor Frank Hibbard pushed for both surveys as ways to give the City Council insight on how to proceed.
"It's an easier way for people to weigh in," he said. "They can do it at their leisure."
The most recent plan was rejected by just 680 votes, a number city officials hope is small enough to reverse.
Once they figure out why the last two efforts failed, city officials say they could tailor another plan to voters' wishes before sending it to the ballot perhaps as soon as next year.
Data from the telephone and online surveys will be kept separate. The online surveys require an e-mail address and can only be filled out once.
- Jennifer Farrell can be reached at 445-4160 or farrell@sptimes.com[Last modified June 1, 2004, 01:00:29]
