Believing there is power in numbers, merchants along Clearwater-Largo Road have formed a group to lobby the city for more and faster changes along the corridor.
Some members of the new Clearwater-Largo Road Business Group made substantial investments in building or improving businesses along the road after learning that Largo planned to redevelop the corridor. They are frustrated that those plans have not moved more quickly and are fed up with rampant drug activity, prostitution and rundown properties.
The business group's members drew up a list of "promises" they say the city made to them as business owners, but has failed to keep. Representatives of the group then met with a city official to go over the list.
According to group members, the city promised to provide increased police patrols to solve crime problems, provide increased code enforcement activity to clean up rundown properties, beautify the roadway, and build parking lots for businesses that need more parking. Yet today, neither the parking lots nor the roadway beautification have materialized, some properties still are eyesores, and crime makes it "a pretty wild street," one member said.
Their frustration is understandable. The city has been talking about beautifying and redeveloping Clearwater-Largo Road for some 10 years. Last year one irritated merchant noted, "we are in our eighth year of a six-year plan." Yet the city hasn't been sitting back on its heels, either.
The city designated the corridor an official Community Redevelopment District, opening the door to more funding and better planning for improvements. The Largo Police Department has arrested prostitutes and conducted drug stings along the road, including one deadly sting a few weeks ago in which a drug suspect was killed and an undercover police officer injured during an altercation in a gas station parking lot. Code enforcement officers are extremely busy in Largo, including along Clearwater-Largo Road. The city administration and City Commission have debated what to do about dilapidated mobile home parks that border the road.
The city also presented a plan to beautify the street and make it more pedestrian friendly by reducing the number of traffic lanes. Merchants and motorists alike objected, contending that reducing lanes on such a heavily traveled road would snarl traffic and run off customers. The city had to start over on a streetscape plan that would bring beauty and business without reducing the street's capacity to carry traffic.
The city has been making progress in the way that governments do, which is slowly. The Clearwater-Largo Road Business Group says that isn't good enough.
That's a problem. Any redevelopment plan that attempts to remake a declining area needs the "oomph" of public support and property owner enthusiasm. Property owners need to have so much enthusiasm for the project and so much belief in its success that they are willing to risk their money and time in an area not yet transformed.
The skepticism of the Clearwater-Largo Road Business Group, if allowed to continue, could act as a wet blanket, dampening enthusiasm and reducing the number of property owners willing to participate in projects. City officials need to get out to Clearwater-Largo Road, update merchants on their timetable, and fully explain what the city can and cannot do. They need to listen to the merchants' frustration and respond.
Few problem roads in North Pinellas have the development potential of Clearwater-Largo Road. Everyone needs to act carefully but also expeditiously to implement the redevelopment plan.
