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Clearwater-Largo plan needs time

It isn't surprising that developers are irritated about a new delay in moving ahead with their redevelopment projects along Clearwater-Largo Road. For them, time's a-wastin' and time is money.

Not only have some had to extend their contracts and renew their options to purchase property along the corridor, but no one can tell them when or how they will be allowed to move forward.

Unhappy developers can bring a lot of pressure on government officials, and that pressure can result in ill-considered decisions. Largo and Pinellas County officials must resist that pressure, because they need time to figure out how to redevelop Clearwater-Largo Road without driving people into homeless shelters.

Largo's plan to encourage the redevelopment of Clearwater-Largo Road from a corridor plagued by crime, rundown properties and code violations to a modernized residential and commercial area called for the elimination of about 700 mobile homes, many of them dilapidated.

When Largo asked the County Commission to approve the plan, as it must before the plan can be implemented, commissioners wondered where the displaced residents of those mobile homes would go to live. Worried that the residents could wind up homeless, they delayed a vote on the plan and are trying to figure out what to do about such cases. Their fear is that when mobile home parks are sold to developers, the displaced residents will not be able to find housing they can afford elsewhere in Pinellas County.

Now Largo is scrambling to amend its plan, hoping to come up with something the county will approve. The county staff, meanwhile, is studying whether it could legally require developers to set aside a portion of each project for affordable housing and is looking at other ways to give mobile home residents options if their parks are sold.

A Largo official told the Times the city is "concerned those investments may go elsewhere," but that cannot be the city's overrriding concern when residents' welfare is at risk. A redevelopment boom is under way in Pinellas, and mobile home parks are the first target of developers looking for land on which to build. County commissioners were right to stop the train so they can figure this out, and Largo officials need to move methodically to develop a plan that has the right solutions for residents and developers.

[Last modified July 7, 2005, 01:01:15]