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Voters' view sometimes obstructs a city's vision

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published August 21, 2005

If you live in a city around here, there's a fair chance your City Hall has gone down the path of "redevelopment."

It works like this. A city hires a consultant to lead something called "visioning." The goal is to decide "what kind of city this is going to be."

Then they draw a pretty colored map.

The plan might or might not involve a contract between City Hall and a private developer to spend tax dollars.

Sometimes, this works great. There are plenty of success stories around Tampa Bay. Who doesn't like Main Street in Dunedin? BayWalk certainly has changed downtown St. Pete.

But sometimes redevelopment isn't so great.

Sometimes it is a noble effort that is doomed, because darn it, the nature of the city just isn't going to change.

Sometimes, the terms "redevelopment" and "visioning" mean only that somebody in a small town is angling for new rules to make more money.

Sometimes - and here's the hardest thing for any proud City Hall to swallow - sometimes the taxpayers don't want "vision." They are not in the mood.

So in city after city, the minidrama plays out:

Temple Terrace, northeast of Tampa, "visioned" an ambitious plan for a new "town center," featuring homes, stores, offices, a new City Hall, a riverfront park, even a performing arts center. A bond issue and a tax increase were involved.

In a referendum earlier this month, the voters of Temple Terrace stomped all over the plan, defeating it 57 percent to 43 percent.

The other night, worried citizens packed City Hall in Safety Harbor, that charming little burg on the east shore of Pinellas County, to oppose greater density. The City Commission got the message and voted unanimously to keep the old rules.

Largo just hit a bump with its plans to increase a "redevelopment district" from 77 acres to 287 acres, potentially displacing hundreds of mobile home owners. The plan has yet to win the approval of the Pinellas County Commission.

Heck, there's lots more. Oldsmar wants to redevelop. Tarpon Springs wants to redevelop. Seminole wants to redevelop.

Clearwater trots out a big plan every few years, and the voters reject it. New Port Richey in Pasco County yearns to be more like Dunedin, a recent news report says.

All of these cities should take a lesson from Temple Terrace, from Treasure Island in Pinellas County, and from what's going on right now in St. Pete Beach. We're talking taxpayer revolt. The natives are restless.

In Treasure Island previously, and now in St. Pete Beach, residents opposed to City Hall's proposals for new density have gathered enough petition signatures to force an election. Not only have they opposed weaker rules, but also demanded stronger ones.

In city after city, City Hall folks and their supporters are frustrated. Have we not visioned? Didn't we hold public hearings? As for the opponents, they seek to "take back City Hall." They believe a conspiracy is afoot between politicians and developers to wreck their community.

Three general observations:

(1) City Hall's job of convincing the public is never finished. I keep hearing a note of resentment from redevelopment-types who complain that "we went through a process." The implication is there is something invalid about opponents-come-lately. Yet they are opponents nonetheless - sneer at 'em at your own peril.

(2) Density for the sake of density is not a good reason. The mere fact that somebody wants to build something (Largo, Safety Harbor) is no grounds for changing a city's character. At least in St. Pete Beach there's a theory behind attracting tourist hotels. (Not sayin' I believe it, just that it's a coherent theory.)

(3) The citizens can be wrong, too. If complainers had the power to veto every idea, we'd never get anything built at all. An elected leader's job is both to listen to the public and then to use his or her own judgment - even at the cost of re-election. My bias in these fights usually lies with the opponents, at least until the cool new shops and restaurants open.

[Last modified August 21, 2005, 00:49:05]