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Industrial-strength makeover?

Tampa wants to rezone Adamo Drive linking downtown and Brandon to allow a live-work mix. But landowners are balking.

By JANET ZINK
Published September 30, 2005

	[Times photo: Melissa Lyttle]
	Billboards, construction and rusted warehouses constitute much of the scenery in the industrial-heavy Adamo Drive area. There are plans to transform Adamo Drive into a mixed-use area for shopping, hotels and offices.

TAMPA - As far as gateways go, the west end of Adamo Drive marking the entry into Ybor City has about as much charm as a chain-link fence.

A steel fabricating plant, a construction company and other heavy industry dominate the terrain.

Soon, though, the area may be home to artists and others longing for an urban lifestyle.

In anticipation, city officials added the section of Adamo Drive between 15th and 26th streets to the Ybor City Historic District two years ago.

Now, the city wants to rezone the western edge of the heavily traveled corridor linking downtown and Brandon from an industrial classification to a mixed-use category that will allow residential and commercial development.

The intent is to avoid a "patchwork quilt of uses" as different landowners seek to redevelop their property, said Vince Pardo, manager of the Ybor City Development Corp.

Some property owners say the proposed zoning doesn't allow for dense enough development.

"Virtually all of the landowners said they don't want it," said Fran Williams, chairman of Kimmins Corp., which has a construction facility on Adamo Drive.

Kimmins wants to move to a nearby parcel and redevelop its current site. At one point, Kimmins had plans for two hotels. Now the company is considering residential and commercial buildings.

A major issue for Kimmins is the 45-foot height restriction imposed by the Barrio Latino, which monitors design in the Ybor City Historic District. The proposed change would make the zoning consistent with the Barrio's guidelines.

As a compromise, city officials have offered to allow 60 feet in the Adamo corridor.

"I'm giving them that," city zoning manager Gloria Moreda said. "It's not that much difference, 15 feet."

The zoning change would provide additional development options while still respecting the small-scale character of Ybor, City Council member Linda Saul-Sena said.

"To me the most important quality of the Adamo corridor is its proximity to our national landmark district," she said.

But Williams, president of the Adamo Corridor Neighborhood Association, said 60 feet isn't enough. Residential towers need to be tall enough to compete with the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway, which runs over sections of Adamo, he said.

It's "nonsense," he said, to consider the buildings on Adamo Drive elements of the historic district, the core of which is several blocks away on Seventh Avenue.

Williams, who opposed including his property in the historic district in the first place, said a more suitable zoning would allow taller buildings on the district's fringes and lower ones close to the center. He also wants the city to reconsider the district's guidelines concerning density.

"They told us they were going to modify the guidelines to entice us to accept the designation," he said. "If they won't change the guidelines, I need to petition to get out of the district."

Bringing up the guidelines during the rezoning discussion is "muddying the issue," Pardo said. Property in the Adamo corridor must adhere to the Barrio Latino guidelines regardless of the zoning because the property is in the historic district.

Moreda said the change is needed to give industrial landowners more flexibility in developing their property. Developers currently have to go to the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission for a land-use change before they can go to the council for rezoning - a process that can be lengthy.

The rest of the expanded district was rezoned last year, but property owners in the Adamo corridor wanted to wait until after city consultants completed the Ybor City Vision Plan in April.

The vision plan says the Adamo corridor "offers an opportunity for denser and higher buildings than could be built elsewhere in the district," but redevelopment should be "coordinated with the rest of the development activity in Ybor City."

The plan didn't address zoning intensities with the detail that some property owners had hoped, Moreda said.

The recommended zoning change is scheduled to go to the Planning Commission for public hearings by the end of the year and to the City Council in January.

- Janet Zink can be reached at 226-3401 or jzink@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 29, 2005, 09:20:08]