The movement to protect historic bungalows along Harbor View Avenue has divided the neighborhood.
By RICK GERSHMAN
Published October 28, 2005
Critics of a movement to protect historic bungalows along Harbor View Avenue in Bayshore Beautiful say the effort has fractured the small neighborhood.
Actually, most of the movement's proponents acknowledge the same thing.
Sue Lyon, president of the Bayshore Beautiful Neighborhood Association, said the group isn't taking a side on the issue.
However, she said, over the past 18 months, "I have seen this neighborhood's harmony disintegrate.
"This neighborhood was a success story," she told members of the city's Historic Preservation Commission this week. "Whatever has happened has torn the fabric of this neighborhood apart."
Even Laurel Lockett, the commission's chairwoman, said the lengthy process has been "painful."
Regardless, she told divided Harbor View residents at City Hall, "our responsibility is to identify resources and make our recommendation. Period."
The five-member commission voted unanimously Tuesday to add the two blocks of Harbor View to the city's preservation work plan, which will allow city staff to begin drawing up design standards for the houses.
Had commissioners voted against its inclusion, the preservation effort would have died before reaching the City Council, which will have final approval.
The span of Harbor View at issue runs from Bayshore Boulevard to MacDill Avenue. Many of the bungalows were built from 1916 to 1925.
At the meeting, speakers who supported preservation slightly outnumbered those opposed.
Most in favor claimed the historic designation is necessary to preserve a key element of South Tampa's culture in a time of rampant redevelopment. Most opposed claimed the city has no right telling them what to do with their properties.
"I didn't buy here, and pay the kind of taxes I pay here, to have the city of Tampa as my partner in whatever I decide to do with my property," said Carlos Alfonso, an architect. "This is a denial of property rights to individuals."
Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor was among numerous Harbor View residents who favored the historic designation.
"We have this one opportunity on this lovely street to make a statement that historic preservation is important and the character of our neighborhood is important," she told commissioners Tuesday.
Some opponents have contended, as recently as Mayor Pam Iorio's town hall meeting last week, that two-thirds of the residents oppose historic designation.
Tim Callahan, a supporter of the effort, claimed that's untrue. In March 2004, he said, 65 percent of residents surveyed in the two-block span opposed the historic designation. A year later, another survey showed 53 percent opposed.
