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Historical designations stall part of condo plan

The council disagrees with the mayor, who wanted to compromise with developers on the Newberry and Woolworth buildings.

By JANET ZINK
Published March 10, 2006

TAMPA - The City Council on Thursday voted to designate the facades of two downtown buildings as historic landmarks, ignoring a request from the mayor to compromise with property owners who don't want the designation.

Jeanette Jason, part of the team slated to build 975 condominium units on the site, said developers won't proceed as planned. The group will still build 573 units one block north.

But the Kress building, which received landmark status in January, and the Newberry and Woolworth buildings will remain boarded up, she said.

"They can force a designation on us, but they can't force us to develop the block," Jason said after Thursday's meeting.

The council's decision disappointed Mayor Pam Iorio, who has pushed turning the N Franklin Street neighborhood into a residential area.

"It's a very important block," she said.

Developers met with Iorio Thursday morning and detailed plans for preserving the facades of the Newberry and Woolworth buildings. Iorio and the developers agreed the preservation plans could be regulated through zoning documents and monitored by the city's urban planner. That would allow the developer to bypass review by the Architectural Review Commission, a process that some consider cumbersome.

City Attorney David Smith presented the compromise to council members Thursday afternoon, but they rejected it.

"Today is an example where they win a battle and are momentarily happy, but they'll find out that they lost the war," Iorio said.

If the buildings stay boarded up, they are likely to deteriorate and could go the way of the Maas Brothers building, which after years of neglect couldn't be preserved and is now being demolished, she said.

Plus, the boarded-up buildings will make the neighborhood less appealing to potential residents, Iorio said.

"Sometimes you have to be a little bit flexible to achieve what you want to achieve," Iorio said.

The City Council, though, didn't want to budge.

Council member John Dingfelder emphasized that a landmark designation is the best way to guarantee protection of buildings.

The vote runs counter to a 5-2 decision last month to change the city's historic preservation code to require owner consent before starting the historic landmark designation process. That decision followed a debate over whether to designate 15 former cigar factories against property owners' wishes.

This case is different, said council members Mary Alvarez and Rose Ferlita. The cigar factory owners objected to the designation from the start.

The Kress block owners originally agreed to the designation and then changed their minds.

Dennis Fernandez, a city historic preservation manager, read from a transcript of a May 10 Historic Preservation Commission meeting during which Jim Shimberg, an attorney for the Kress developers, asked the commission to approve the designation of the Woolworth building facade. After the affirmative vote, Shimberg said, "Thank you very much. You guys did a real good job considering this."

"I consider that consent," Fernandez told the Council.

Council member Kevin White also said this case was different, because many cigar factories in Tampa are protected and five factory owners wanted the designation.

But the downtown buildings are one of a kind. The Woolworth lunch counter, for instance, was the scene of civil rights protests. If anything happens to those buildings, they're gone forever, he said.

"All we'll have is pictures in a book," he said.

The measure designating the facades as landmarks passed 6-1, with council member Shawn Harrison dissenting.

"The mayor is absolutely on the right track here," he said, noting that it's important to balance preservation with growth. This project would bring jobs, people and affordable housing downtown, he said.

Maybe Jason is bluffing about not going forward with the project, he said.

"I don't know if that's a bluff I want to call," he said.

The city charter gives Iorio the power to veto the vote, but she said she won't exercise that right.

"I respect the council's deliberations," she said.

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401.

Tampa is a step away from having a tougher tree ordinance.

Thursday, the City Council gave preliminary approval to a revision of the existing ordinance. The changes simplify the method for deciding which trees to protect, require stronger barriers to shield trees on building sites, and call for studies every five years of the city's tree inventory.

The measure also creates a two-year building moratorium on lots where grand trees have been removed. That's intended to keep people from claiming a tree is damaging a structure to get permission to remove it, when the real goal is to remove the tree for construction, said City Council member Linda Saul-Sena.

Saul-Sena has been working with a committee to revise the tree ordinance for more than two years.

"I'm really happy it's over," she said.

The council will take a final vote in two weeks.

[Last modified March 10, 2006, 01:57:57]