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Uncertainty dogs plan for Central Park

Hillsborough commissioners have concerns about the proposal to rebuild the Tampa housing project.

By JANET ZINK and BILL VARIAN
Published May 29, 2006

TAMPA — Construction cranes ring one of the city’s most infamous public housing projects, heralding the rebirth taking place all around it, from Ybor City to Channelside to the central business district downtown.

But in Central Park Village, where dreams of a better tomorrow are crushed daily by crime and squalid living conditions, residents can only wonder when their day will come.

Politicians have promised to redevelop Central Park for years. Still it festers on the edge of downtown like a wound that won’t heal.

Now, about a week from a Hillsborough County Commission vote that could make or break the latest plan to rebuild Central Park, approval looks uncertain.

Tampa city officials are pushing hard to win approval, but some commissioners say they have serious questions about a Bank of America proposal to redevelop the complex and a request by the city to create a special taxing district to help pay for amenities there and in the immediate area.

Those concerns range from the tall buildings proposed to replace the two-story Central Park Village apartments to the relocation of existing residents. In short, they say they want more details.

Observers fear the real obstacle  could be sour relations between city and county leaders.

“Put aside the partisan bickering,’’ said Bob Buckhorn, a former Tampa City Council member who has been watching the machinations. “This should be about improving the lives of the people in Central Park Village, pure and simple.’’

The city and county have been here before. In 2004, a proposal by the private group Civitas to rebuild the 28-acre complex as part of a 156-acre master-planned community collapsed amid complaints from county commissioners that the plan was dumped in their laps just days before a deadline to apply for a federal grant, leaving little time to consider details. Commissioners and Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio also couldn’t agree on the terms of the taxing district.

Some commissioners remain bitter that they were blamed for the demise of Civitas when they felt Iorio’s take-it-or-leave-it pitch put them in an impossible position. Now they’re confronted with a proposal that is less ambitious but which they believe is still flawed.

“It’s a smaller plan,’’ said Commissioner Tom Scott, who represents the area and has been the board’s proxy in discussions with the city about the latest proposal. “Apparently it does not have the impact that the prior plan had. Clearly, I’m concerned.’’

Once again, a deadline looms. The city wants to have the taxing district in place by July to capture an extra year’s worth of revenue from increased property taxes.

But commissioners say they have too few details about the actual redevelopment plan for Central Park. They take up the issue June 7, a week before they go on a monthlong summer break.

Bank of America proposes building a mixed-income community, with 794 “affordable’’ residential rental apartments, 1,236 for-sale condos and shops. Most controversial, residents would be concentrated in buildings of seven to 26 stories, which some say is a bad model for housing the poor.

Earlier drafts that spread out the housing fell apart when Bank of America’s partners couldn’t secure the purchase of surrounding land.
Commissioner Ronda Storms is already conjuring images of Cabrini Green, the Chicago high-rise public housing project that was chronicled in studies and documentaries because of its wretchedness.

“We shouldn’t be recreating the mistakes of the past,’’ she said.

Most other commissioners are also raising concerns about the concentrating the poor in large buildings. City and Housing Authority officials say they have done all they can to assuage commissioners.

“We have absolutely brought the county in as partners this time around,” Iorio said. “In sharp contrast to the Civitas proposal, which came at them without much warning and without a lot of preparation, there has been two years of preparation for this.”

[Last modified May 29, 2006, 22:22:40]