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Design team gets go-ahead

Creating rules for the city's look will take about a year.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published October 25, 2006

Council members unanimously agreed Monday to move forward with a project that could literally change the face of Seminole.

The council directed a design team to devise a set of architectural standards that could establish guidelines for everything from landscaping and color to building styles for Seminole businesses. It will focus on the city's main business corridors: Park Boulevard, Park Street, Starkey Road, Seminole Boulevard and Bay Pines Boulevard.

The project, which will cost about $150,000, will take about a year to complete, but the standards would not take effect unless the council adopted the recommendations.

The goal is twofold: to gradually improve the overall appearance of the city and to create an identifiable Seminole style. An added benefit would be to make businesses along the corridors more appealing to passers-by and encourage them to stop and shop.

"As I drove down Seminole Boulevard, it was drab," council member Patricia Hartstein said Monday. "My focus is like, diminish the drab. ... I want to get rid of the drab."

Council member John Counts described the problem as "visual noise," saying it's hard to distinguish some businesses from the sidewalks and roads.

The design team is from the Florida Institute of Government at the University of South Florida.

Although any standards that are eventually adopted would almost certainly apply to new construction, council members said they are aware of the fears of existing businesses.

Tom Barnhorn said he worried that some businesses might hesitate to begin improvements for fear they would be sucked into an expensive and unwanted remodel.

Jimmy Johnson, who also works for the Seminole Chamber of Commerce, said businesses need to be involved from the beginning to convince them to buy into the process.

"Inclusiveness and communications are the two key words," Johnson said.

At the same time, Johnson said, businesses need to realize that "the time has come. We need to move forward with these. We need to accept these changes. We need to enhance our community."

That can be done, he said, if it is done in a "friendly" manner.

Council members briefly touched on the concept of creating incentives to help existing businesses comply.

Deciding when to make the standards apply to businesses making renovations or repairs will also be a tough, they realize. Replacing one window should not force a business to totally revamp, they said. But if the development is a teardown, the new regulations should apply, they said. What happens between those extremes will have to be decided.

[Last modified October 24, 2006, 22:38:10]