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City to provide boat slip details

Clearwater is devoting $60,000 to educating voters on the bayfront plan.

By MIKE DONILA
Published January 10, 2007

A computer-altered image of what the downtown Clearwater waterfront would look like if city voters agree on March 13 to the creation of 129 boat slips alongside the Clearwater Memorial Causeway bridge.
	[City of Clearwater]

CLEARWATER - Some residents have long questioned the city's efforts to built boat slips along the bayfront.

They want to know, among other things, the financial details, whether they'll withstand a hurricane and who gets to use the slips.

Clearwater leaders said they have the answers and they're ready to discuss them, so voters will know just what's at stake when they cast ballots during the March 13 city election.

The city officially kicks off its information campaign Jan. 17 with a public meeting that will include renderings and animations of the project, a market study, detailed financing projections and a question-and-answer session.

The meeting is part of the city's $60,000 campaign, which includes public meetings, mailings and Web site postings.

Clearwater leaders would like to build 129 boat slips, a promenade, a boardwalk and a fishing pier just north and south of the Clearwater Memorial Causeway, near Coachman Park.

The city would fund the project with $10.9-million in bonds that would be paid back over 20 years, mostly through boat slip rentals.

The city's charter requires that voters sign off on any major development in that area.

"We now have all the information we need to convey to the citizens about what they're going to be voting on in March, and this is an opportunity to really start answering any questions people might have," Mayor Frank Hibbard said. "We want to make sure people know exactly what the boat slips will entail and what will not be included."

In the next couple of months, city leaders also plan to meet with neighborhood associations and other service organizations. But "this is the first public opportunity for people to see the full-blown plan," Hibbard said.

While a recent survey showed that a majority of Clearwater voters would support the project, city leaders said they are not going to underestimate the Save the Bayfront organization, the group that successfully defeated a similar boat slip plan in 2004.

That time, city leaders said, the group sent residents slick, colorful fliers with misleading information - just days before the election.

Save the Bayfront members said they're not against the boat slips, but they want the project scaled down. The organization said it prefers slips on the south side of the Memorial Causeway or on causeway land west of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Anne Garris, the group's chairwoman, said she's happy that the city is holding the meeting months before the election, and she plans to attend.

"I hope the people who go will ask pertinent questions and get clear and unequivocal answers," she said. "I hope they ask the important questions because there's a lot they haven't told us so far."

[Last modified January 9, 2007, 23:18:37]