Northpinellas: Clearwater embraces vision for beach

CLEARWATER -- The future of Clearwater Beach will include several new, upscale resorts, sidewalk cafes on palm tree-lined boulevards and, perhaps, smoother flowing traffic.

At least, that's what it will include if the city enacts Beach by Design, a new redevelopment plan approved unanimously by the City Commission on Thursday night.

The plan is a "template for a vision," Mayor Brian Aungst said. "It's not permanently etched in stone. As we move forward, we may need to change a few things."

The plan lays out new design guidelines for construction on the beach and zones dividing the beach for different kinds of development, ranging from large resorts to boutique shopping.

It presents ideas to widen and beautify the beach's major roads. (The City Commission hired a traffic consultant Thursday to start analyzing those ideas.)

And to make life better for pedestrians, it suggests building a comprehensive sidewalk system and a beachfront promenade, called Beach Walk, which would be constructed along a new S-shaped S Gulfview Boulevard.

Perhaps most important to several would-be beach developers, the plan creates some specific incentives for redevelopment.

It would lift restrictions on the creation of major new resorts, allowing 600 new hotel rooms to be built in three designated zones: two areas on the beachfront and one at the Yacht Basin Apartments. Four or five tall buildings could be created along the beach.

Beach by Design requires a second vote from the commission on Feb. 15 before it is official. Then additional votes of the commission will have to be taken to implement many of the projects in it.

The cost is estimated to be at least $12-million, which would be split between the city's budget and other funding sources. The plan suggests a special assessment on beach property owners that could be about $55 annually for beach residents and about $92 per hotel unit for beach business owners.

"That is a last resort," Aungst tried to emphasize, adding that he thinks the beach will be able to qualify for federal funds to pay for some of the proposed projects.

Charles Siemon, the city's master redevelopment consultant, suggested that the plan's improvements would make beach property values rise, a boon to property owners.

He also predicted that the city would get back some of its investment in increased property taxes -- although the city stands to lose about $500,000 yearly in revenues from parking meters that will have to be ripped out to reconfigure Gulfview Boulevard as proposed.

"If you look at this investment, and that's what it is," Siemon said, "I think it's a very good investment."

Siemon's Boca Raton planning and law firm, Siemon and Larsen, produced the beach plan as part of a $450,000 contract that was approved by the city more than two years ago.

The beach plan received only a smattering of public comments Thursday, after being taken through numerous public meetings in the community that began last fall.

"There are traffic problems over there during the high times," Harriette Weller told commissioners, "and there are times that we can't get out on the street."

She urged commissioners to look carefully at traffic studies before reorienting beach traffic and avoid making the sometimes severe congestion worse.

In other business, the commission received a brief update on the negotiations to create a new resort spurred by the plan on the 200 and 300 blocks of S Gulfview Blvd

Commissioners also opted not to discuss approving a motion that would have prohibited commissioners from attending internal staff meetings.

Beach by Design

Highlights of a plan for Clearwater Beach redevelopment:

1. Designate areas for new beachfront resorts, shops and restaurants on Mandalay Avenue, a marina and condos along north Clearwater Harbor, small motels along the southern bayfront and a new walking path.

2. Limit beach access in the tourist season. Widen Coronado Drive to three lanes. Landscape S Gulfview Boulevard. Build more sidewalks. Create transit systems.

3. Build two public garages when demand for parking increases to support construction.

4. Allow up to 600 more hotel units to be developed along the beach.

5. Create new rules defining height, design, setbacks, facades, sidewalks, street furniture, materials and a color palette for the beach.

6. Use $6-million in city funds and an equal amount from a special assessment on beach property owners and grants to pay for it.

Source: City of Clearwater. For more information, see http://www.clearwater-fl.com/citymgr/

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