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City officials say redevelopment work won't go forward unless the community supports the effort.
By RICHARD DANIELSON
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 23, 2000
TARPON SPRINGS -- City officials got a final report late Wednesday afternoon that outlines in detail one vision of what Tarpon Springs could look like in the next 20 years.
As sketched out by planning consultants at the RMPK Group in Sarasota, the city could become a less-cluttered, better-landscaped place, with a stronger tourism industry, more hotels and enhanced opportunities for visitors to commune with nature.
But what city officials need to know first is whether this vision of the city is one that residents share, too.
"It has to be, in my opinion, community-driven," Mayor Frank DiDonato said Wednesday. With a few exceptions, he said, the response he has heard so far has been favorable. But if residents identify a part of the plan that needs to be changed, there is the time and flexibility to address that.
Toward that end, city officials are sending brochures about the plan to residents and have scheduled a public meeting for 6:30 p.m. next Thursday at the Heritage Center in Craig Park. It will be the latest in a series of presentations and workshops at which the plan has been discussed.
City officials say the plan won't go forward unless it is supported by the community.
"It's what I would refer to as a living plan," DiDonato said. "There's nothing in concrete here."
The city has paid RMPK about $60,000 to help develop the plan. It does not call for one huge project to anchor the city's redevelopment, but instead outlines a series of smaller projects that would be done incrementally over the next two decades with the participation of the private sector.
Among other things, the plan suggests development of a waterfront hotel conference center on the south bank of the Anclote River, east of the Sponge Docks. It also recommends creating an eco-tourism center near the Anclote River and Pinellas Trail, a town square park at the southeast corner of Tarpon and Pinellas avenues and an art walk along Hibiscus Avenue.
The plan envisions new development along Pinellas Avenue and the development of two parking garages connected by a trolley to tie downtown's antique stores and restaurants to the Sponge Docks. RMPK planners recommend building a garage directly north of the library on Lemon Street and a second garage north of Live Oak Street, near the proposed conference center.
It also recommends planting trees throughout the area and creating landscaped gateways at the northern and southern ends of Pinellas Avenue that welcome people to Tarpon Springs. Downtown sidewalks would be widened, narrowing some streets so that cars and trucks would slow down. Part of Hibiscus would be repaved for pedestrians only.
City Manager Ellen Posivach said this week that the redevelopment would take place in phases.
During the first three to five years, the city intends to work with the state to make street repairs and improve sidewalks along Pinellas Avenue. City officials also would like to install planters along the street, initially between Meres Boulevard and Tarpon Avenue, she said. They have even considered putting hanging plants from the city's antique-style lampposts.
The first phase also would include using paving blocks -- chosen in consultation with local merchants -- to create decorative crosswalks downtown and widening some sections of sidewalks. That work would be expected to take place between June and September of next year, Posivach said.
- Staff writer Richard Danielson can be reached at (727) 445-4194 or danielson@sptimes.com.
Tarpon Springs officials will hold a public meeting on the proposed downtown development action plan at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 30 at the Heritage Center, 100 Library Circle at Heritage Park.