The job of reviving downtown Clearwater is so big that it’s hard to know where to start.
It has now been five months since a panel of outside experts with the Urban Land Institute presented the city with a slew of far-reaching recommendations for its downtown.
That time lag has downtown boosters champing at the bit to get things going in the moribund district.
“The Urban Land Institute, a global organization some 32,000 strong, has spoken. They’ve laid out comprehensive recommendations, and this is not the time to delay,” said Bill Sturtevant, chairman of the Clearwater Downtown Partnership. “Many in the private sector are on board to assist and participate in the process wherever they can.”
But since the hired experts offered so many suggestions to consider, city staffers have only recently produced a roster of 48 separate “action items,” prompting elected officials to begin picking priorities from among them.