MADEIRA BEACH — Strong opposition is brewing to two proposed hotel-condominium-marina developments that could reshape the city’s downtown. Despite the objections of many in an overflow crowd at last week’s marathon five-hour meeting, the City Commission, with little discussion, approved rezoning the first of the two projects in a 4-1 vote. A final vote for…
NEW PORT RICHEY — The city is again investing significant dollars in the Greater New Port Richey Main Street program to try to revive the often controversial and struggling non-profit. New Port Richey’s assistance, however, will come in the form of a different business model than in past years with the hiring of a Main…
SARASOTA – As city leaders debate how to continue their redevelopment agency after its funding expires in September, they have realized their long-running discussion overlooked some basic math. The city and Sarasota County agreed in 1986 to allocate tax revenues resulting from rising property values in targeted areas of the city every year for 30…
HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. — After years of what seemed to be a code-less city, members of the High Springs code enforcement board met this month for the first time in four years. Their next move? Clean up blight that spans blocks of the city’s neighborhoods. “It’s a hazard,” resident Bill Richards says referring to the abandoned…
Cocoa Main Street recipient of race Proceeds from the Village Idiot Pub’s 2nd Annual “Village Has Lost Its Idiot 5K Run” in Historic Cocoa Village will go to the Cocoa Main Street program. The April 1 race begins at 7:30 p.m. in front of the Village Idiot Pub, located at 4 Harrison Street, and across…
Palm Beach County commissioners got a sobering update Tuesday on efforts to revitalize urban areas along Okeechobee Boulevard and Congress Avenue. The county had designed a 29-mile section of the county an urban redevelopment area with special rules and requirements designed to spur economic development. But the Great Recession and ongoing storm water retention problems…
A recent Sun Sentinel article looked at South Florida suburbs building downtown centers. We spoke with the executive director of the Margate Community Redevelopment Agency, Diane Colonna, about that city’s plans. Listen to the interview
Naples City Attorney Bob Pritt, who previously agreed that a three-story building with an underground garage violates the city’s charter, now has changed that opinion, arguing that a similar downtown development proposal is consistent with the charter. In the city’s first filing responding to a lawsuit by two downtown property owners in Collier County’s Circuit…
TAMPA — The First Friday block party has long been a fixture of St. Petersburg’s thriving downtown social scene. Now Tampa is poised to launch its own monthly social happening, focused mainly on the museums and theaters that run the length of the city’s Riverwalk. Fourth Friday starts Friday in downtown Tampa with nine cultural venues…
ST. PETERSBURG — Preservationists say they will prolong their battle to save a historic downtown block earmarked for demolition and redevelopment. St. Petersburg Preservation, which works to save historic sites and structures, will file an application this week asking that the “cheese-grater” buildings in the 400 block of Central Avenue be designated historic, said its…
Branding a blighted downtown as an arts and entertainment district, making streets more pedestrian-friendly and luring new restaurants helped redevelop the urban cores of Delray Beach and West Palm Beach, according to two former community redevelopment leaders who have turned their experience into a book. Christopher Brown, former Community Redevelopment Agency director in Delray Beach,…
A new four-story, 521-space parking garage to bolster access to St. Armands Circle received its first endorsement from the City Commission on Monday night. The $15 million project would add another 334 parking spaces by the end of 2018 to the city-owned lot at North Adams and Madison drives on the northeast side of the busy…
