What does it take to make a bad idea die? In the case of an overblown renovation of Delray Beach’s Old School Square, the answer is: quite a bit. Last week, the Community Redevelopment Agency voted 4-1 to proceed with a makeover of the 4-acre campus in the heart of the city’s downtown, in clear…
A five-year effort to create a special tax status to help economically distressed west Ocala came to fruition Tuesday as the Ocala City Council approved a plan meant to revitalize the struggling community. The vote finalizes a Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) for west Ocala. In CRAs, a portion of the property tax generated from within…
DUNDEE — A former mayor thinks it’s about time the town creates a downtown vision. Another thinks the town’s focus shouldn’t be on downtown at all. The Town Commission unanimously approved an agreement with the Central Florida Regional Planning Council in October to develop a downtown vision plan. The town will pay the CFRPC $25,000…
Employees will lose their jobs and several popular restaurants on Fifth Avenue South will close as part of a plan to demolish a stretch of businesses and replace them with condos and commercial space. Café Luna, Bella Maria Café and Avenue Wine Café will close next spring, per the plan, in addition to real estate…
Below are some pictures from the City of Lauderdale Lakes Community and Children’s Gardens. The residents have learned to grow and harvest, and the gardens have been a great success. The skills that the children especially have learned can never be lost. We have 45 individual beds where each family grows what vegetables they like,…
LAKELAND — Plants are thriving on the walls of the derelict building that was once an A&P grocery store in the Parker Street neighborhood. Grass has reclaimed much of the yard, like a green tide lapping against its loading docks. Inside, a woodwork mezzanine is illuminated by the hot November sun cutting a cone of…
CHIPLEY — The City of Chipley approved an agreement to receive Small Community Outreach Program (SCOP) and Rural Areas of Opportunity (ROA) funding in the amount of $407,682 in Tuesday night’s regular meeting. The funding will cover a project to resurface 5th Street and drainage improvements. Work should be completed by March of 2017. The…
TAMPA — Plans to build 400 apartments or condominiums and a riverfront restaurant on the current site of the Tampa Tribune moved forward Thursday night. The Tampa City Council gave its initial approval to a rezoning proposed by Related Development LLC of Miami to build an eight-story building on the Tribune property at 202 S Parker St., just north…
NEW PORT RICHEY — The city has reached a long-elusive deal with the developer of Main Street Landing to get construction going again on the property. In 2004, the city first approved Main Street Landing — located just east of U.S. 19 on Main Street — as a mixed-use residential and commercial development location. It…
It’s been more difficult to create a historic district in Winter Park than in almost any city in Florida, but its City Commission took steps Monday night to strengthen its historic-preservation laws and get in step with the rest of the state. The historic-preservation ordinance, discussed and tweaked for years and the subject of hours of public…
South Florida nonprofit organizations will have the first crack at buying government-owned foreclosed homes in a new program launching Dec. 1, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday. Normally, the feds auction off foreclosed homes to the general public. Flippers and investors generally win. But a program to let community groups bid first is now…
Downtown Pensacola will be lighted like never before this holiday season, and the New Year’s Eve Pelican Drop may well be the largest now that the event has been moved. The Downtown Improvement Board has already begun spending about $200,000 it received from the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners to light and decorate downtown…
OAKLAND PARK —The death of Corey Jones and the climate of distrust between police and citizens were the topics of a three-hour discussion Sunday night that started with a candlelight vigil. “We feel your pain, we don’t understand it all, we’re here to have a conversation … so that we never go through it again,”…
In an effort to continue the revitalization of downtown Panama City, the Community Redevelopment Agency is working on a project to revamp Harrison Avenue between Sixth Avenue and Government Street. The city says they want to attract more visitors and businesses so this project will work in conjunction with other city projects to promote the…
PINELLAS PARK — Construction began this week on an empty lot of Park Boulevard but not on a shopping center or restaurant typical of the area. It will be made from some unconventional building blocks: shipping containers. The containers are being repurposed to make a gallery and apartment space for a local artist to serve…
FORT PIERCE — Transient boaters will have an easier time visiting downtown and downtown businesses and special events should get a shot in the arm when the city completes construction of a series of dinghy docks near the intake of the old King Power Plant on Indian River Drive. The $380,000 project, to be completed…
BRADENTON — When the Bradenton Central Community Redevelopment Agency created its revitalization plan, an idea to create a community alliance was part of it. About 18 months ago the Faith Based Alliance was born. Attendance has been steadily growing at monthly meetings and the Faith Based Alliance, designed to act as a conduit to direct…
Heaps of out-sized blueprints, site plans and plat maps crowd the workstations at West Palm Beach’s Development Services Department, as more than $1 billion worth of projects take shape under the watch of the city’s urban planners. A color-coded activity board runs almost the length of one wall of these city hall offices, which share…
The Board of Directors for Fernandina Beach Main Street, Inc. is pleased to announce the hiring of Jeffrey Kurtz as the Executive Director of the newly designated Fernandina Beach Main Street program. The Board received 57 applications from around the country for the position. Candidates were interviewed in September and October. Mr. Kurtz comes to…
CLEARWATER —Nearly 17 months after a panel of urban planning experts presented an array of ambitious recommendations for reviving downtown Clearwater, city leaders have completed just under half of the 13 priority projects. The city has so far created a stakeholder advisory group; launched an incubator to foster technology companies; built a science, technology, engineering…
Casselberry’s longstanding efforts to create a downtown moved forward with the launch of a 203-unit apartment complex to be part of the planned 20-acre Concord Village. LandSouth Construction, of Jacksonville, started work on the $19.3 million complex to be built on 7.5 acres at 88 Triplett Lake Drive, near City Hall. Associated Consulting International of…