BRADENTON — He swore he wouldn’t get emotional. It might be one of the few times Bradenton Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Dave Gustafson failed to achieve a goal as he struggled to get through his final presentation to the DDA board. Gustafson’s five-year tenure as the head of the DDA will end on Friday…
DetailsLAKELAND — City commissioners agreed Wednesday that they want to see what it will take to make downtown Lakeland a test bed for a city-owned gigabit-speed Internet service provider. In that test bed area, the city could build and operate a fiber optics utility and sell Internet access services, with speeds roughly 100 times faster…
DetailsDUNDEE — Town commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved an agreement with the Central Florida Regional Planning Council to develop a downtown vision plan. The town will pay the council $25,000 from a Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Community Planning Technical Assistance Grant it received in September. Planning should start in December and be completed in May…
DetailsMaking bad neighborhoods good takes money and time. Community redevelopment agencies are one way local governments can ensure that struggling areas continue to receive the resources they needed, even through city council turnover and policy changes. Or so went the thinking of state lawmakers when, nearly 50 years ago, they put in place a program…
DetailsBRADENTON — Bradenton’s Historic Ware’s Creek Neighborhood infill project is back on the move. City clerk Carl Callahan said he will likely have ready by Wednesday’s city council meeting a contract to begin surveying multiple lots bounded by Ninth Avenue West, Ballard Park Drive, Eighth Avenue West and 17th Street West, with two properties encompassing…
DetailsTucked away off Collins Avenue on Miami Beach’s North Shore, the two beachside blocks of Ocean Terrace could have been the neighborhood’s answer to Ocean Drive, only in miniature. Ocean Terrace — the heart of a tiny historic district — boasts a trio of Art Deco hotels supplemented by a handful of modest Miami Modern…
DetailsST. PETERSBURG — For years, downtown St. Petersburg’s only outdoor shopping center struggled to keep up with the fast-paced cultural changes that were transforming the city’s core. BayWalk, as it was first called, couldn’t keep quality tenants. Shoppers didn’t always feel safe in the fortresslike space sandwiched between First and Second streets at Second Avenue…
DetailsBROOKSVILLE — A year and a half and dozens of Post-it notes later, Hernando County’s effort to revitalize what was once the town center of Spring Hill is about to reach a new plateau. On Tuesday, the County Commission will consider making the area around Kass Circle a community redevelopment district. The designation would provide…
DetailsNEW PORT RICHEY — Elizabeth Villanova gets dejected on her daily treks to and from her children’s schools in Land O’Lakes. “It’s been depressing to watch the complete degradation of U.S. 41 specifically,” she told Pasco County commissioners Tuesday. Villanova started a Facebook page and an online petition seeking stepped-up code enforcement and other beautification…
DetailsGADSDEN CO., Fla. (WTXL) – Florida’s Secretary of State has selected Chattahoochee Main Street as the Florida Main Street Community of the Month, and community leaders say they have big plans in store for the area. The Chattahoochee Main Street was selected because it brought in $25,000 in public/private reinvestment, three new businesses and 10 new…
DetailsWest Palm’s code-enforcers have been testing their new noise-meters prior to issuing any fines to bars or restaurants that blast their music. And the results are in: A lot of Clematis Street venues can expect fines if they don’t change their tune when the city commission votes Nov. 9 to start enforcement and calm the…
DetailsCRESTVIEW — Two of Crestview’s oldest churches inadvertently shackled from future growth will be unfettered if two re-rezoning ordinances pass a second Crestview City Council reading. The council last week unanimously approved the first of two required public readings of two ordinances amending the city’s comprehensive plan to revert downtown churches to their original zoning.…
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