LAKELAND | Julie Townsend once criticized the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority as having no direction. She even quit her post heading the Lakeland Downtown Partnership to protest the authority’s lack of funding to the partnership. JULIE TOWNSEND, the executive director of the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority, is now in charge of an agency she once criticized…
DetailsAt a meeting next week, the Escambia County Commission is set to consider a portion of Ensley as a blighted area with a shortage of affordable housing for low and moderate income housing and that there exists a need for for the “rehabilitation conservation, redevelopment, or a combination of these in the Ensley Community is…
DetailsTwenty years ago, Miami Beach’s hotel market was sleepy enough that Miami-Dade County created a special taxing district aimed at revitalizing a “blighted area” that includes Lincoln Road and the oceanfront off 16th Street. Today, that land has gained about $4 billion in value, but elected leaders don’t want to declare victory just yet. On Tuesday, Miami-Dade…
DetailsNEW SMYRNA BEACH — City leaders have acquiesced to the wishes of the Volusia County Council, shortening their request for a new Community Redevelopment Area that would run along a slumping section of U.S. 1 from a 40-year to a 20-year plan. County Council members have made it clear that 20 years is the limit…
DetailsDELAND — The Volusia County Council by a narrow 4-3 vote Thursday approved a new Community Redevelopment Area for New Smyrna Beach that aims to renovate an ailing stretch of U.S. 1 and the city’s struggling Historic Westside Neighborhood. Over 20 years the CRA plan is expected to generate about $15 million for road, drainage,…
DetailsIf the median at the S-curve leading into Ocala’s downtown looks a little bare these days, that is because the Downtown Business Alliance and the city of Ocala are in the process of sprucing it up. “The DBA and city have a joint beautification project there,” said DBA President Ted Schatt. “It is plants going…
DetailsTEMPLE TERRACE — Following a two-and-a-half year standstill of the revitalization of a 29-acre site at the southeast corner of Bullard Parkway and North 56th Street, the city has severed all ties with Vlass Temple Terrace LLC (VTT), the developer residents hoped would see their decade-old vision of a new town center through to fruition.…
DetailsNEW PORT RICHEY — The city’s property maintenance codes are woefully inadequate to handle the blight that officials say is plaguing New Port Richey. That was the message from city leaders during a work session Tuesday night at which city staffers made a pitch to the City Council to tighten the city’s code ordinance. City…
DetailsDaytona Beach has several impressive commercial developments in the works that have the power to transform the local economy unlike anything it has seen in generations. But until the city eradicates the blight that has plagued the beachside area the effect will be like serving a roasted Thanksgiving turkey with Cheetos and Fritos. Thankfully, one…
DetailsNEW SMYRNA BEACH — Plans for a 146-room oceanfront hotel took a hit when the Planning and Zoning Board turned down three requests from developers needed to build the project. First, the board voted unanimously Monday to deny a request by developers of the SpringHill Suites by Marriott to move the city’s coastal construction setback…
DetailsNEW PORT RICHEY — The city is poised to cut the red tape for bars, restaurants and nonprofit groups looking to serve alcohol during downtown events. For months, the New Port Richey City Council has been debating changes to its ordinance regulating alcohol consumption on city property. During a work session last week, the council…
DetailsOnce upon a distant time, the village center of old Coconut Grove was so anything-goes mellow that a blind man — folk-rock star Jose Feliciano, to be specific — could pedal a bicycle a short way down the street without fear of running into anything. That was long ago, during a near-mythical age when hippies,…
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