by TRC_Admin | Dec 15, 2022 | Codes, Legal, Placemaking
Illustration: City of St. Pete Beach
“After a series of commission meetings and design changes, Chill Restaurant at 357 Corey Ave., which bills itself as an American fusion-style eatery and bar, was finally granted permission to have permanent outdoor dining using a so-called parklet.
During a hearing at the commission’s Nov. 15 meeting, debate and discussion by some residents centered around whether Chill should be able to use three or four city-owned parking spaces in front of the restaurant, as well as whether the city should use taxpayer money to defray some of the cost of building the outdoor seating area.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city granted some restaurants and bars temporary permission to offer outdoor dining, since indoor seating was restricted and not favored by patrons.
Now, with outdoor dining still gaining in popularity, the city has provided a way for restaurants and taverns to offer outdoor seating in ‘parklets’ on a permanent basis. Chill subsequently applied to feature permanent parklet seating in front of the eatery.
City Manager Alex Rey said the Chill parklet has been redesigned so the city will lose only four parking spaces instead of five…
Commissioner Mark Grill, who opposes using public funds to defray the cost of the parklet, noted the permanent parklet would cost $100,000, while the semi-permanent option would be $50,000.
With the $50,000 option, Chill would pay the $50,000, with the parklet stricture belonging to the eatery. Chill would be able to take four parking spaces for its outdoor seating and pay rent of $1,500 a month, or 10 percent of the revenue from outdoor tables, for three years of the contract.
With the $100,000 permanent option, Chill would pay $50,000 with the city making up the difference up to almost $100,000. In this scenario, the city would own the parklet.
Grill said in speaking with the city manager he was told the permanent parklet will be nicer looking and constructed with more sturdy materials. It will also include curbing with a multimodal bump-out and improved drainage.
Mayor Al Johnson added, ‘It will be aesthetically a lot better.’…
Responding to criticism by a member of the public as to why the city is giving a private business an interest-free loan with taxpayer money, Johnson said, ‘This is like any public-private partnership. We’re creating an asset for the city, partially paid for by the client and partially by us, and it’s going to be an income-generating asset, so I don’t see a problem with it.’…
After discussion, the commission voted 3-1 to give permission for Chill Restaurant to install a permanent outdoor dining parklet, with Grill casing a dissenting vote and commissioner Melinda Pletcher absent.”
— MARK SCHANTZ, TBN
Read entire article
by TRC_Admin | Aug 29, 2022 | City Signs, Codes, Feather Flags, Highway Beautification
Photo: Kristin Swain, Anna Maria Island Sun
“As long as money doesn’t exchange hands, watercraft rentals and other businesses are allowed to operate on the Palma Sola Scenic Highway corridor.
Anyone who’s traveled the Palma Sola Scenic Highway has seen the roadside businesses popping up along Manatee Avenue – kayak, paddleboard, horseback riding and now, Jet Ski rentals.
While the Palma Sola Scenic Highway Corridor Management Entity (CME) can’t stop the businesses from being there, they are working to reduce the visual impact on the scenic highway. Members met Aug. 10 to discuss improvements planned for the roadside and how they can help reduce the impact of the various businesses that have sprung up along the causeway’s beach areas…
Co-chairs of the committee Ingrid McClellan and Craig Keys said they’d be willing to speak with vendors along the causeway and city of Bradenton code enforcement officials about the proliferation of signage in the area. No advertising signage is allowed on the scenic highway and, while McClellan said they’d been allowing businesses to slide with sandwich board signs, she’s noticed much larger business signs being used, including banners and flag signs that are pushed into the ground.
Members of the group agreed to not allow any business signage on the causeway going forward unless it’s small and a part of a vehicle…”
— Kristin Swain, Anna Maria Island Sun
Read entire article
Visit Scenic Manatee
by TRC_Admin | Aug 1, 2022 | Codes, Derelict Structures
St. Petersburg improves its housing stock by transforming vacant lots into affordable housing.
Photo: Mark Wemple
“By dealing aggressively with the owners of dilapidated homes and vacant lots, St. Petersburg has improved its housing stock — and is transforming some vacant lots into affordable housing in the process.
James Corbett, St. Petersburg’s code enforcement director, grew up in the city, the son of a single mother. They lived in a couple of rental homes before his mother, a bookkeeper for Pinellas County Schools, was able to buy a house in south St. Petersburg. The purchase, he says, gave the family ‘a sense of place, a sense of stability.’
Today, St. Petersburg has about 110 vacant and boarded properties – roughly one-eighth the number it had in 2014, and well below pre-recession levels.
Photo: Mark Wemple
…The city’s incoming mayor at the time, Rick Kriseman, ordered employees to speed up demolitions and crack down on deadbeat property owners. During the next year, the city demolished more than 100 abandoned, privately owned structures and repaired another 62. Within four years, that list had shrunk to about 200 properties….
St. Petersburg initiated foreclosure proceedings against 635 properties. Only 70 remain in foreclosure today.
Photo: Mark Wemple
Many cities deal with the zombie-lot problem with an approach that some call ‘file and forget’ — they slap code-enforcement liens on neglected lots and hope that real estate values eventually rise enough to make the owners want to get out of arrears and either sell, develop or refinance the property.
Instead, Corbett went after the owners of the zombie lots more aggressively, using a tactic that cities typically shy away from — foreclosure. In 2016, he identified the owners of dozens of empty lots, mostly in historically black neighborhoods south of downtown. Often, the property owners owed more in taxes or fines than the properties were worth. ‘You might have $40,000 in liens on a lot that was worth $20,000,’ he says…
Today, St. Petersburg has about 110 vacant and boarded properties — roughly one-eighth the number it had in 2014, and well below pre-recession levels. Meanwhile, the city has begun turning some of the foreclosed properties into affordable housing…
The city responded by trying to turn some foreclosures into first homes for local residents instead of selling the lots to developers. Under the program, the city acquires an abandoned lot at auction, clears the title and gives it to a non-profit developer. The developer, in turn, builds a home and sells it to a lower-income family. So far, the city has acquired 50 lots this way, and nine houses have been built and sold to first time home buyers…
An Effective Tool
St. Petersburg is believed to be the first city in Florida to regularly use foreclosure to try to reduce blight, though others have since followed.
In 2019, Largo, just north of St. Petersburg, moved to foreclose on a handful of derelict properties with longstanding liens. ‘We never want to do that, but sometimes this is a tool that we have to use to get people’s property into compliance,’ the city’s community standards manager, Tracey Schofield, has said.
In 2020, Bradenton also implemented a lien foreclosure program, telling the local newspaper, ‘We hope we can take care of the worst of the worst and remove the people who own them now…’
Lien Forgiveness
Last year, Pinellas County adopted a plan to partially forgive liens on residential and commercial properties in unincorporated areas, saying code enforcement fines shouldn’t be so excessive that they hinder reinvestment and development.
At the time, the county had more than 500 properties with liens exceeding their market value — a total of about $300 million in liens. The county figured it could reduce that number to $30 million by capping liens at $20,000 per violation for a single-family home and $100,000 for another building type. Before then, the county had no limit on liens, which increase daily…
James Corbett, code enforcement director for St. Petersburg, says lien forgiveness is a good idea in many cases. He says the city often works with distressed homeowners to reduce their liens and settle their debt, but forgiveness is less effective in cases where the property has been abandoned and the owner wants nothing to do with it, he adds. In those cases, he says, the best thing for everyone — the city, the neighborhood and even the owner — could be to foreclose, clear the title, and sell the property to someone who wants it.”
— Amy Martinez, Florida Trends
Read entire article
Scenic St. Petersburg works with the city codes department to make a better city – Visit their site here
by TRC_Admin | Aug 1, 2022 | City Signs, Codes, Legal
“A federal appeals court Tuesday sided with a man who challenged a Fort Myers Beach ordinance that prevented him from carrying a sign with a Christian message on the town’s streets.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a district judge should have granted a request by Adam LaCroix for a preliminary injunction against the ordinance, which barred portable signs.
The panel did not agree with an argument by LaCroix that the ordinance was a ‘content-based’ constitutional violation. But the judges said the town’s prohibition on portable signs likely violated the First Amendment.
‘The rich tradition of political lawn signs perhaps is surpassed only by America’s history of marches and rallies dotted with handheld signs and placards of every imaginable description and covering every conceivable political message,’ Judge Stanley Marcus wrote in a 26-page opinion joined by Judges Jill Pryor and Britt Grant. ‘Images of demonstrators holding portable signs immediately spring to mind: the March on Washington, the Women’s March, the 2000 presidential election protests in Dade County and Tallahassee, the Black Lives Matter protests in nearly every city in the country, the Tea Party protests, the Women’s Suffrage March and many more. All of them involved people carrying portable signs. And all were easy to create and customize. If the town’s prohibition on carrying all portable signs were to stand, all kinds of expressive speech protected by the First Amendment would be barred.’
The opinion said Fort Myers Beach passed a sign ordinance to try to prevent visual blight and barred portable signs. It said LaCroix in October 2020 was ‘peaceably attempting to share his religious message on a public sidewalk’ when he received a warning from a code-compliance officer about violating the sign ordinance. In December 2020, he received a citation.
‘Although the record (in the case) does not tell us precisely the dimensions of the sign LaCroix held nor its exact message, we know that LaCroix said he shared his ‘religious, political and social message’ which ‘is one of hope and salvation that Christianity offers,” Marcus wrote.
A town official subsequently dismissed the citation, but LaCroix filed a federal lawsuit alleging violations of the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and a state law known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell last year rejected the request for a preliminary injunction, spurring LaCroix and his attorneys from the American Liberties Institute to take the case to the Atlanta-based appeals court.
The opinion Tuesday sent the case back to district court…”
— CBS Miami Team
Read entire article
by TRC_Admin | Jun 28, 2022 | Codes, Master Planning, Placemaking
“Jacksonville, FL (June 7, 2022) – Scenic Jacksonville is pleased to announce that former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn will be its guest speaker at the 2022 Great Cities Symposium on Wednesday, October 12th from 5 until 8 p.m. at the Garden Club of Jacksonville, 1005 Riverside Avenue. Tickets are $100 per person and are on sale at www.scenicjax.org.
Buckhorn presided over the rapid growth and increased vibrancy of Tampa’s urban core during his two terms as mayor of Tampa (2011-2019). With a focus on community engagement, infill development, business partnerships and the previously underutilized Hillsborough river, Buckhorn led Tampa’s transformation into what is now a top city for corporate business, private equity and start ups, with a thriving young professionals economy.
Among his many accomplishments as mayor are the completion of the 2.4 mile Tampa Riverwalk, the West River redevelopment plan with the 25 acre Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park, the redevelopment of Armature Works and the Tampa Heights neighborhood, and the $3 billion Water Street mixed use development, currently underway. He also created a Stay and Play initiative for underserved youth, and worked to streamline the way the city does business.
The evening’s activities will begin with a cocktail social hour and silent auction from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. featuring beer, wine, a signature cocktail and hors d’ouevres from Biscottis. The program will be held from 6:15 – 7:30 to include remarks from Buckhorn, discussion and Q & A. Desserts and cocktails will be served from 7:30 – 8 p.m. along with the conclusion of the silent auction.
The Great Cities Symposium is an annual fundraiser hosted by Scenic Jacksonville for the purpose of bringing inspired examples of leadership and peer city solutions to the people of Jacksonville. The program aims to inform, entertain and engage citizens with continuing discussions of how we can continue to improve our city for the benefit of future generations. It is the primary fundraiser for Scenic Jacksonville to further its mission.
Scenic Jacksonville wishes to thank its sponsors which make the event possible. Gold Sponsors are FIS, Foley & Lardner, the Brinton family, Barbara and William Harrell and all sponsors are displayed on the event web page. We welcome additional sponsorships and in-kind donations. Information available on the website at www.scenicjax.org.”
— Scenic Jacksonville
Please visit Scenic Jacksonville for more information here
by TRC_Admin | Jun 28, 2022 | Codes, Environmental, Nature
Photo: PRweb.com
“This August, Turf Distributors is opening a new distribution center in Davie, Florida. This new facility will significantly speed up deliveries across the East Coast. Artificial grass dealers and distributors operating in the Florida area can now expect to receive shipments within 48 hours of placing their order! The hub will also bring quality jobs to Davie.”
— PRweb.com
Read entire article
