Davis Islands Neighborhood Planning Task ForceWorking Meeting Minutes Present: Dennis Cavanaugh, Lee Medart, Gary Brown, Lisa DeVitto, Renee Meehan, and Lorraine Smith. Planning Commission Advisor: Terry Cullen, Rose Petrucha Participants: Shirley Mora, Scott Jorgensen, Andy Hays Absent: Jeffrey Siewert, Charner Reese, Sheila Spicola, Renae Tvedt, (Excused) and Gerry Smelt, Phyllis Pacyna (Unexcused) Call to OrderMeeting was called to order at 6:45 pm. Quorum was not met. Minutes to the March 8th meeting were postponed. Unfinished BusinessTransportation Report (by Pam Tayon) – The group took a big map of the entire islands and identified places that had issues related to transportation; traffic calming, corner of Adalia; parking; etc. Looked at corners of streets that are so wide that it is so easy to speed around the corner rather than a right angle turn, which would slow people down. Neil Cosentino introduced his idea of a bus around the Islands. Residential Report: The Chair gave the Madeira Plan to Andy Hays. She explained to Andy the essential points of what each section was working on. The Chair introduced Andy Hays as offering to take the leadership role in the Residential Section. Lisa DeVitto agreed that with input from her and others in the group that she’d be ok with Andy’s leadership role. They agreed to get a meeting together to get Andy up to speed on what has happened so far. The meeting was set for the 20th of April at 12 noon. Andy stated that he teaches at the school of architecture at the USF and they are always looking for charrette projects in Urban Design problems. He suggested that to promote energy in the process, at the right point in time, is actually to pick an actual project and turn the students loose on something that you could pick on visual imagery when it comes time to go before council. Terry Cullen agreed that it would be a fine strategy. Andy asked at what point would there be deliverables and at what point would all this be congealed into some documents. The Chair responded that Charner’s group who was much further along than any other group plans to be finished by June and we begin working on the wording for the Plan which will be given a “preview” to the community stakeholders in November and we will probably be finished up in early spring of 2005 with the final vote be called at that time. Andy stated that the timing would work if we wanted to involve the school of Architecture. A piece of property on Davis Islands that could be symbolized as what we were after. Commercial: (Scott Jorgensen reporting) Ruth, Lee, Hamilton Jones, Gary and himself at the meeting. Gary had a historic map of Davis Islands from D.P. Davis and over that there was a map that Gary had drawn of what was perceived of the original intentions for the “Village”. They discovered that the business “core” was a half circle from of Chippewa bordered by Chesapeake and Barbados to Seddon Channel. The question was why the lots were sized very small and the answer they came up with is that they were sized for commercial purposes. This led to the discussion about traffic; improving the community commercial district; parking; other uses for the now residential properties, etc. Hamilton Jones was there and he acknowledged that he is contemplating the purchase of Hudson Manor and turning it into the original quaint elegant hotel that it was in the beginning and the number one issue was parking. We discussed that we are use to thinking that the business district is only that two-block area in the village but in truth, it extends all the way north on E. Davis and Davis to the bridge. They also discussed the possibility of using the channel area; the possibility of building a boardwalk; making the water area more accessible to residents and visitors to the area, extending the commercial area to the water as it was originally envisioned. Scott finished by saying that the residents want to keep the Islands like it is – not see houses torn down and replaced by flood-plan controlled rebuilding. Gary arrived and stated that the discussion was about businesses that we have here as well as ones we don’t anymore. As economic pressures continue to escalate on the Islands, which is being driven by downtown, and Channelside, ultimately Ybor – everybody is always commenting on the residential properties and the pressures that they feel but the commercial property pressure is going to be even more significant. This is being born out just by the residential projects that have been announced in the last 4 or 5 months downtown, you’ve got over 3,000 condominiums units that have a minimum price of $3-400,000 and that the types of businesses those people are going to need when they move in – it’s the old chicken-an-the-egg, which one of those things is coming first. Look at Davis Islands and its proximity to downtown and the lifestyle we all enjoy. There will be rather significant business pressures on the business property owners on the Islands… as to the businesses here on the Islands some of them are going to need to grow…why? Because their rent is gonna go up. Why? Because their property values are going up! And yet we still want to maintain the small-town character that we have. This committee is looking at everything that isn’t residential but it has to include mixed-uses. We looked at the map and said ok if things started to change due to economic pressures where would that happen? We went back to 1925, the major structures that were D. P. Davis plan; 5-6 hotels; the original sales office which is Seaborn; the original development office which is the 638 building; there was a second development office which was somewhere on Biscayne; the coliseum… and if you just connect the dots, it’s not all that different than what we see today. The difference though is in this hub is basically the Baptist Church, moving east towards the water, in D. P. Davis’s original master plan, it was all commercial. When you look at his plat, it was going to be mixed-use. When you start to look at the legacy and at the other important features that have been designated as part of the life-style it looks like everything would start to focus more to the water. The reason it can’t, is because through time, we were effected so radically by different types of markets i.e., the depression; WWII; and whatever else was happening on a local level, that you have the property owners, whoever they were after Davis, in order to get this community developed, they had to meet market demands and were thwarted in doing “that much village” or “that much mixed-use” in 1945. But they could do some more homes. Those properties got sold as single –family residences, or duplexes. And have evolved more in that direction. There was one multi-family dwelling south of Chesapeake on Columbia but that was early on and more single-family and duplexes evolved around it. But when you look at his overall plan Gary didn’t feel that he intended to go that far south. If you look at the total number of residences on the Islands, you don’t need that many shops. Gary mentioned that Scott’s restaurant is a perfect example when learned that 2/3rds of Scott’s restaurant business comes from off-islands. There followed general comments about how businesses come up successful. (Including: transportation; on-off avenues to the Islands; overlay districts; historic buildings; etc.) The chair asked that the Task force go to Robinson High School instead of meeting May 3rd. The Planning Commission is holding an open house on the future land-use plan. Terry stated that they are asking what is the most critical issue facing you today. It is more general than what the Task Force is thinking about. They offered that we ask them to come to Davis Islands for a Davis Islands specific meeting. It was agreed that we should hold our Task Force Meeting and ask an open meeting for the Islanders. New Business: Scott asked if we were addressing the environmental sustainable community (i.e., recycling etc.) The answer was that it wasn’t specifically asked for in the issues or value statements. Andy Hays answered that it is not a proper benchmark to ask about sustainability because not enough people really knows what that means. Sustainability is different than from environmental sustainability in a lot of ways. Here we are talking about sustainability when we talk about residents of all income levels; talking about a commercial district that is going to sustain itself over time. The environmental issues are a bigger issue to tackle because a: they are so nebulous; b: They are not interfaced. His question to the task force was: how can you tackle the issues such as sustainability which is not apparent to the general public such as how transportation associated with a thriving economy but which is basic to the effort of establishing a future plan. Gary suggested that “recycling” concept could be put in the plan as a way to save monies, etc. Terry suggested that we not bring in something specific that was not in the Vision but perhaps present as a “new Idea” separated from the general plan built on the VISION. |
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