Spotlight on the issues: Downtown rejuvenation

Third in an occasional series of what the candidates say about various issues facing the city.

St. Petersburg Times
February 23, 2002
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/02/23/NorthPinellas/Spotlight_on_the_issu.shtml

CLEARWATER -- This year's City Commission candidates all want to spark a renaissance of the city's downtown. But there aren't many new, specific ideas coming out of the debate during this election season.

In the race between incumbent Hoyt Hamilton and Patricia Bates-Smith, Hamilton says the city needs another redevelopment plan. He reiterates that the city needs to "come up with a plan that works and then we have to work that plan."

Most of Hamilton's priorities cover old ground: Come up with a way to expand Coachman Park and remove some of the parking on the city's waterfront bluff below the Harborview Center. Impose design guidelines on new development to create an architectural theme. Make sure there is convenient parking. Try to persuade Calvary Baptist Church to someday sell its downtown property to a developer who could create a hotel or similar project.

Hamilton suggested that the city might want to borrow money to buy the church's land, then find a developer who could take over the debt payments and do a project there. (Whatever the project, Hamilton believes the church's historic sanctuary should be preserved.)

Bates-Smith offered another idea: She said that the city should be aggressive and lease all of the vacant space in downtown storefronts, then turn around and recruit new businesses to rent the space at reduced rates.

The effort would instill confidence in downtown, because new businesses that were recruited wouldn't be alone in opening here, she said.

Bates-Smith said that the city should consider creating diagonal parking on Cleveland Street once traffic is rerouted off the street to the new Memorial Causeway bridge that is to be built. She also is sympathetic to building a parking garage in the downtown area and gave several possible locations, including near City Hall on part of the city's waterfront bluff.

Bates-Smith added that she is "not willing to give downtown up" to the Church of Scientology, which has its spiritual headquarters there.

In the race between incumbent Ed Hart and Frank Hibbard, the two men seemed to have a different emphasis when speaking about downtown.

Hibbard spoke about the need for a major project, such as a movie theater, to boost confidence in investing downtown. He said he supports existing businesses, but many small enterprises don't have the financial prowess to spark significant changes on their own. What downtown needs "is a drawing card, a catalyst," he said.

Hibbard said the city's role should be to create convenient parking and look at ways to beautify the streetscape -- projects that don't have financing yet in the city budget.

Hart, on the other hand, emphasized giving economic incentives to existing businesses to invest in downtown themselves. The city should not redevelop downtown "for them, but do it with them," he said.

Hart voted to place the controversial downtown referendum on the ballot two years ago, then criticized it. Voters rejected the plan, which included a controversial $1-a-year lease for city property downtown to developers who would build new shops, apartments and a movie theater.

Hart said he was disappointed in the city's new draft plan for downtown redevelopment, submitted last year and never approved. He called it a regurgitation of many old ideas about downtown, suggesting that the city bring all of the many people interested in downtown together to talk about what should happen there.

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