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Tampa eyes 40th Street corridor for improvements

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By KENNETH KNIGHT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2010

TAMPA - After more than 80 years of existence, the Temple Crest neighborhood is being linked with four adjacent bedroom communities to create a long-term vision for 40th Street.

City planners recently introduced residents of Temple Crest, River Grove, Woodland Terrace, Live Oaks Square and Northeast Community – five neighborhoods sprinkled along 40th Street, bounded by Busch Boulevard to the north and Hillsborough Avenue to the south – to the concept of the 40th Street Planning Area.

All of the neighborhoods run along the present segment of the 40th Street widening. For city planners, the improvement project offers them an opportunity to unite neighboring communities around a specific planning issue, creating an overall redevelopment strategy for the 40th Street corridor.

The goal of the program is to learn what residents and property owners want for their neighborhoods during the next two or three decades.

City officials held workshops in December to gather resident input on redevelopment ideas. They returned Monday night to the Temple Crest Civic Association clubhouse to survey some of the same residents on images they would prefer or not like to see in the community in the future.

The small audience of mostly Temple Crest residents outlined a series of improvements they would support for future residential or commercial development.

Their wish-list included landscaped medians, small-scale on-street parking with planter boxes, placing storefronts right next to the street, wider sidewalks covered by awnings, decorative wrought-iron fencing separating sidewalks from residential properties, and adding more single-family, semi-attached houses with garages.

"If I had my choice for this end of 40th Street, it would be a neighborhood friendly business, a place you could walk or ride your bike to eat dinner," said Shelly Clark, treasurer of the Temple Crest Civic Association.

Residents were receptive to the city's plans. Richard Formica of Temple Crest said he recognized the potential benefits of unifying the neighborhoods to plan for a more glamorous 40th Street.

"Once the road is done all the way down there will be connectivity," Formica said. "It will be very efficient."

Tampa Planning and Development Coordinator Abbye Feeley praised the residents for their candor.

Their comments and suggestions were constructive and would be used to help map redevelopment plans for 40th Street, she said.

The 40th Street corridor is the latest in a series of Tampa neighborhoods targeted for new redevelopment regulations, known as form-based codes. The city introduced the concept in Seminole Heights in 2008. It also plans to launch a similar program in Tampa Heights.

The general goal of form-based codes is to focus on the size and appearance of buildings, as well as the layout of streets and public spaces. The intent is to create more mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods.

Three open house sessions to view the conceptual land use maps for 40th Street are scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday and Feb. 16-17 at the civic association clubhouse, 4242 Miller Ave.

For information or to comment, call the city's land development office at (813) 274-8405 or go online to www .tampagov.net.

Reporter Kenneth Knight can be reached at (813) 259-7413.

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