Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 7:21 p.m. Sunday, May 13, 2012
WEST PALM BEACH –
While city commissioners say they’re underwhelmed by a consultant’s ideas for invigorating the south end of town, Mayor Jeri Muoio says they mark the first step in revitalizing the South Dixie Corridor.
The Urban Land Institute, in a study presented to the commission, recommended pedestrian crosswalks, landscaping, wide and attractive sidewalks, public art and bicycle parking.
It also suggested branding various areas of the south end, such as creating an arts and culture district anchored by the Norton Museum of Art and Digital Domain Institute; a professional services district anchored by The Palm Beach Post; Antique Row, which is already the term used to identify the antique shops in the south end; a community district that encompasses South Olive Elementary, Phipps Park and St. Juliana Church; and a restaurant row in the far south end.
But the study, which emerged from a day and a half of research in January and cost the city $15,000, did not address Palm Coast Plaza, a struggling shopping plaza that the late Commissioner Bill Moss repeatedly said was the key to revitalizing the south end.
Moss represented the south end for 12 years before dying of a heart attack in March. The study also didn’t address the vacant property just south of Palm Coast Plaza.
Commissioners say the Urban Land Institute report contains little new or helpful information.
“Many of their recommendations – like ‘There’s not enough parking on the street’ – those are things that we already knew as a commission and a community,” Commissioner Kimberly Mitchell said. “What we were looking for was recommendations to fix them, solve them, resolve them. That was what (Moss) kept pushing. I can promise you, if he were alive today, he would have been disappointed.”
Commissioner Shanon Materio, who was appointed to replace Moss, agreed.
“It didn’t shed any new light on anything that I didn’t already know. I was looking for more than that,” Materio said. “In fact, I would go one step further and say I don’t think they actually did their job.”
Materio said the institute left many of the specifics to city’s planners rather than giving the commission recommendations. For example, Materio said, the consultants should have sat down with the private owners of Palm Coast Plaza and discussed how they could better work with the city.
But Muoio defended the report, and said it would have been too costly to do something more detailed.
“If somebody was expecting an in-depth evaluation in a day and a half, I think they were wrong to expect that,” Muoio said. “I think (the institute) definitely made some specific recommendations.”
Muoio agreed that the city needs to focus on Palm Coast Plaza, and she said she is sending the city’s new economic development director to meet with its owners.
The institute, an association of real estate professionals with chapters nationwide, helped conceptualize the city’s $30 million waterfront redesign several years ago. The city subsequently paid $15,000 to have the institute return to evaluate the south end corridor, from Dixie Highway at Okeechobee Boulevard to the city’s southern border with Lake Worth.
What the consultants, commissioners and city staff all agreed on was that the city needs to find a way to generate money to revitalize the area.
Because the south end doesn’t fall under the Community Redevelopment Agency or Downtown Development Authority and can’t receive any funding through them, the consultants suggested creating a business development district.
Rick Greene, the city’s planning manager, said businesses in the corridor are valued at $224 million. If the business were taxed at $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value, that would generate $224,000 in revenue per year for the south end.
Alan Durham, the city’s economic development director, said a similar district was successful in Gwinnett County, Ga., where he previously worked.
“It helped the business owners form a very strong lobby,” Durham said. “They were able to put their money where their mouth was and pull off some pretty substantial improvements in their area and maintain control over the funding.”
Greene said the city will do more community outreach and form a nine-member committee composed of residents, merchants and property owners to figure out how to move forward with the institute’s recommendations. The chamber of commerce has also put together its own six-person task force that will begin meeting today .
The city also will begin meeting with the Florida Department of Transportation to discuss locations and safety studies to provide crosswalks.
“I like the direction they’re heading in. Although, I don’t care what plan you come up with, if you can’t pay for it, it ain’t gonna work,” Commissioner Keith James said. “It looks like there’s a commitment from the mayor and her staff to not just let this die on the shelf somewhere, which is encouraging.”
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