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City To Start Demolishing Central Park Village In July
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Published: June 20, 2007
TAMPA - Of 483 families who lived at Central Park Village, the Tampa Housing Authority said Tuesday that very few are still seeking a new home.
With relocation efforts winding down and demolition scheduled to begin in July, housing officials updated the authority's board about the move and possible changes to the plan to redevelop the blighted housing complex property between downtown and Ybor City.
The 28-acre project, which the authority is developing in a partnership with Bank of America, is expected to include about 2,030 new housing units - both mixed-income affordable rental housing and market-rate condominiums for sale. Plans for the site also include a school, a refurbished black history museum and a new housing authority office building.
Authority Vice President Leroy Moore said officials will meet Thursday with the city's Community Redevelopment Agency board to update it on possible changes to the site plan.
Those changes, Moore said, could include realigning streets in the development and adding a grocery store facing Nebraska Avenue.
Another change might come to the number of market-rate condominiums being offered. Moore said the housing authority and Bank of America want to reconsider how certain lots are zoned to allow for a developer to include a hotel with possible condominiums for sale above the hotel portion of the building.
Moore said the redevelopment committee will probably schedule a meeting this year to vote on any changes.
In June 2006, the Central Park project received approval from the city and Hillsborough County. One linchpin was the designation of a 143-acre redevelopment area that creates a special taxing district to pay for infrastructure improvements.
But first the agency has to move everyone out.
Deadline Coming Fast
Public housing Director Wence Cunningham told the board that the remaining 150 families are in the process of moving. Of those, 122 families have received federal Section 8 housing vouchers and are looking for a home or finalizing paperwork to move into a new home. The other 28 families have been reassigned to different public housing properties.
'My goal is to have everybody out by the 29th of June,' Cunningham said.
The housing authority is paying relocation costs, including rental deposits and moving expenses, Cunningham said. And it has assigned five people to keep in touch with the relocated families for five years to address issues that might occur.
Tuesday's update did not come without questions.
Wallace B. Anderson, a Tampa attorney, and former professional football player James M. Evans, chief executive officer of the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope, attended the meeting.
Both men belong to an organization they call the Tampa Bay Human Rights Coalition. The organization is not on file with the state Division of Corporations, and Anderson said it is seeking to incorporate as a nonprofit organization.
Questions Of Constitutionality
Anderson, in a May 7 memo to Ricardo Gilmore, the authority's lawyer, challenged the legality of the authority's partnership with Bank of America.
During Tuesday's meeting, he told the board that he thinks the partnership with Bank of America violates Florida's Constitution, which he said restricts government agencies from doing business with private for-profit companies.
Gilmore said the Legislature changed the law in 2005 to allow for such partnerships, and he is comfortable that the authority's agreement meets the law.
Evans said after the meeting that he has been trying to talk with housing officials for more than a year. Moore and authority President Jerome Ryans said Tuesday afternoon that they have met twice with Evans about Central Park plans.
Evans said he did not consider either meeting official. He and Anderson said they have not attended any of the authority's weekly Central Park meetings that have been held for more than two years.
Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915 or jallman@tampatrib.com.
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