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Will Riverview Be The New Hyde Park?

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 26, 2009

RIVERVIEW - This once sparsely populated fishing village is motoring its way toward creating a downtown corridor that could more closely resemble South Tampa's Hyde Park area.

Proposed changes to Hillsborough County's Land Development Code, known as text amendments, would create three distinct districts for a future downtown area on U.S. 301 and along the north and south sides of the Alafia River.

Amendments to create Uptown, Downtown and Riverwalk areas in Riverview debut before the Planning Commission April 13. The first public hearing before the County Commission is scheduled for May 21.

If approved, the Riverview Community Plan Committee would then work toward rezoning various parcels in the districts to conform to the downtown plan, said County Planner Elaine Lund.

The committee, made up of residents and businesspeople meeting since 2007, took one last look at the text amendments last night.

The uptown area includes the U.S. 301 corridor north of the Alafia. "It would be the gateway into downtown" including welcome signs and new buildings constructed closer to the road, Lund said. The district is designed to create a sense of place for Riverview, she said.

The downtown district beginning at U.S. 301 and Riverview Drive would be a mixed-use area where people could live, work and shop and comfortably walk from one place to another.

And the Riverwalk, which would flank the south side of the river, would focus on access to the waterway, with new and expanding businesses required to include pedestrian access areas like small park areas or plazas.

Longtime resident Carla Kiddy asked for clarification between changes to the land development code and rezoning changes. Lund explained that all rezonings would have to conform to the requirements laid out for each district.

"They would have to build to regulations approved in this plan," Planner Joe Incorvia explained.

For more details on the plan, visit www.hccommunityplanning.com, then click on Community Plans and Riverview.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566.

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