City Listens To Ideas For Urban Core

TAMPA - In the city's urban core, which includes downtown and the Channel District, the biggest change is the addition of housing.

The effects are widespread, as evidenced by the overflow crowd of 100 at the Tampa Downtown Partnership's third annual Community Forum held May 28 at John F. Germany Public Library.

Ideas were offered as to which amenities are needed for the area's 1,500-plus residents, 50,000-plus workers and 8,000 students:

•Better signs to direct motorists.

•More playgrounds so families can gather for picnics.

•Walking tours pinpointing area history.

•More outdoor dining.

•Wider promotion of the area's educational offerings, from preschool to law school.

Partnership officials said some of the suggestions are in the works.

The group's transportation director Karen Kress said the 12-year-old directional signs in downtown are outdated and will be replaced in time for the Super Bowl on Feb. 1.

Paul Ayres, the partnership's marketing director, said five walking tour guides will be available in the fall. He also said Cotanchobee/Fort Brooke Park on the Garrison Channel has a playground and will be used more after the final phase of its development.

Davis Islands resident Neil Cosentino said he would like to see a themed playground in Lykes Gaslight Square Park such as the aviation-themed one planned near Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Islands.

Christine Burdick, the partnership's president, said plans to make a number of downtown parks wireless, including the Riverwalk project, have languished.

"But that topic is going to be hot again," she said.

Ayres said a rewarding aspect of downtown's development is that old buildings are finding new life, although the historical federal courthouse, 601 Florida Ave., remains vacant and a concern.

Burdick said the Tampa Bay chapter of the American Institute of Architects won city council approval recently to draw plans for its offices and others to be housed in the courthouse.

University of South Florida architecture instructor Trent Green said he wants to see a physical layout of what downtown will look like in future years.

"We need to study pedestrian movement and how connections can be made," he said.

Tampa Convention Center director John Moors said the city must expand that facility.

"This is the only way hospitality will grow," he said, adding that funding is the major hurdle.

Developer Frank DeBose said the city should focus on adding to the area's 2,500 hotel rooms, rather than on residential.

"It's visitors who spend the money not residents," DeBose said.