St. Petersburg city officials are beginning an ambitious preservation of the historic downtown waterfront by creating a new Waterfront Master Plan.
To kick off the year-long process, the city will host the first public input forum 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9 at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Student Activity Center. The center is located at 200 Sixth Ave. S.
Since public input is critical to the program’s success, the city created a new website – www.stpete.org/downtown_waterfront_master_plan — solely for the public to review all documents relevant to the project. Public meeting schedules, as well as the opportunity to offer comments and feedback will also be available as part of the site.
“The legacy of every past generation in St. Petersburg has been the careful stewardship of our best asset, the downtown waterfront,” said Mayor Bill Foster in a statement. “I’m looking forward to this historic process and its end result of bringing all facets of our community together to create a downtown waterfront master plan that will serve our city well in the century to come.”
Both the city and the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce asked the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to assist in developing the Waterfront Master Plan. A team of urban planning and design professionals from the ULI will help draw public input, offer perspectives and develop best practices for quality, sustainable, livable and positive development.
For decades, the ULI had participated in ongoing planning efforts all over the Tampa Bay area, from downtown Tampa and the Hillsborough River to Pasco, Bradenton, Manatee Counties and Longboat Key.
“It’s important to take many points of view into consideration as the city considers next steps for the waterfront,” said Ross Preville, chairman of the Chamber committee working with the city on
creating the project.
“As part of this,” Preville added, “the ULI group will bring knowledge of best practices from other waterfront areas around the globe which can help form our thinking.”
The boundaries for the proposed Downtown Waterfront Master Plan are Northeast Exchange/Coffee Pot Park on the north to Poynter Park on the south end. The region incorporates sixteen public parks, the Pier, Albert Whitted Airport, the Port of St. Petersburg, the Duke Energy Center for the Arts (Mahaffey Theater) and Dali Museum.
In addition, the plans will cover the Municipal Marina, Yacht Club, Museum of History, Museum of Fine Arts, Renaissance Vinoy Hotel and Marina, Bayboro Harbor, USF St. Petersburg campus and Al Lang Stadium.
From September 29 to October 4, the ULI group will tour St. Petersburg and talk with residents, neighborhood associations, leaders in the arts and sports, local businesses and corporations. The expected completion date of the Waterfront Master Plan is the end of 2014.
