“After two workshops, an open house and neighborhood walkabout,” St. Pete Beach Urban Planner Chelsey Welden told Paradise News, “the Pass-a-Grille community is focused on preserving the historic and unique character of the Historic District.
“It’s important that active steps be taken to protect the environment based on human-scale construction, vernacular Florida architectural design, historic materials, native landscaping, and public accessibility. The main factors currently impeding these goals are FEMA flood building regulations, increasing property values, non-conforming uses as they relate to zoning regulations, lack of enforceable design standards in existing code, and lack of a master plan that provides a vision, framework and implementation steps for future development.”
On July 17 some 64 participants attended the second Community Workshop for the PAG Pathway to the Future Project. The evening included a large group polling exercise and a presentation by Ginger Corless and Evan Johnson of Tindale-Oliver & Associates (TOA), the consulting firm hired by the City to head the project. The presentation showed the preliminary findings of the first three events for discussion. Attendees then participated in a visual preference survey that asked them to rank topic photographs based on the degree to how much they liked them.
These were presented in three categories: Overall Character, Public Realm Character, and Private Development Character. Public Realm Character questions addressed included Street furniture, Paving materials, Parking options and Multimodal facilities. Private Development Character questions addressed Architectural character, Public/private transition, Building scale and Land uses. These categories were organized to reflect the themes from the previous three public outreach events, but also framed the discussion around public and private development. This allowed the gathering of material most relevant to the next steps of the project: the Master Plan & Development Standards.
Among other key results that clarify previous conflicts:
– The community supports preserving and using Washingtonian Palms as a unique identifying factor of the historic significance of PAG; however, they would like to use other tree species where more shade is desired.
– A majority of the community (78%) prefers the use of shell in alleyways.
– A majority (80%) supports current on-street parking located on Gulf Boulevard; 39% favor parallel parking; 21% favor a parking garage; and 12% favor back-in angled parking.
– The community desires more consistency in the treatment of the public realm, including signage and wayfinding, which represents the unique identity of PAG while still reflecting the identity of St. Pete Beach as a whole.
– A majority (86%) prefers hex block pavement to brick (66%), shell concrete aggregate (36%), or asphalt (9%).
Additionally, conclusions reached through the visual preference exercise include:
– The community prefers traditional street furniture options, especially Adirondack chairs (86%).
– More on-street bike parking is preferred (65%).
– The existing architectural character along 8th Avenue is preferred (95%).
– While a mix of residential character is accepted, historic architecture is most preferred (83%). Where buildings are not adjacent to the sidewalk, the community prefers landscaping as a tool in transitioning from public to private space.
– The community prefers a building scale of 1 to 3 stories.
– Bars, restaurants, gift shops, and clothing stores are preferred commercial uses; single-family homes are the preferred residential use.
Consensus on future planning work from the community engagement process includes:
– A Community Vision for the PAG Historic District was established and confirmed.
– Direction to complete Development and Design Standards was supported by the community.
– A Master Plan is needed to identify project specific improvements based on the community’s priorities.
– There is a need to reevaluate the underlying zoning code.
It is necessary for the TOA Team to coordinate with the engineering team working on the Pass-a-Grille Way Reconstruction project to ensure the streetscape design is consistent with desired public realm design standards.
“By addressing these issues through future planning work,” Welden says, “PAG will be preserved as a unique district, while continuing to enhance St. Pete Beach. “
Story by Steve Traiman & Chelsey Welden
[Steve Traiman is President of Creative Copy by Steve Traiman in St. Pete Beach, offering freelance business writing services. He can be reached via email at straiman@mindspring.com.]