US 19 corridor redevelopment visualization study

1:32:25it. All right, now we're going to have uh

1:32:31The Department of Economic Growth. Office of Economic Growth. Thank you very much.

1:32:40Wow. Um here, Passio.

1:32:46Uh good morning. My name is David Engel. I'm your economic growth director. And I am so happy here today to Focus on the Route nineteen Carter. It's been a Carter for Probably thirty years of disinvestment and Falling property values and Deteriorating pockets. And we're at an inflection point where the Carter is going to be uh more focus on was strategic programming, deliverables, and economic growth and job creation. And

1:33:16to get the the program started, uh the Board of Uh County Commissioners uh allowed us some seed money out of the American Rescue Plan, and we are working towards utilizing that money effectively and efficiently. Uh about six months ago the Office of Economic Growth contacted the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. Once we heard they had additional CARES Act money, And the uh Planning Council very generously uh worked with us in preparing and present

1:33:46in a study that you'll see in a moment. And I want to thank the planning department here in the county for assisting us and providing technical support. The following is a visualization study of Route nineteen and it is consistent with the comprehensive plan of Pasco County. the Harbors Plan and also the adopted strategic plan of the Board of County Commissioners. I'd like to introduce you to Sarah Vitaly, who was a principal and a key participant in generating this study. Thank you.

1:34:28Great.

1:34:29Good morning. Uh good morning, Commissioners and Staff. Thank you for the opportunity to address the board. My name is Sarah Vitale. I'm a senior planner and urban designer with the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. And I'm also joined by my colleagues Harry Walsh, who's our economic development planner, and Randy DeCazzo's in the audience. He's our Chief of Staff. And I have a lot to cover, so I'm gonna move quickly to make sure that we can get through my presentation and then leave time for questions and discussion.

1:34:58But for first, for those who are unfamiliar with our Regional Planning Council, TBRPC, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, is made up of 27 member governments that span across the sixth county region. This year we're celebrating our 60th anniversary. We've been around since 1962 serving the region. Our staff provides planning support for cross-jurisdictional issues that affect our members, including particular Protecting the environment, planning for economic development, and preparing for hurricanes. Pasco County's one of our member

1:35:28governments, with Commissioner Mariano serving as our past chair last year, and he's our current council representative.

1:35:37So, what brings us here before you today? TBRPC has provided its member governments with decision support technical assistance in urban design and economic analysis, among other planning areas. The coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the CARES Act funding has allowed us to offer these services to member governments at no cost for economic development. Projects. So what I'm going to cover today was completely funded by the CARES Act, provided at no cost to the

1:36:07county. Back in July of 2021, we began working with Pasco County to create redevelopment scenarios for key underperforming shopping centers and commercial plazas within the US 19 corridor. Our process was to merge 3D visualization and urban design with economic analysis to explore and test different ideas for the corridor, helping the county to reimagine what's possible.

1:36:34Mm-hmm. So our study began in July and was completed in November. So it was about a five month process.

1:36:43The deliverables for this project include not just the report, which is full of guidance and planning ideas for the US 19 corridor, but also a 3D model and a 3D flyover animation, which can be used in a variety of ways to help illustrate these ideas, for example, in future planning projects and in ongoing community engagement.

1:37:06The report is broken down into two sections and covers in great detail these different topic areas. For the sake of time, I'll provide an overview of some of the report's main takeaways for each section, and then I'll fly you through the 3D modeling that was created to get us thinking about potential future redevelopment in these underperforming areas.

1:37:28The focus for the study is the West Market area of Pasco County, also called the Harbors Area. And when we're thinking about long-term investments in capital infrastructure and services for the Harbors area, it's very important to build and develop in a way that's going to be resilient now and into the future. And one of the main resiliency challenges for the Harbors area is flooding. The photos on the left are a reminder from recent history, tropical storm Debbie back in 2012, which brought

1:37:58with it a lot of disruptive flooding. Approximately 44% of the total land area of the harbors falls within the coastal high hazard area. That's the area below the elevation of a category one hurricane. So that helps us understand the current risks, but there's also the future sea level risks to consider, which can compound the flooding impacts. In this map on the right, we've taken the harbors area and layered in future flooding scenarios. The lightest blue is projected sea level

1:38:28rise in the year 2045, according to NOAA's intermediate high projections. The royal darker blue is sea level rise in 2045 during a king tide, which expands that flooding area a bit further inland. The king tide is is a term used to describe exceptionally high tides that can occur during a new or full moon. And then the darkest blue represents the compounded effects of sea level rise in 2045 plus the impacts of a category three storm

1:38:59surge. So to best prepare the the US 19 corridor for an economically successful and strong future, this theme of resiliency and managing floodwaters was carried through into our conceptual planning and design process.

1:39:16Development form and character. The US 19 corridor itself is like a main artery of activity within Pasco County. For many who live here, they travel frequently on US 19 to get to work, school, home, and for visitors either coming from north or south. US 19 is likely their first impression of Pasco County, and we all know that first impressions are very important. The right development. Development form and character can go a long way towards creating economic growth. Uh today that the strip mall,

1:39:47the the fragmented and automobile oriented style of development does not necessarily inspire economic activity. There are a lot of vacant and underutilized properties, aging building stock, and generally the pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure could be vastly improved so that people feel like they have more options to get around and to do so safely. So that section of the of the plan kind of outlines those those key areas of concern.

1:40:16The economic development section of the report, which begins on page 14, provides a few case study examples of corridor redevelopment plans, highlighting how development form and character can incentivize investments and lead to economic growth. One is the case study of Arlington, Virginia, where they transitioned key activity areas away from this strip mall style. of development where everyone parks in the front. You see a little photo there of that style and could transition to a

1:40:46more walkable urban environment designed to engage people at the street level with form-based codes.

1:40:53That's a vertical mixed use building there on the bottom right? Yes. Thank you.

1:41:00So, for the development of the 3D visualizations, instead of focusing on the entire US 19 corridor, we took a closer look at key activity nodes within the corridor. This method of narrowing into activity nodes is a recommendation from the county's 2013 West Market Area Redevelopment and Infill Plan, also called the Harbors Plan. So the Harbors Plan identifies 13 nodes, but within our project's time frame and scope, we were able to really narrow in on four nodes across the Harbors area,

1:41:30which are listed here from north to south. Number one is the Hudson Avenue node, number two, Golfview Square Mall. Number three, Newport Ritchie, specifically the Gateway District at Main Street, and number four, Universal Plaza. And in the report, we provide development considerations, case studies, we call out potential development opportunities within each of those four nodes, and we highlight vacant parcels and corridor attractions that exist within a half-mile buffer.

1:42:02Within our scope, we were able to develop detailed scenarios for two of those nodes. The first being the Golfview Square Mall, which has been in decline over the years. There are many vacancies within the mall and then flooding challenges surrounding the mall. So the decline of malls isn't just a local problem. It's felt across the country for many different reasons, particularly online shopping. COVID certainly doesn't help. This trend to redevelop malls into more

1:42:32like town centers, walkable, more urban environments is the path we took for the modeling here. So we developed a new site plan based on the visioning work that was done for the county's harbors plan back in 2013. The site plan incorporates a mix of uses in the more urban block style of development, so with wide sidewalks and alleyways, and then we created this 3D model to visualize how much space this area really contains around 85 acres, which

1:43:02You can do a lot with 85 acres, and ideas for what can be done within that space. So a reminder, these 3D visualizations are purely conceptual, they're just ideas, but they're useful for community planning, they're useful for beginning to have these conversations. So I'm gonna fly you through the model in in just a minute, but but but first Let's talk about Universal Plaza. We did the same thing with this site in holiday. It's about 15 acres in comparison. And also a lot of commercial

1:43:32vacancies, a lot of flooding challenges at this site. We created a 3D model to visualize a more walkable, mixed-use environment that can blend in and provide recreational amenities to the surrounding neighborhood.

1:43:50So now uh with uh staff's help, if you could please pull up that a short video.

1:43:58I'm gonna take you on a virtual helicopter tour. It's not gonna be pretty. It's a a shortened video. The the full length video is about eleven minutes. It's on our our YouTube channel. And of course we'll provide the county with the original files for both the short and long videos. You can go ahead.

1:44:17So the shortened version starts here. This is a Google helicopter view uh flying through US nineteen corridor. I think the footage is about it's not the most recent footage and maybe we've got to be able to do that. Sam's club on the right. Coming up on fifty

1:44:30four.

1:44:31Mm-hmm.

1:44:34So we wanted to give a perspective of, you know, flying through the corridor, you can see a lot of different sorts of styles of development. And I wanna thank the the county for this drone footage. It was taking back to the plaza.

1:44:47This is the Universal Plaza site, north of Moog Road and uh by US nineteen. You can see that there's really close proximity to established neighborhood.

1:45:01If it were raining that day you'd see a lot of standing flood water. And we're just moving behind behind these commercial properties. You can see the retention pond there. And now we're flying into the conceptual space where we looked at a rede redefined site plan so we can add some more connectivity throughout the site. It's more of a block style development. It can integrate into the neighborhoods that surround it. Um We have a lot of vegetative buffer, buffering

1:45:31the commercial uses and the more intense uses from the neighborhood with a active recreational space, a park, a dog park, a expanded retention pond to help with the flooding issues.

1:45:44So that was the the first concept. Second, Golfview Square Mall. And I think this drone footage is really, really interesting to look at. A lot of surface parking spaces. You can see the new um well somewhat new apartment complex that's there on the northern part of the site. And then of course the the Salt Springs State Park is an incredible cultural and environmental amenity that's just beyond the site. And I think there's a lot of opportunity

1:46:14to connect people and you know incentivize developments that uh housing developments in particular that may may be an attractive amenity for people to live right by there.

1:46:24Sarah, can you freeze that just for a second?

1:46:26Oh maybe our staff can help. There we go.

1:46:29So if you take a look at the back of the mall, when the apartments came in, I was trying to get them to say, you know, go as high as you can. Right, no height restriction, go as high as you can. Get the views. Darrell LeClaire who developed Carol on Parkway When he came to Pasco County and met with the EDC and the County Commission, said you gotta go high, you gotta go high. US nineteen is so close to the water. pushing that as far as your three D's to say If you go higher, you'll get much more value for these properties.

1:46:56Absolutely. And you'll see that in just a second. And that's a really good point because this site also has flooding issues and if it were a rainy day there'd be a lot of standing water right where that truck was. But we explored different ways to w with height to, you know, elevate the buildings so that if they're, you know, during the flood situations, the most critical components of a building are on the first floor. They're safe. They're on the second, third floors. Um anything that's on the first floor is is in a sense floodable. It could be a a parking uh space. And

1:47:26then different sorts of amenities come through the site in the the concept plan. really engaging with outdoor retail as as we notice there's a trend moving in that direction. So you don't oh just

1:47:38real quick, um what I notice is they've already started tearing down part of the mall to start building the multifamilies and the apartments behind there. So are they gonna just gonna continue to slowly deteriorate them all as they build. 'Cause I didn't notice that they've taken away J C Penny's and some of the things that's the right-of-way.

1:47:58That was not necessarily the scope of their study.

1:47:59Right, right. Oh. Yeah. This is just conceptual. This is what Well, you can see it as it's growing into a nicer area, is the point.

1:48:07Yeah, that that's sort of phased approach, I think, is is an organic way to make a big change in this area. It wouldn't happen all overnight. But um yeah, this is just uh it can be used to kind of have conversations with developers and the county can kind of guide the the vision and saying that we want a more resilient, flood proof sort of concept design that's mixed use, it's walkable. This is more like a town center. It's an extension of you know the town versus this is the only this is the place you go to shop. You can live

1:48:37workshop in this same environment. Great. So that was the the thinking beyond the concept. And I do have a few more slides before we wrap up. And then I'll let the take questions.

1:48:56I was just in West Palm Beach and that's exactly what they've done to revitalize their downtown. So amazing what they've done in West Palm Beach.

1:49:04So um my role is is a a lot of the the technical side of things, the 3D visioning is is where I play a big role in this and then we have merged with our economic development staff to to think about, okay, this looks really nice, but what might be the ecmo economic impacts of such style of development? So there are uh topics within the plan that that cover that as well. So we have three recommendations. All three can better position the US 19 corridor for success in the 21st century and make it a corridor for economic

1:49:35activity, livability, and resilience. The first one is to prioritize mixed-use walkable developments. Transitioning key nodes from the suburban form to a more urban form. And this can be done by narrowing in on those key activity centers, developing partnerships with stakeholders in those areas. It doesn't happen overnight, but you know, you create small area plans, you make sure that the county and the public is leading the charge in formalizing a vision and development requirements for these areas.

1:50:08The second is to prioritize economic development and workforce housing. These new developments should integrate into the surrounding area and provide uses that complement housing and existing and new businesses. Page 46 of the report provides an overview of some of the economic analysis of these impacts of developing vacant or blighted land into more useful and community-supportive projects. and how the county's tax revenue can be affected by this.

1:50:37And finally, prioritizing sustainable and resilient development. We need to find ways to avoid or soften the blow when these flooding events occur. So we can do this by prioritizing more resilient construction and site design practices. Like I mentioned, elevating the essential functions of buildings, designing areas to retain water purposefully that don't have to just look like a retention pond. can be an active public space as well. So that uh if or when a hurricane

1:51:07comes through, the flooding that's experienced is less impactful and importantly expensive to deal with.

1:51:16So, in closing, it's a very exciting time to be in Pasco County. The Amazon announcement is very exciting. Our hope is that these visualizations and the technical analysis that went into these can generate interest and inspire modern 21st century projects that can stimulate economic growth and success in our US-19 corridor. And with that, I welcome any questions and discussion and thank you very much for your attention.

1:51:45Yes.

1:51:45You know, years ago probably when the study started, um I don't know if you guys had all the data as far as all the improvements we made in the flooding up and down. Uh right across the street, Holiday Hills used to flood out. There was a plan for thirty years at Seth The commission found a way to go through, solve the pro solve the problem there. In the back of the mall there was actually a pipe. that's under the dirt road that was going through as you access the back there that was plugged. And they left it there. That's been removed, the water tends to flow out. To the north of it, Scenic

1:52:16Drive, we cleared that out so the water can flow. We did one side of the road once, the next side. Cleared all that out. Um a lot of the flooding that we've had From Iron Bark, Ray Birch, um Timber Oak, Jasmine Lakes, Palm Terrace will be solved as we're taking over the F J plant. A lot of those things have actually been uh fixed quite well. Uh we just had a big storm that I think everybody got a phone call on from Anthony Fossa. that a king tide was coming in, the winds were coming in, they were afraid up and down what was gonna happen at two to two to six in

1:52:46the morning. And pretty much from the people I talked to really nothing negatively h hurt us. So those king tides even with I th I think the things we've done has gone on. So As much as you even think about having to build those structures up In these past few years, even with the biggest storms coming in, Relatively there could be a couple of spots there, but we've got actually a good a I think a good drainage system that's actually working on that area now. So as far as like bringing stuff in the right-of-way, I'd hate to see the flooding be a big part of the presentation as we're going forward

1:53:16because like I said, a lot of these things are being solved, have been solved, and it's a better situation than it was ten years ago.

1:53:24Absolutely. That that's great to hear. And one one other thing about the elevating of the buildings I forgot to mention is, you know, there's the the flooding concern, you know, resiliency issues, but also sight lines and just beyond the the mall is a beautiful view of the Gulf. So it's it's you know, once you reach a higher elevation you can imagine the amenity of the the sight lines. So I I think there's a lot of ways to think about increasing the heights of buildings and doing so in a uh designed way that's attractive.

1:53:52Yeah. if we could ever tweak this to show that height, especially in the back buildings I A primary one would be like the Sears building that's been sitting and actually the apartment guy actually tried to negotiate with them. They couldn't get to the numbers they wanted to make it work for him, he said. Uh so now he's actually looking close to the hospital. But that's a classic one of going up to six, seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve, whatever it is, and every one of those stories after like the third story. You've got a gorgeous sunset view every night. So thank you.

1:54:20Thank you. And I think another challenge in that area too is to get um to deal with the septic to sewer. We got a lot of people on the coastline that are on septic. That that needs to that needs to switch. Okay, thank you so much. I'm gonna call you I'm a member of the ULI and I'm a hundred percent um with you guys on on w what I think it's gonna take to reactivate uh uh nineteen. And um I I would just say in my opinion the the plan hat was too car

1:54:50centric. So I just want to talk to you about being more pedestrian friendly and it's less costly to build all those roads and there's more space available if we take out some of those roads. So I would just make that comment.

1:55:02Yeah. Yeah thank you. Mm-hmm.

1:55:04Thank you very much. Thanks, David. Thank you, David.

1:55:07Oh David, you're not speaking anymore? Wait a minute, come back up here. Well well I just want okay, I'm not gonna let too many c I'm not gonna let any cats out of the bag. Uh except to say say at a very high level, David, very, very high level. Can we talk about anything about nineteen?

1:55:23Well what we can say is Because we are focused on strategic deliverables, we are in proactive conversations with several shopping center owners and some developers, and we are working now on an eight-story mixed vertically mixed use integrated building on an existing shopping center property which will be demolished. But it's again it's we're working with uh with the developer and the landowner and we don't have a project yet. And there's other and but we're also getting

1:55:53organic interest in developing Route 19. Uh we have another inquiry from uh the state that's looking for uh high rise construction along the Gulf, fifteen to twenty story towers. And uh all of the shopping centers, the important locations on Route 19 are now under analysis by developers.

1:56:15I mean we're getting some some of the big players from New York and Miami coming in. Uh it's it's it's very exciting and I think I think the next year uh on the nineteen corridor Um is gonna be real fun to be working on. Well

1:56:28that's why I preface to say we're at an inflection point.

1:56:31Yeah, yeah, it's really exciting what's coming. So

1:56:34thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.