Safety Harbor is charming. It has the potential to be one of the few walkable communities in the Tampa Bay area. But it is not perfect. What is Smart Growth?
Charm Lab Safety Harbor is a community of residents working to promote the vision of a more vibrant, walkable and sustainable and safer community while protecting our small town charm. Our community needs to have a plan, a plan anchored in an understanding of Urban Planning principles and sound, researched and informed strategies. We cannot base our future on fear of change, xenophobia or by stick
ing our heads in the sand and pretending that distressed properties don’t exist or that our main street is not struggling. We believe that we must listen to Urban Planners, architects and sociologists that have spent their entire professional lives researching, living and breathing community revitalization strategies. The vision for our future cannot be 1974. Our common goal is a successful and vibrant, charming, tree lined, small town, walkable community. Our concern is that fear and misinformation have put us on a path which will halt recent progress and will take us in the opposite direction of our common goal. The Smart Growth Network developed a set of 10 principles to guide smart growth strategies.
1) Mix land uses.- mix of stores, jobs and homes
2) Take advantage of compact building design. Use land efficiently, multi-story buildings to define space and make streets attractive (2-3 story buildings along Main Street with housing or offices above retail, Townhouses, duplexes on smaller lots.) more residents and workers provide regular customers for downtown business and help keep it safe and active.
3) Create a range of housing opportunities and choices. Not everyone wants the same thing. Communities should offer a range of options for all income levels, houses, condominiums, townhouses, apartments etc.
4) Create walkable neighborhoods. Not just the opportunity to walk, but something to walk to, such as a corner store, shops and restaurants. A majority of your weekly needs should be within walking distance. Walkable neighborhoods contribute to a sense o community because neighbors get to know each other, not just each other’s cars.
5) Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place. Protect and promote what makes Safety Harbor special. (Main Street, the Marina, the Gazebo, the linear park, the Baranoff Oak, Waterfront park, Philippe Park, historic homes)
6) Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas. People like to stay connected to nature and take action to protect waterways, ecosystems and wildlife.
7) Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities. Looks for opportunities to grow in already built-up areas before developing more forest areas or farms.
8) Provide a variety of transportation choices. – safe and reliable public transportation, sidewalks and bike paths.
9) Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective. Builders wishing to implement Smart Growth should face no more obstacles than those contributing to sprawl. In fact, communities should choose to provide incentives for smarter development.
10) Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions. Plans developed without citizen involvement do not have staying power. Sources:
Smart Growth America (www.smartgrowthamerica.org)
The Smart Growth Manual ( Duany, Speck, Lydon) www.Smartgrowth.org www.epa.gov/smartgrowth
Congress for the New Urbanism (www.cnu.org) www.newurbanism.org
