C.O.N.A. of South Pinellas County

"Tis Spring and a young man's fancy..."

Apr 19, 2004

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dear Neighbors:

Brent Fisher was right when he told me that being CONA President takes all the time a person is willing to commit. The CONA agenda has already been effective in clarifying our goals and many issues are moving forward. It is a lot more fun to push for a positive change than to react to other's plans. We are getting a good reception with the city leaders. They are reacting and attempting to help meet some of our goals. VISION 2020 will be coming back in June.

The proposed ordinances for urban and suburban neighborhoods should be ready for our reaction within 6 weeks. Bob Jeffrey, the city's point man on this project, asked if we would co-sponsor 2 evenings in June to allow him to show us the proposed zoning language for the urban and suburban neighborhoods. Although the paper has not reported this much, a rewrite of all the zoning in town will have more impact over 20 years than anything else we do this year.

We are following up the codes meeting with a codes committee that Kai Warren agreed to lead. We expect to push, pull and prod the city to improve the process of getting properties up to code. Our thanks to everyone who was on the panel last month. The members were VERY constructive in their comments. We intend to finish this year with a clearly better codes enforcement process with everyone's help. Clearly, it will take management policy changes, additional funds, higher expectations and perhaps ordinance changes.

One night last week their were three meetings at the same time within 3 blocks of each other that represented the range of issues and opinions in St. Petersburg. I attended a meeting sponsored by ACORN about codes and lighting up and cleaning up alleys in mid-town. At the same time, several neighborhood leaders participated in a early discussion about upgrading Barlett Park and the St. Petersburg Tennis Center. A few blocks away, at still another meeting, the chief of police was defending his efforts to arrest criminals. We live in interesting times.

Sincerely, Karl Nurse
President, CONA


PARTNERSHIP NOTES:
Neighborhood Partnership Office
Susan P. Ajoc, AICP, Director
Neighborhood Partnership Program
City of St. Petersburg
P.O. Box 2842 St. Petersburg, FL 33731-2842
Phone: (727) 892-5141 Fax: (727) 893-5323
Email: Susan.Ajoc@stpete.org

Neighborhood Partnership Awards:
Nominations for Neighborhood Partnership Awards should be submitted now. Categories include, President, Newsletter/Website, Project of the Year and Neighborly Neighbor. The nominee should have been in place from January 2003 -February 1, 2004. For more information, please contact Regenia Wade at 893-7885.

Neighborhood Partnership Matching Grants:
Call your public service representative to set up your appointments to discuss your grant applications! There's less than 5 months before the deadline. Don't wait until the last minute. Deadline is Friday, September 3, 2004 by 5:00 p.m. You can download a copy of the grant at http://www.stpete.org/pdf/ngrant.pdf or contact the Neighborhood Partnership Department at 892-5141.

Neighborhoods USA - Hollywood, Florida:
Interested in attending the national neighborhoods conference? Visit the City of Hollywood site at:
http://www.hollywoodfl.org/housing/pdf/NUSARegistrationForm.pdf to view the registration form. The conference will be held May 27 - 29, 2004.


LAND DEVELOPMENT REGULATIONS
RE-WRITE PROJECT UPDATE:
By Bob Jeffrey

The LDR project is moving along nicely. Staff has received the first draft of the new regulations form Mark White of Freilich Leightner and Charlisle, (our LDR consultant) and has been making revisions to make the ordinance more in keeping with comments heard throughout the public input process and the VISION 2020 Plan. The next step will include public review and approval. When this is complete, the City will initiate the adoption process.

Many of you will recall that two of the goals of this project were to reduce the number of zoning districts and pair the document down to a reasonable size. The good news is that we have cut the number of zoning districts in half. The new districts address the character and quality that you have all expressed during the visioning process. We have also added many more graphics and charts to clearly and succinctly state the purpose behind the rules and regulations.

During the month of May, we will be reviewing the draft with the various committee members who participated in the writing of each of the districts. Those of you that participated in these intensive committees will receive notification from your committee chair person in the next week or two. After each committee has reviewed their work, The City, CONA and Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a series of public input sessions. These sessions will be advertised in the CONA newsletter, by our LDR rewire project e-mail list and through mail outs to neighborhood and business associations. We will also attempt to get press coverage by the local media. These meetings will take place in June. Draft documents will be located throughout the Library system, and in other public buildings and will be available on the City?’s website so that the public has multiple opportunities to review the draft.

Once the community has had opportunity to review the draft, and needed revisions are made, the adoption process will begin. This process will take approximately 8 months as there are several major tasks that will have to be accomplished. The first of which is the need to amend the City?’s Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan contains the Goals, Objectives and Policies which manage and govern the redevelopment and growth of our City and protect the quality of life expressed by the Citizens. This process will also incorporate the Goals Objectives and Policies of the VISION 2020 Plan. Also, a series of public meetings will be held to adopt the New LDR?”s including public hearings in front of the Planning Commission and City Council.

More detailed notifications and dates of public meetings and hearings will be provided to you through the CONA news letter, E-mails and mail outs. In the mean time, thank you for your past and future participation in this project. If you have questions please direct them to Bob.jeffrey@stpete.org or by calling Bob at 551-3254.



North Kentwood Vice-president
Casimiro (Cass) Rael, Sr.
Recipient of 1st Citizen of the Month Award

By Phil Whysong, President, NKNA
On March 11, 2004 before the St. Petersburg City Council and Mayor, Cass was given the 1st Citizen of the Month Award by District 8 City Council Member John "Jay" Lasita. Jay received many nominations and had difficulty deciding who would represent District 8 before the City Council and the Mayor.
Cass has worked tirelessly to help eliminate drug dealing, prostitution and other criminal activity in our neighborhood and other neighborhoods throughout the city. He participates in drug marches and vigils and was instrumental in securing Police Forfeiture Grants for 4 Neighborhood Associations and the 34th Street Business Association. He works very closely with all the businesses in the 34th Street Corridor. Currently the boundaries for this corridor are: 33rd Street North to 35th Street North and from 18th Avenue South to 30th Avenue North. He is also the Vice-President of the North Kenwood Neighborhood Association and is very active in that position. He is the alternate representative from North Kenwood to C.O.N.A.

All Council members will be seeking your input as community leaders to select one individual from your District who you believe should receive this award. This person should be an outstanding individual who you believe contributes the most toward making your neighborhood a better place to live.


Jungle Terrace Vice-President
Ron Russell
Recipient 0f 2nd Citizen of the Month Award

By Lyn Dexter, Secretary, JTCA
Mr. Russell has been the active driving force for the implementation of a real Amber Alert program to the Tampa Bay area. He is ?“thinking outside the box?” as it applies to current Amber Plan programs throughout the country to include commercial industry. He has met with companies to include them on the callout list and be advised when an alert is issued so companies with many trucks on the street (with radio contact from a central dispatch) to widen awareness. Also contacted media sources in an attempt to increase the general public?’s awareness of the program. He as also worked with Mayor Iorio?’s staff so that when an Amber Alert is issued, it will be broadcast to all City employees who have a cell phone, beeper or computer. He is presently working with the City of St. Pete to implement a similar program for their employees. He is further attempting to garner funding for a computerized child finger printing Identification system to be used by Citizens of the City and their guests.


http://stpetecona.org

CONA has a new website. It is still under construction and we need your help. The stpetecona.org address is easy to remember and we hope you will visit it often. Cliff Holensworth is our webmaster, (Thank you Cliff!!) and he will be making regular updates. Cliff?’s email is cholensw@tampabay.rr.com. Please send him comments and suggestions for building a great website. If your neighborhood has a website, please send your information to Cliff so that he can put a link on the CONA site to your neighborhood.

For the near term, we plan on keeping our neighborhoodlink website active too. (http://neighborhoodlink.com/stpetersburg/cona)

http://stpetecona.org


FOLLOW-UP ON CODES TOWN MEETING

By Steve Plice
Our March Town Meeting on Codes was a great success. We had an excellent panel discussion, created a list of ?“issues?” and appointed a committee to insure that we accoplish something more than just talk.

Karl Nurse has appointed Kai Warren to chair our new Codes Committee. The other Committee Members are: Teresa McEachem, Ingrid Comberg, Mort Sherman, Ron Russell, Barbara Heck, Phil Whysong and Shelly Schwartz.

The Committee has already started their work.

Karl says:
My interest is to get the codes committee functioning and inviting the city folks to attend sometimes. I really let them drive it last time. The upside is a rental inspection ordinance that they buy into. The downside is that it took 2 years and is weak.

The codes issues fall into several categories:

1) state law changes - front yard parking. The Mayor's office is working on this. The result would allow St. Pete to issue traffic/parking tickets and skip the code enforcement process.

2) funding - We believe 29 code officers is too few. (It is down from a peak of 33 about five years ago. On the up side, they are bringing on some technology (laptops & cellphones) which should increase productivity.

3) Ordinance changes needed - rental inspections -all

4) Management issues - This may be the guts of the problem. The staff delivered the annual report on codes to city council and included that it should take 118 days from a citizens complaint to the code enforcement board meeting. After I told city council that was not true, codes staff compared the last couple of code enforcement board
meetings and found that it was really between 7-1/2 and 8 months to the board. David Oliver, the #2 guy in the codes officer (manager, I think) is more upfront about where the bottlenecks are. Much of the problem appearsto be paperwork combined with extensions. This may be the area where we need to push to force them to use the
Mayor's performance measures.


CONA Is The Model For Unincorporated Pinellas Neighborhoods

The United Community Associations of Pinellas (UCAP) is an umbrella group for neighborhood associations in unincorporated Pinellas County. Ray Neri, UCAP?’s founder and President, says he used CONA as his model when he formed the organization.

Annexation is one of the concerns causing neighborhoods to organize in unincorporated areas. Typically, these areas have Fire Districts which were formed to create a taxing authority to pay for fire protection. As chunks of the Fire Districts are annexed into surrounding cities, the tax base is eroded and everyone?’s costs go up.

UCAP works with the Pinellas County government and elected officials in much the same way CONA works with the City of St. Petersburg. Their experience and contacts with County officials can be helpful to CONA Members when we are dealing with County issues.

Ray Neri will be a guest speaker at CONA?’s April 21st meeting. He will be discussing neighborhood organizations in Pinellas County?’s unincorporated areas.


FENCES, HEDGES and WALLS
- proposed ordinance change -
After gathering public input concerning regulations for fences, hedges and walls, John Hixenbaugh is developing proposed language for a revised ordinance.

Based on the input, John is proposing the following height limitations in residential areas:

Front Yards - Major Streets
?· 4 feet for a fence or wall of any style
?· 6 feet for a decorative fence or wall which is landscaped
?· 6 feet for a hedge
Front Yards - All other streets
?· 4 feet for a fence or wall of any style
?· 5 feet for a hedge
?· 6 feet for a decorative fence or wall which is landscaped for a property with more than 150 lineal feet of frontage
Side Yards, Street Side Yards, and Rear Yards
?· 6 feet for a fence or wall of any style
?· 10 feet for a hedge
Street Side - Abutting Neighbor?’s Front Yard
?· 4 feet for a fence or wall of any style
?· 5 feet for a hedge
The ordinance is still a ?“work in progress?” and additional input is welcome. Comments or questions should be directed to John Hixenbaugh at 893-7874


PRESERVING OUR RESERVINGOUR NATION'S MEMORIES
By Nan Colton

We are pleased to announce that our ?“Preserving Our Nation?’s Memories?” project has been awarded partial funding by the Florida Humanities Council, the nonprofit statewide program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This humanities grant will enable us to offer this program free and open to the public.

?“Preserving Our Nation?’s Memories?” is a series of activities and events. 20-25 students selected from North Shore Elementary School will interview and record stories from 30 war veterans and workers who served in World Wars 1 and 2, the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf wars

St. Petersburg?’s local population is typical of most urban Florida cities and reflects a vast diversity of cultures, religions, and races. Through the ?“doing?” and ?“talking,?” a wide range of stories will be told. This process allows Floridians, both young and old, of all walks of life, to speak for themselves, explore their history, express their values and life experiences, and share their heritage.

We are looking for both veterans and war workers who are eager to share their memories.

Contact: Nan Colton, Project Director ?– 893-7109
Sunshine City Senior Center


JUNGLE TERRACE OPPOSES
?“Super Wal-Mart?” in the Tyrone Area

At their March meeting, the Jungle Terrace Civic Association voted to oppose a Wal-Mart ?“Super Center?” proposed for the corner of Tyrone Blvd. And Park Street.

There is already a traditional Wal-Mart store on this site. The plan for the larger store includes purchasing 16 acres of land from an adjacent mobile home park. Wal-Mart has made an offer to buy the mobile home park contingent on having the property annexed into the City and re-zoned to allow retail activities.

The County Commissioners have said they want the County to address an application to re-zone the property before considering a request for the City to annex the property. Currently, we are waiting for Wal-Mart to file an application to re-zone the property.

For the Jungle Terrace neighborhood, the over-riding concern is the additional traffic impacts. Tyrone Blvd. Is a ?“constrained?” roadway. Park Street is currently operating at 90 percent of capacity and cannot accept more traffic without exceeding the limits set by the County Comprehensive Plan.

The Jungle Terrace Civic Association believes the Wal-Mart proposal violates the County Comprehensive Plan because of the traffic impacts and because on the intrusion of commercial activities into residential areas. The proposal is also contrary to the City of St. Petersburg?’s Comprehensive Plan. The City plan has the same traffic and intrusion constraints as the County Plan. In addition, the City?’s Comprehensive Plan includes a strict prohibition against creating more commercial property in the City because, according to the Comprehensive Plan. We already have more commercial property than we need.

Finally, the Wal-Mart proposal also is contrary to the Jungle Terrace Neighborhood Plan. The Neighborhood Plan discourages ?“big box?” development and encourages pedestrian friendly developments.

Jungle Terrace will be asking for CONA support in their efforts to oppose the proposed super Wal-Mart.

This issue is a bit more complex than other development proposals because it involves both the City and the County jurisdictions.



CONA BOARD OF DIRECTOR?’S MEETING MINUTES

The Sunshine Multi-ServiceCenter March 17, 2004

?˜ President Karl Nurse called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
?˜ After leading in a brief prayer, the President then explained the format for the evening?’s Town Meeting Program. Our panel of speakers were: Richard D. Kriseman, City Councilman, Mike Dove, Deputy Mayor-Neighborhood Services, Mark Winn, Chief Asst. City Attorney, Sheldon Schwartz, Codes Enforcement Board, Robert Miles, Codes Compliance/Demolition.
?˜ With our announced theme of ?“Codes Compliance and Enforcement?”, Vice Mayor Mike Dove opened our discussion with a statistical summary of Codes Compliance progress. Reducing the old cases backlog and introducing some hi-tech efficiencies were foremost.
?˜ Councilman Kriseman spoke next focusing on the work of the Public Safety/Public Service & Inspections (P.S.P.S.&I), Board and their work to improve codes enforcement.
?˜ We next heard from Bob Miles who described his work in coordinating property demolitions as the ?“End of the line?” for problem buildings who fail to correct cited violations.
?˜ Sheldon Schwartz next urged us to form a volunteer CONA committee to assist private home owners who are unable to make repairs to their property that have been cited in violation of codes. He drew our attention to an article that he contributed to the CONA Newsletter.
?˜ City Attorney Mike Winn cited the close coordination that is required between his department and the many facets of Codes Enforcement.
?˜ An extended period of questions for our panel from the floor followed.
> The Codes Board only allows 15 days for correction prior to imposing penalties.
> Codes Enforcement hearings are open to the public. The duration of the infraction cannot legally be cited.
> Unrestricted property access by Codes or Police violates 4th Amendment rights.
> Photo/video evidence is not required to summon Codes to investigate a claim.
> Progress of Codes complaints can now be monitored on the city Web site.
> Citywide code enforcement sweeps were abandoned as inefficient and very unpopular.
> Some neighborhood associations have a Codes Committee to document worst violators.
> Codes Enforcement Board has one open seat, but must be filled by a contractor volunteer.
> Reference to State Licensing Board can avoid dealing with fly-by-night contractors.
> All are invited to the next P.S.P.S.&I meeting, 11 AM at City Hall, Thursday May 13.
> Sanitation not Codes is now responsible for removing ?“Snipe Signs?”.
?˜ Closing comments by our guest panelists
> :[Schwartz] The city needs the cooperation of our neighborhood associations to enforce codes.
> [Winn] We need to contact our representatives in Tallahassee to defeat a motion to impose a $200 fee for court recording of codes citations.
> [Dove] ?“This Town Meeting?” was not as difficult as I had expected?”.
> [Kriseman] We need legislation to prosecute the large-scale codes offenders as felonies.
> [Miles] ?“I feel your pain?”.
?˜ Treasurer Libby Steele reported that only 24 neighborhood associations have paid their dues for the current year.
?˜ Theresa McEachern invited all to the Mayor?’s Pancake Breakfast at the YMCA, (2421 Fourth Street South]
?˜ Current members of the CONA Leadership Class were invited to introduce themselves to our meeting.
?˜ Susan Ajoc, (Director, Neighborhood Partnership), announced that the Neighborhood Awards Program will be held on April 30th.
?˜ Representatives of The Audubon Society appealed for invitations to speak at neighborhood meetings.
?˜ CONA President Karl Nurse echoed that willingness to speak at neighborhood association meetings.
?˜ Ron Russell, (Jungle Terrace), asked for volunteers to make telephone calls to solicit appeals to the Governor for more urgent implementation of our Amber Alert System

Our meeting closed at 9:00 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Conrad Weiser, Secretary

[Secretary?’s Note: The above report is a distillation of eight pages of notes recorded at our Town Meeting.]