ST. PETERSBURG – A gateway from the beach onto what’s been called the city’s central business artery isn’t much to look at.

There is a small waterfront park, then a broad four-lane strip of asphalt, a few trees, convenience stores, strip centers, a scattering of boutique stores and restaurants.

There’s been a lot of talk about transforming these westernmost blocks of Central Avenue into a collection of pedestrian-friendly shops – another main street to bookend the successful downtown business district.

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Tampa Tribune – It started out as a circled date on the calendar: May 4. The occasion: the Saturday night performance of “War Horse” at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. It ended with hailing a late-night cab on Tampa Street.

Variations, as it turned out, on a theme.

The Tony Award-winning “War Horse” was as promised. It was enchanting and moving, a marvel of evocative, period-piece design and spectacular effects — most notably, of course, the equine puppetry. Expertly manipulated and choreographed, the horses fascinated as characters capable of animation as well as nuance. My wife and I exchanged subtle fist bumps for remembering to bring binoculars.

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Florida City officials plan to sell 22 lots in a neighborhood known as the “Snakepit” to a developer who will build up to 100 apartments on them.

The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency wants to sell the lots, totaling about 5.2 acres, to Blue Heaven Villas LLC, whose owner is involved in another redevelopment project for the city.

The neighborhood’s name owes to the fact that gas company employees sometimes find snakes curled up in the meters when they come to read them. The area includes a scattering of homes and small businesses bordered roughly by Northwest Seventh Avenue, Northwest 14th Street and Lucy Street. The Snakepit streetscape bespeaks hard lives and times; some lots have been vacant since Hurricane Andrew swept through South Miami-Dade in 1992.

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Not many people lived in the area when J.J. Wilder cultivated bees at 1915 Manatee Ave. W.

The house, built in 1914, is among five buildings on nearly two acres scheduled for demolition this week to make room for a bank.

Like other parts of the region, the real estate bust hit the corner, which borders the Wares Creek residential neighborhood, and the properties were neglected. The other buildings are at 1901 to 1905 Manatee Ave. W., 516 to 518 19th St. W. and 1916 Sixth Ave. W.

Bank of the Ozarks, which acquired the property in December through foreclosure, plans to build a two-story, 19-office, 10,555-square-foot building to use as its Manatee County headquarters.

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TEMPLE TERRACE – City leaders and a developer of a $150 million downtown district project are having trouble seeing eye-to-eye.

While Vlass Temple Terrace officials suggest it may be time to pull out of the project, city leaders said this week they are still waiting for construction to begin on an arts center and an adjacent retail complex.

On Tuesday, Temple Terrace City Council members directed their attorney to draft a default notice to Vlass, reminding the developer of its obligations to satisfy provisions of an agreement reached with the city in 2010 for the projects.

Mayor Frank Chillura said the letter is not intended to sever the relationship with the developer but only to protect the city’s interest.

“Our goal is to have a viable redevelopment project and have Vlass as the exclusive developer,” Chillura said.

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The Lee County commission decided Monday to hold a public hearing at an upcoming regular meeting on whether to delegate authority to Bonita Springs to create a downtown Community Redevelopment Area.

Bonita officials propose spending $15.6 million to spur business activity — $8.3 million for a centralized drainage system, $5.6 million for parking on side streets and widening Old 41 Road to create medians and possibly a roundabout, $1 million for green space and $700,000 for sidewalks.

Bonita would pay for it with county and city property taxes received above a base-year amount.

“We really pride ourselves on our partnership with you,” said Bonita Mayor Ben Nelson, one of four council members who attended Monday’s commission planning meeting. “This is a business deal that you will not regret. We are here to make you money.”

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It will be a bittersweet parting for Mary Beth Harris, when she leaves her job this summer as executive director of the MainStreet DeLand Association.

Harris notified the organization’s board of directors May 3 that her family would be moving to Punta Gorda, after her husband, Ty Harris, accepted a job as assistant county attorney for Charlotte County.

Mary Beth Harris plans to keep working until June 15 for MainStreet, a city-supported nonprofit that promotes Downtown DeLand and stages events to bring people to the central shopping district.

“I’m going to miss DeLand and my family here, but I’m very excited for Ty and this new chapter in our lives,” Mary Beth Harris said. “We’ll always have ties to Volusia County. My parents are here, and Ty’s mom is here. We’ll be back to visit.”

Harris took the reins at MainStreet in December 2012, after Executive Director Jack

Becker retired. Before that, she spent a year as assistant director. Before that, Harris had been a MainStreet volunteer for 15 years.

The MainStreet Association will immediately begin the job of accepting applications and hiring a new executive director. Advertising of the job began May 8, and by the end of that day, XX applications had already been received. The job pays between $35,000 and $45,000.

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Oviedo moves toward major facelift by creating new urban center

OVIEDO — Sprawling suburban neighborhoods define Oviedo today, but city officials are looking toward a new, urban image for tomorrow.

A well-planned jumble of multi-story commercial and retail buildings would rise in several densely developed city centers. Except for the modern gloss, they might look as though they had been there 100 years.

Rows of town homes with no front yards would crowd nearby tree-lined streets. Neighborhood parks would provide communal recreation, and residents could walk to shops and restaurants.

And a different mix of people might inhabit the town, which now tends toward families with young children. Professional 20-somethings and well-heeled retirees might fill in on either end of the spectrum.

That’s part of the vision of city officials, who are considering stringent new building codes for certain areas of Oviedo in order to make their plan happen.

PANAMA CITY — Adding Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Health System to the county’s tax roll will generate more than a million dollars in tax revenue for local governments next year.

But, Bay County coffers will see only about $69,000 of the newfound money.

The lion’s share — $754,000 — will go to the Downtown North Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), more than doubling the agency’s annual budget each year for the foreseeable future. At least one county official argued the windfall would be better spent throughout Bay County, while city officials said concentrating the funds to the one area would be more beneficial.

At this point, though, it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks, because distribution of the money already has been determined.

Preliminary numbers released by Property Appraiser Don Sowell show placing Bay Med on the tax roll will add about $98 million to the total taxable property in Bay County, ranking third on the list of highest taxable values in the county.

“At one time they (commissioners) considered it an advantage because the county would get the money,” said County Commission Chairman George Gainer. “My biggest objection was it wasn’t written down.”

Gainer was the sole dissenting vote when the county approved a 60-year lease of Bay Medical in February 2012. At the time, Gainer said: “The dullest pencil is better than the sharpest memory,” he said.

Contract

When Bay Med went private, county officials did not draft a contract outlining where county tax revenues of about $366,000 and city tax revenues of about $388,000 would go. Without a contract, the default automatically routes the sum as Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds to the Downtown North CRA.

“The property taxes make up our tax base, and that’s what we use to pave roads and do all the county functions,” Gainer said. “In this case, that money goes into the CRA and is not allowed to spread out through the county.”

TIF funds are generated by property value increases after a certain baseline date. In Panama City, these dates are the respective beginnings of each CRA. Though Bay Med was chartered in 1949 as Memorial Hospital of Bay County, it was public and not subject to city or county taxes because it was not-for-profit. When Bay Med became private/for-profit, the value of the entire structure and the tangible property within became taxable.

The injection of tax dollars will more than double Downtown North’s revenue of $539,982.70 for next year. The district, established in 1993 and spanning an area from U.S. 231 and East Avenue to Glenwood to Beach Drive, already draws in the most revenue of the four CRAs. It also has the largest carried forward funds of about $1.7 million, though it is the second latest CRA created in Panama City.

“The district is massive compared to other areas,” said William Whitson, CRA director. “It is going to naturally generate more TIFs, and we are starting to make headway in the area.”

Dollar commitments are strictly designated to the CRA district of which they originated, according to state law — even when one district greatly outweighs another in revenue. Bay Med revenue into the Downtown North district will make its annual income nearly five times that of the Downtown CRA, the oldest and most revenue poor of the four CRAs with about $260,000 incoming in 2012.

At least the county will not walk away empty-handed, as each year it will receive about $69,000 for taxes on equipment within Bay Med.

Not affected by TIF is the Bay District Schools district, which will get a total of $818,000 in new money from taxes on Bay Med. Of that amount, $618,000 is classified as “required local effort,” which means the state determines how it will be spent; how the remaining $200,000 will be budgeted is up to local school district officials.

Funding plans

Infrastructure needs, such as sidewalks, water, sewer, streetscapes, a master stormwater plan, as well as community police, code enforcement and development of the African-American cultural corridor, were cited as possible expenditures for the funds.

“It’ll give us the ability to do more things and have more things on the table knowing we are getting more money,” said Mayor Greg Brudnicki. “It gives you the backing to plan for things you otherwise wouldn’t be so bold to plan for.”

Brudnicki said the city wants to work with the county on mutually beneficial projects.

“We’re still going to work with the county and there are going to be things we both want done,” Brudnicki said. “Those opportunities are going to cross our paths in the future, and it doesn’t mean it is not going to benefit the county.”

Whitson agreed the funds would benefit both parties as the county and city jurisdictions overlap.

“I would not say from our perspective the county lost out,” Whitson said. “This is our opportunity to do projects and lift these areas up.”

Specific plans for the additional money will be designated during the budgeting period in the fall.

“It’s done now and we have to make the best of it,” Gainer said. “I’ve got every reason to believe it will work and we want to be part of their success and wish them the best of luck.”

County and city TIF revenues for Panama City CRAs in fiscal year 2012:

Downtown (created 1984): $259,703 (carry forward – $410,900)

Downtown North (1993): $539,982.70 ($1,658,817.28)

Millville (2004): $272,557.25 ($446,229.14)

St. Andrews (1989): $358,502 ($119,733)

Total exempt value of property in the county as of April 15 was $4,830,610,528. Areas within Panama City but outside CRA districts’ property tax revenues go to the county or city general fund.

Growth From 2011-2012:

- Downtown CRA grants and vouchers increased by 802 percent from $25,000 to $225,594.

- Downtown North CRA grants and vouchers decreased by 13 percent from $75,000 to $65,000.

- Millville CRA grants and vouchers increased by 113 percent from $30,000 to $70,000.

- St. Andrews grants increased by 88 percent from $32,000 to $60,000.

Top property tax payers in Bay County as of Jan. 4, listed by taxable value:

1. Gulf Power Company: $249,419,234

2. St. Joseph Land & Dev. Co.: $150,082,684

*3. Laketown Wharf Marketing: $66,622,640

4. Pier Park, LLC: $65,882,365

5. Smurfit Stone Container: $62,076,590

6. Arizona Chemical Co.: $46,164,001

7. Marriott Ownership Resorts: $42,061,767

8. Hilton Company/Gac/Gulf Asphalt: $38,027,243

9. Gulf Coast Electric Coop: $37,650,347

10. Wyndham Vacation Resorts Inc.: $36,482,818

*Bay Med would rank third on the list, at $98 million

Breakdown of Bay Med Tax Dollars

Real Property (county and city revenue goes to downtown north cra)

-County: $366,000

-City: $388,000

-School District Required Local Effort: $520,000

-School District Discretionary: 168,000

-Northwest Florida Water Management District: $4,000

-County Mosquito Control: $15,000

Tangible Personal Property Tax

-County: $69,000

-City: $73,000

-School District Required Local Effort: $98,000

-School District Discretionary: 32,000

-Northwest Florida Water Management District: $757