Nicholas Knight

Most folks agree that the car lot on Florida Avenue at Idlewild is an eyesore. Surrounded by a rusting chain-link fence and filled with less-than-new vehicles, ABC Auto Sales makes anything but a positive contribution to the neighborhood’s ambience.

However, a proposal by an out-of-state developer for the lot has struck a nerve.

The developer, Indianapolis-based Milhaus, proposes a five-floor building on the site with 84 apartment units and 7,300 square feet of restaurant/retail. For some in the community, the complex is an idea whose time has come, providing an infusion of new residents and businesses. For others, the proposal is fraught with danger signs.

“Traffic, precedence in the neighborhood, and parking are the major issues that make me believe that this project is not the correct fit for our neighborhood,” explains Chris Couture, whose home would be in close proximity to the mixed-use development. He feels strongly enough to have established an email address, NoMilhausinSeminoleHeights@gmail.com, to provide information and rally the opposition.

Three “official” groups are actively engaged in debating the proposal, which is due to be presented in a zoning hearing at 6 p.m. on Thursday, January 19 , during February or March,at Council Chambers in City Hall at 315 E Kennedy Boulevard. (UPDATED: This hearing has been postponed to a later date TBD.)

United Residents for Better Neighborhoods (URBN Tampa Bay) is a nonpartisan grass-roots group advocating for better urban development patterns in the Bay area. Organized for over a year, this group unabashedly supports transit and the density to make it a reality. On their Facebook page, they call for a litany of improvements: “Less sprawl. More greenspace. Less neighborhood destruction. More placemaking. Fewer lane miles. More transit. Less settling. More success.”

But its members are by no means unanimous in their assessment of the Milhaus development. On one hand, they’re committed to a level of pedestrian-friendliness (translation: shade) which the site plan doesn’t seem to provide. But they recognize that there have been virtually no new and dense projects anywhere in Seminole Heights, with the exception of the Warehouse, which contains 54 apartments in a renovated three-story commercial building. And even though the Milhaus design is nothing to write home about, they point out it’s certainly better than a used car lot.

Milhaus

Local business leaders have founded their own group, the Heights Urban Core Chamber-Business Guild of Seminole Heights. For them, 84 new apartments represents potential customers, and new restaurants and retail operations look like potential Guild members. No surprise here — they think this project is grand.

The Seminole Heights Civic Association’s Land Use Committee is wrestling with this issue, too. They have concerns with the height (five instead of Vision Plan’s max of four) and aesthetics (more contemporary than the neighborhood’s Deco and Craftsman-style architecture). But the biggest issue for them is parking.

How many customers for the restaurant will walk? How many will ride bikes? Or park huge SUVs in compact spaces? The current proposal has a table of parking requirements and calculations so complicated it would make a PhD swoon. My basic take is that every apartment will have one space and the restaurant will have 20 — oy!

The spillover from Ella’s, The Refinery, and The Front Porch has already freaked out some of their neighbors. The truth is that if we are ever to have transit in Tampa, we need successful walking, biking and transit-using neighborhoods. Florida Avenue is a key north-south corridor and is overripe for redevelopment.

This proposal by Milhaus is in many ways a test case for the critical questions: How high? How many floors? How much on-site parking? What design? What materials? What kind of shade and landscaping and hardscape?

After working as an urban planner writing zoning recommendations and 20 years as a member of Tampa City Council, my preferences are clear. The city should not approve the Milhaus proposal until the developer adds parking, removes a floor, redesigns the building to include a continuing balcony or awning along Florida Avenue, adds trees and makes the building more Seminole Heights sympatico. To paraphrase the URBN manifesto: “Don’t settle!”