Redeveloping North Port St. Joe implementing the community’s plan

APPENDIX

Next steps

Maintaining the momentum of Phase 1 December, 2016

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

Acknowledgements

Board of directors Chester Davis - PresidentDannie Bolden - Vice PresidentLetha Mathews - TreasurerIris Gathers - Secretary

Sub-committees Economic DevelopmentOtis Stallworth - ChairDannie BoldenCharles GathersTan SmileyEducation and Workforce DevelopmentJohnny Bryant -ChairJai BryantLois ByrdDeborah CrosbyWillie AshLynn PetersTourist DevelopmentTimothy Pittman - ChairJohnna PittmanVince Addison

Affordable HousingDannie Bolden - ChairChester DavisDannie Bolden IIFinanacial LiteracyJames Chambers - ChairInez MathewsDavid WoodsJai BryantBeverly AshPublic worksInez Mathews - ChairLewis VereenDannie BoldenPublic relationsWillie AshDannie Bolden II

Trustees Leroy Davis - ChairMarty Lanahan - Vice ChairThomas H. JeavonsRev, Eddie E. JonesDavid LlewellynMary K. Philips

Staff Sherry P. Magill, PresidentKatie Ensign, Senior Program Officer

Board of directors David AshbrookRex Buzzett - ChairKaye HaddockBill KennedyBrett LoweryBo Patterson - Vice ChairAndy SmithWilliam Thursbay

Consultant team WIM Associates, Inc. (Walter Miller - project leader)PacificXanh (John Hendry, Philip Giang)

PORT ST. JOE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY

North Port St. Joe

P . A . C project area committee

Table of contents

Introduction

The infrastructure of change Community priorities

Redevelopment priorities

01 02

07 12

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North Port St. Joe

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

The next steps for the community and its plan

In the first Port St Joe Redevelopment Agency Plan, produced in 1989, its objectives included: ‘Prepare neighborhood studies to encourage rehabilitation and strengthening of neighborhoods.’ Twenty years later, the Agency’s 62-page Plan reported that this objective was ‘Not yet implemented’.

The Redevelopment Agency’s July 2009 Plan went on to state that its role was to ‘..harmonize the shared community concerns and objectives as articulated…’ in seven preceding plans, including the 2009 North Port St. Joe Master Plan.

In 2016, the response of the residents of North Port St. Joe to the Agency’s objective to harmonize its numerous plans is simple: Not yet implemented.

1

A community redevelopment plan must have a realistic implementation element and motivated citizens ready to execute it. This is why it is vital that the momentum built around the 2016 Plan is maintained. The formation of the North Port St. Joe Project Area Committee has culminated in an illustrated Conceptual Master Plan supported by a clear narrative about the principals along which the community would like redevelopment to proceed . The following pages propose the next steps for moving this Plan forward.

A community redevelopment plan must have a realistic implementation element and motivated citizens ready to execute it.

Expansion area 2010

Downtown redevelopment

area 1989

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

The infrastructure of change

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The P.A.C.

The Community Development Corporation

Port St. Joe Redevelopment

Agency

Stakeholder Groups

The PAC must have credibility and impetus if it is to maintain the support of the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency and local stakeholder groups. It also needs the fund-raising and implementation capabilities of a Community Development Corporation. These connections have been strengthened in Phase 1 and, in the case of the CDC, have resulted in the reinstatement of a dormant entity as an active agency.

The PAC, on its own, will struggle to achieve its objectives . It must continue to develop a support network of local and regional government entities, as well as other stakeholders, to create an infrastructure of change.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

The infrastructure of change: Reinforce the PAC

3

The PAC has achieved much since its inception at the beginning of 2016. However, the PAC must grow its membership in order to maintain momentum. Community involvement in this planning process has helped build alliances and the respect of the City’s leaders over the past six months.

1. Augment the role of the committees. The PAC’s committees should be driving its policy and implementing its mission. The committees must be empowered so that the knowledge and experience of their members can be recognized and utilized to the full.

2. Expand the PAC and increase its influence by involving the local network of churches in the redevelopment process.

3. Prioritize the funding and search for a full-time community worker able to represent the PAC.

What the PAC has achieved in less than a year is remarkable. Increasing its representation of the neighborhood remains a priority and this will require help.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

The infrastructure of change: Continue activating the CDC

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The Community Development Corporation is North Port St Joe’s implementation agency. It will be designed to bring PAC policies and plans to fruition and is critical to promoting and enabling redevelopment of the community. The intention is for the CDC (a 501c3 not-for-profit organization) and, by association, the PAC to be self-sustaining.

1. Create the business plan for the CDC. This is essential in ensuring that the CDC’s day-to-day workload properly reflects the redevelopment process and priorities of the PAC which, in turn, must represent the interests and aspirations of the community it comprises.

2. Establish the CDC’s sources of funding through various means, incuding established networks that date back to the organization’s previous existance. This is doubly important now that it is clear that North Port St. Joe will be generating little or no Tax Increment Financing in the foreseeable future.

The CDC will become the community’s most powerful tool for implementing its redevelopment plans.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

The infrastructure of change: Maintain stakeholder involvement

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The stakeholders include the Port Authority, the St. Joe Company and Sacred Heart Hospital. A further stakeholder, Gulf Coast State College, has been identified but has yet to be approached. The Sacred Heart Hospital has expressed interest in the PAC’s initiatives but is waiting to see how its plans will unfold, especially with respect to the neighborhood clean-up initiative.

On the other hand, the Port St. Joe Port Authority formally recognized its role as a stakeholder by signing a letter of support at its October 2106 meeting. The St. Joe Company, meanwhile, expressed its informal support of the North Port St Joe 2016 Concept Master Plan when shown it in its draft form. The apparent recent progress in reopening the port has given even more focus to these two immediate neighbors and the roll-out of their plans for the port’s future.

1. Establish a further formal connection between the port and the North Port St Joe community by canvassing support for at least one community member to join the Board of the Port Authority.

2. Continue discussions with the St. Joe Company about including their land in the City’s Comprehensive Plan, a process that is a vital to the redevelopment implementation plan for North Port St Joe.

3. Reach out to Gulf Coast State College, a potential stakeholder recommended by one of the existing stakeholders, particularly in reference to job training.

4. Convince Sacred Heart Hospital to become involved in the redevelopment process by engaging them again, following the neighborhood clean-up.

Eastern Shipbuilding’s plans are at the heart of the Port of Port St. Joe’s renaissance

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

The infrastructure of change: Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency

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Every Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) relies on its access to Tax Increment Financing, paid into a Redevelopment Trust Fund. When North Port St. Joe became an ‘expansion area’ of the Port St. Joe CRA in 2009, it was assumed that its Trust Fund would have a small but growing surplus . The chart on this page shows the reality. In fact, the taxable value of the real estate in the expansion area fell over 15% following the ‘base year’ valuation made in 2010 and has yet to exceed it.

The original 1989 CRA will ‘sunset’ in 2019 when its statutory 30-year term ends, some 20 years earlier than its ‘expansion area’. The Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency is the statutory administrating body for the ‘expansion area’.

1. Commence discussions with the PSJRA concerning its future, the timetable and milestones of the ‘sunsetting’ process and the implications for governance, administration and funding of the ‘expansion area’.

2. Present this document as the community’s update to its 2009 Master Plan and ensure that it is supported by the documentation necessary for it to be incorporated into the Community Redevelopment Plan as well as conform with the municipal Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Regulations.

$ 2 2 , 0 9 9 , 5 9 4

$ 2 2 , 5 7 4 , 7 9 1

$ 2 3 , 3 8 9 , 6 6 5

$ 2 3 , 3 7 8 , 9 7 5

$ 2 2 , 4 0 4 , 2 9 2

$ 2 3 , 4 6 9 , 9 8 1

Base Year 2010 Taxable Value: $26,185,135

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

North Port St Joe’s taxable value, courtesy of the Gulf County Property Appraiser.

The North Port St. Joe ’expansion area’ has not generated a tax increment so its Trust Fund remains empty and will do so for the foreseeable future.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

Community priorities.

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The community discussed its broad priorities during three workshops. Four issues came to the fore and two of those - jobs and housing - were considered to be pivotal to the redevelopment of North Port St. Joe.

Jobs

HeritageOpen space

Housing

These themes help to inform the type of development that the community wants to see implemented in North Port St Joe. And the hurdles that will have to be overcome.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

Community priorities: Jobs

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The security of the paper mill, whether it was through direct employment or the indirect benefit derived from its overwhelming economic presence, has never been replaced in Port St. Joe. The renaissance of the port holds out hope that some skilled tradespeople will once more be required in Gulf County. The biggest fear is that these jobs will be taken by experienced workers from other parts of the region.

In the meantime, tourism-related work is considered by some menial, transient and underpaid. This despite the fact that tourism is supporting profitable, locally-owned enterprises that appear to be reinvesting locally and, in the case of the hospitality industry, traditionally offer genuinely sustainable career prospects for those well-trained and accredited.

1. Strengthen the connection between the port and the North Port St. Joe community by ensuring that the Port Authority is aware of the work going on in North Port St. Joe and the enthusiasm of the community’s leaders to ‘be at the table’ when plans are being made.

2. Manage existing relationships with local job training networks so that the community’s priority with regard to job training is clear and that the community’s experience and knowledge of local needs are made clear to training program designers.

3. Ensure that the CDC makes jobs one of its highest priorities when preparing its business plan.

The limited availability of local jobs is considered by the community to be the greatest barrier to redevelopment of North Port St. Joe.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

Community priorities: Housing

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The community reiterated its strong desire for mixed-use development to be central to its master plan. In fact, this discussion often focussed on the mix of housing types that the community felt were crucial to the future of North Port St. Joe. Homes for seniors and young people characterized two ends of a spectrum that ranged from good quality, assisted living facilities to affordable, rental and for-sale ‘starter homes’ and studios.

Workforce housing was also a strong topic for discussion. Rental housing is in short supply throughout the community. Smaller, cheaper homes in Port St. Joe have become the target of investors who are benefitting from the increased demand from visitors for short-term vacation rentals within the City limits, reducing the availability of long-term rentals.

1. Build a detailed model of the housing needs of North Port St. Joe and the wider community, where anecdotal evidence shows an increasing demand for good quality market-priced rental accommodation.

2. Ensure that the Community Development Corporation is fully engaged in identifying and advertising sources of finance for developers able to deliver appropriate housing models to North Port St Joe.

3. Focus attention on Martin Luther King Boulevard as a location for innovative forms of housing development aimed at younger residents.

The community believes that there is a wide spectrum of housing needs, not just in North Port St. Joe but throughout the region as a whole.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

Community priorities: Open spaces

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This element of the Plan has provided one of the catalyst projects in the form of a ‘pocket park’. The PAC is in discussion with a property owner that has land surplus to their family’s requirements. A concept for the Pocket Park, located close to Martin Luther King Boulevard, can be found detailed in the main body of the document.

1. Continue discussions with the landowner with the objective of entering into an agreement between the interested parties that the plots in question may be acquired by the City.

2. Formally share the concept plan with the North Port St Joe community in order to ensure that it meets the needs of the community.

3. Work with the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency to seek grant aid for the completion of Phase 1 of the Pocket Park.

A pocket park would be the ideal catalyst for - and symbol of - North Port St. Joe’s redevelopment program.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

Community priorities: Heritage, culture and identity

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This unique neighborhood is expressed in its heritage, culture and identity. Other historic communities have shown inspired (and inspiring) ways to begin community-wide conversations that have helped create authentic places that empower their residents, attract visitors and, most important of all, replace crippling blight with a communal pride in place.

1. Begin assembling a collection of photographic memories of North Port St. Joe and its community that can be used to illustrate the theme of heritage.

2. Identify a public location for a ‘pop-up’ gallery or exhibit that can provoke conversation about these themes within and outside the neighborhood.

3. Continue the conversation. North Port St. Joe is a unique African American working community that can trace its heritage back to the region’s earliest industrial period.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

Redevelopment priorities: Martin Luther King Boulevard

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Restoring Martin Luther King Boulevard is the community’s highest redevelopment priority. Concentrating resources and the community’s energy here will yield the highest returns.

1. Prepare design guidelines for Martin Luther King Boulevard. These must manifest the work that the community has put into the first phase of the project as documented in these pages.

2. Identify infrastructure improvements to Martin Luther King Boulevard and include them in the guidelines.

3. Memorialize the design guidelines in the City’s Land Development Regulations by using them to create a ‘special overlay’ district for Martin Luther King Boulevard, allowing it to be treated as a unique area with redevelopment incentives and not simply another ‘mixed use’ zone.

4. Amend the language and mapping of the City’s Comprehensive Plan to reflect the community’s vision, as manifest in these pages.

The community’s vision for Martin Luther King must be embedded in the City’s Comprehensive Plan if it is to be implemented efficiently.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

Redevelopment priorities: Avenue A and the new town center

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The land along the southern edge of Avenue A, from Highway 98 to Bridgeport Lane, is owned by the St Joe Company and is either undeveloped or is part of the railroad right-of-way. A large area adjacent to Highway 98 was planned as a town center for Port St Joe. The residents of North Port St Joe would like this to remain a planning option. The land is almost entirely zoned ‘industrial’, its ‘Planned Unit Development’ designation having been allowed to expire.

1. Continue discussions with the St. Joe Company concerning its relationship with the Port Authority and how the renaissance of the port will effect the current land use and the landowner’s attitude towards rezoning it as ‘mixed use’.

The concept of a new town center should remain an important planning objective for North Port St. Joe and the rest of the community. It should be discussed openly with the St Joe Company.

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REDEVELOPING NORTH PORT ST JOE: Implementing the community’s plan 2016

Redevelopment priorities: Catalyst projects

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Inn & Cottages

Apartments

Lake Cottage Resort

Paces Foundation Residences

Wetlands

GatewaySign Posts

Public Park Existing Gymnasium

InnovationCenter

CommunityFood

Community Pool

Heritage Walk

New Town Center & Green

New City Hall Martin Luther

King Plaza

Training Center

Dollar General

DAYCARECENTER

CAMPUS CORNER

ZONEDRESIDENTIALSITE

CIVICCENTER

ACCESS TONEW LAND& EXISTINGAPARTMENTS

These catalyst projects have been selected because for various reasons:

1. They are development opportunities currently being considered by North Port St. Joe property owners. Campus Corner and the Daycare center fit this description

2. They are already zoned for the use in question. The residential site on Avenue A was rezoned before the recession to attract apartment developers.

3. They involve City-owned property and their improvement could benefit the city as a whole. This applies to the proposed new civic center.

4. They may meet the investment criteria of interested in community-enriching projects. The civic center and the day care center fit this profile

or They are a combination of all of these reasons.

The next steps for these catalyst projects is to provide them with the support necessary to be properly planned and presented to potential investors.