Citizen Advisory Committee

The City of Tampa created this committee at the beginning of the master planning process. The committee included representatives of neighborhood associations, government agencies and various interest groups. There were many different attitudes towards trails and greenways reflected on the committee. The committee selected a chair and vice-chair and agreed to use consensus as the means for making decisions. Where City issues were involved, the City staff made the final recommendations. The Committee had its first organizational meeting in April 1999 and it met monthly after that until the adoption of the Master Plan in February of 2001. The Citizens Advisory Committee continues to meet quarterly.

A series of four workshops was held throughout the City in June 1999 so that citizen participants could draw routes they wanted in or near their neighborhoods on City maps. These routes were all compiled and the committee decided which ones were best to put on the map of possible trails and greenways. The committee then performed field evaluations for all the proposed routes. This meant Saturday workshops for teams to travel the proposed routes, make notes on various criteria and prepare a report and recommendation for the full committee. After all the proposed routes were evaluated in the field, a final map was created that showed the recommended trails, greenways and connections within the City.

Technical assistance was provided by the consultant, PBS&J, the National Park Service/Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program, the City of Tampa Parks and Recreation Department and City of Tampa Transportation Division.

The map was taken to the community for another series of four workshops in March 2000 to review the routes. Final changes were made and the map was finalized and included in the Master Plan document.

Since passage and approval of the Master Plan, the Citizens Advisory Committee continues to meet. The group is involved in a variety of activities. They are advocates for the Master Plan and the expansion of the greenways and trails plan in the City. As potential trail or greenway segments are considered by the City for construction, the Citizens Advisory Committee and City staff work with the neighborhood and homeowners associations to finalize an acceptable corridor for the trail or greenway. The Committee also works to find additional funding to supplement the existing City budget for construction of new trails. They review construction documents and make recommendations on design considerations, etc.

To build further community support for an integrated system of greenways and trails, the Committee works with the Hillsborough County Greenways Committee and the non-profit Hillsborough Trails group. Both of these groups focus on projects within Hillsborough County. However, the Greenways Committee has added a representative from the Tampa Citizens Advisory Committee as a means of improving project coordination between the City and county.