Tampa Greenways & Trails

CAC Workshop

November 20,2007

Meeting Minutes

Attendees: Karen Palus, Parks and Recreation Director; Karla Price, P&R Dept.; Nina Mabilleau, Transportation Dept.; Sally Thompson, Chair; Jill Buford; Kevin Dwyer; Erle Boyton; Richard Johnson; Charner Reese; Nate Alcoz; Laurie Potier-Brown; Melanie Higgins.

Sally Thompson, Chair, opened the meeting with introductions.  She then informed the committee of the death of a previous member, Edith Hooten, in May.  Sally also announced the Bicycle Friendly Community Award received by the City of Tampa from the League of American Bicyclists.

Karen Palus, Parks and Recreation Director, talked about the City of Tampa continued commitment to the development of a greenways and trails system.  She asked the committee to think about how they see themselves functioning in the future; advocacy vs. technical vs. grassroots?

Karla Price reviewed the amended Master Plan presented to the committee in September.  Current plans are to separate the information into a Design Guidelines document and the Master Plan document.  Recommendations for Comprehensive Plan amendments were forwarded to the City Strategic Planning Section for inclusion in the current update.  Recommendations for code and ordinance changes will not be included in the master plan but discussed separately with the Land Development Coordination & Zoning Division of the City. The goal is to have the updated Master Plan amendments ready to submit to City Council in March of 2008.  A public workshop will need to be held prior to submittal. The group discussed not having the Design Guidelines adopted by Council.

Charner Reese explained the Hillsborough County Greenways Program CAC process as follows:

• Membership - 12 citizens for 3yr terms

- Includes representatives from different utilities

·        Each member has an alternate. If both attend, only 1 votes.

·        Liaisons:

-         HCCC Planning Commission

-          FDOT

-  FL. Gas

-         SWFWMD

-  EPC

- ETC.

• Recruitment

- Advertise vacant positions in newspaper, word of mouth, web site

            - Greenways Committee votes on applicants

• Meeting Schedule: Quarterly

-         March, June, Sept., and Dec.

   Topics are: March-Map updates; June-Review budget and meet with Commissioners; Sept.- Final review and approval of map updates; Dec.-prioritize projects

-  Suggested Tampa CAC use different months

ü     Sub-committee meets as needed

• HCG&T does not adopt its Technical Design Guidelines, leaving freedom to respond to varying design situations.

CAC discussed the format for the group previously presented.

• Most agreed the proposed format could work.  It was asked if there should be a smaller number so it would be easier to get a quorum?
• Recruitment

-         Advertising

-  Use email addresses that Nina has collected

-         Request through THAN

• Meeting Schedule: Quarterly

-  Feb., May, August, Nov.

ü     Next meetings Jan.15th and Feb. 19, 2008 at Kate Jackson C.C.to get going, get final input on Master Plan Amendments, determine role of CAC

ü     3^rd Tuesday of month will remain for quarterly meetings

Other comments from attendees:

Kevin Dwyer – People need to see actual construction going on

Jill Buford -  Need to have some sort of hand out for people to take back to their

neighborhood.  Port Tampa City would still like to do a bike ride.

Erle Boyton – Would like to see focus on Downtown as more people are moving there to

 live.

“Contact people previously involved to see if they are still interested.”

“East Tampa needs to be represented on the committee.”

Next meeting Jan. 15, 2008, 6:30 p.m., Kate Jackson Community Center.