City officials and property owners were both surprised at the East Gateway neighborhood meeting last Thursday, March 8, but for very different reasons. The meeting, hosted at the Achieva Credit Union building on Gulf to Bay Boulevard, had been called by Geraldine Campos, Economic Development and Housing Director for the City of Clearwater, and followed separate neighborhood meetings with the business community, English speaking residents, Spanish speaking residents, and a more general community meeting that had been held in November 2006 to begin formal communication between the city and the East Gateway neighborhood in the hope of establishing a unified vision as the city begins long awaited, promised improvements. Some property owners had not been informed that those meetings were being held last November and had complained to the city, resulting in an update of neighborhood property owners and attendance at this meeting by about 30 property owners and residents as well as city officials, including Councilmembers Bill Jonson and John Doran, City Manager Bill Horne, and Council candidate Norma Carlough.
The surprise to residents who had participated in the prior meetings came when Police Chief Klein, who is also a Director of the Clearwater Homeless Intervention Project (CHIP) headquartered on Park St. in the East Gateway, notified residents that CHIP has a contract to buy the Car Pro property on Cleveland and Evergreen Streets and intends to construct a mixed use building there with transitional housing for graduates of the CHIP facility on the top floor and retail space on the bottom. The new building will, also, more visibly house the police substation now headquartered in the CHIP facility on Park Street.
The surprise for the city officials present was the reaction to this news. A number of residents responded forcefully, with Julie Thompson, a neighborhood homeowner, and others asking Campos "Didn't anybody hear what we said in November?" The minutes of the November meetings validate the uniform expression of great concern at that time among all the focus groups that the CHIP facility and adjacent soup kitchen run by St. Vincent DePaul do not belong in the area, and contribute to the presence of many chronically homeless. The focus groups had recommended that the soup kitchen, especially, and in the case of the English resident and business focus groups, CHIP, be moved. Minutes from the business focus group meeting specifically state that "expansion of CHIP needs to stop" and that the "soup kitchen and homeless related business must relocate out of the CRA."
Residents reinforced their prior position, emphasizing the soup kitchen. One property owner complained that he can't get the homeless out of his yard and that there is no adequate police response when he makes complaints. Chief Klein responded that the soup kitchen is on private property and that the St. Vincent DePaul Board has no intention of moving it. Another property owner, Dr. Gilbert Jannelli, recalled a number of past meetings where representatives of St. Vincent De Paul had stated, in contrast, that they would consider moving if a suitable site could be provided.
In response to more questions, additional information about CHIP's future plans was revealed. Chief Klein and Nina Bandoli of Turnstone Properties, a company that has assisted CHIP's acquisition of a number of Park St. buildings, explained that they hoped to acquire the Idle Spur bar property, adjacent to Car Pro, and build a similar structure there with four more upstairs transitional housing units and retail space below. The result would then be a total of eight transitional housing units above eight retail spaces on the ground floor on Cleveland Street.
Plans were also revealed, upon questioning, to buy additional properties to the north of Cleveland St., effectively creating a CHIP "campus," which essentially would put CHIP in the affordable housing "business." Property owners protested that the resulting competition would be unfair and that affordable housing would be available from the private sector if property taxes and insurance rates had not spiraled out of control.
Chief Klein then proposed that he meet with the CHIP Board this week and, as a compromise, secure a commitment that the proposed construction of the four residential units over four retail units originally presented be the last expansion of CHIP in the area. Attendees requested that the commitment, if made, be formalized in writing and confirmed by the Clearwater City Council. Attendees, also, requested a meeting between Chief Klein, East Gateway representatives, and the St. Vincent DePaul Board of Directors to discuss how and if the soup kitchen can be moved.
A number of attendees left, disturbed after Councilmember Doran, in direct response to a question from Dr. Jannelli, forthrightly indicated his support of the CHIP expansion. A quasi vote was then taken on the basis of "take it or leave it," with justification expressed by city officials because, in their opinion, the Car Pro site would not be redeveloped except by CHIP because of environmental problems that would discourage any other buyer. It was, also, explained that applications for Brownfield grants from the federal government for the clean up are already in process. The outcome of the "vote" was unclear.
After more heated discussion as to the significance of the "vote," Campos presented a combination of short term, mid term, and long term solutions that can aid positive development in the East Gateway and requested additional input from those at the meeting to be submitted to her department. The meeting adjourned with the anticipation among community attendees that the results of Chief Klein's meeting with the CHIP Board would be distributed to them and that coordination for the meeting with St. Vincent DePaul Board would be initiated by the city. It was also decided that quarterly community meetings for the East Gateway would occur, organized by the city
