Venice web page is ready for your Seaboard ideas

VENICE — The Seaboard Master Plan project page on the city website is active, with a place to leave comments and one to see comments other people have left.

As of Friday afternoon, the page was still waiting for its first comment, but the project is still in the early stages of development.

However, Dover, Kohl & Partners, the city’s consultant, has a goal of bringing a plan back for discussion in September, and there’s never a bad time to offer suggestions, Dover, Kohl planner Josh Frank told the Seaboard stakeholders group at its first meeting, June 27.

The comments page will likely see a lot more use later this month, if not sooner, after Dover, Kohl conducts a three-day charrette to gather public input about Seaboard. The interactive planning session is set for 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. July 31 and Aug. 1 and 2 in the Community Room at City Hall, 401 W. Venice Ave.

Dover, Kohl will be bringing more than 20 members of its interdisciplinary team to the charrette, Frank said.

During the charrette, “(t)he public, at their leisure, can stop in anytime to see the progress being made and actively participate in the vision for the area,” the city’s web page says.

Seaboard, designated as an industrial area in John Nolen’s original, pre-Intracoastal Waterway plan for the city, has been considered “an area that is designed for redevelopment due to land use changes that are either occurring within or adjacent to the area” since the adoption of the 1999 comprehensive plan that labeled it “Transition.”

But it’s only been in the last couple of years that the City Council gave staff direction to begin the master planning process, with funds put in the current budget for a consultant.

The city has also recently acquired more property in the area, as well as outside of it for the relocation of Solid Waste and Fleet operations. The thought is that redevelopment of city land could spur other, private projects.

So could the rezoning of Seaboard to mixed use in the land development code, which has opened it up for residential uses of up to 18 units per acre, as well as commercial and office uses. New industrial uses are prohibited, though.

The makeover of the area is expected to be a years-long process, as the city is committed to not force out any business. The creation of a business park at the Venice Municipal Airport that might make a new home for some light industrial operations and other companies was shelved in the face of resident opposition.