What’s Happenin’ at TEAM Punta Gorda?
By Dave Charney, TPG Executive Assistant
The following is the second of three
articles explaining the on-going activities of TEAM Punta
Gorda
Now that TEAM Punta Gorda has gifted Citizens’ Master Plan
2005 to the City and County, we are working to ensure
Citizens Master Plan 2005 is implemented. In our last
article we outlined a few activities that TEAM has
undertaken to assist the implementation process. Here is a
continuation of our current activities:
• TEAM Punta Gorda has a representative on the Charlotte
County Advisory Committee to rebuild the Civic Auditorium.
We provide regular input on rebuilding this public building
to ensure its final design complies with the concepts of the
CMP developed by the citizens of this area. Another TEAM
member has been appointed to the City of Punta Gorda
Revitalization Committee, an official arm of City
government.
• TEAM’s Historic Preservation Committee is doing historical
research which we will share with the City of Punta Gorda
and Charlotte County. It will have a twofold purpose: to
help preserve historical buildings and, where damaged
buildings are beyond salvation, to see that replacement
buildings retain the site’s heritage. Another idea is to
create a walking history tour, with proper signage,
throughout Old Punta Gorda identifying historically
significant sites.
• TEAM’s Housing Committee helped sponsor an agreement
between the City of Punta Gorda and Trabue Woods Economic
Development Corporation to obtain a low interest loan for
the development of 28 workforce housing rental units on
Punta Gorda’s East Side. This hurricane-blighted area sorely
needs development, and with TEAM’s help, development is
coming. The Trabue Woods EDC plans to rent houses to
workforce members, teach them how to maintain their homes
and progress to eventual home ownership.
• When the Housing Authority presented a design for
rebuilding a workforce housing project on the East side of
Punta Gorda, the city staff rejected it outright, in part
because it was not consistent with the master plan. With
TEAM Punta Gorda’s help, the Housing Authority and the City
entered into negotiations which resulted in a plan
consistent with the Citizens Master Plan that was approved
by the City for the permitting process.
• TEAM has continued to educate the citizens of the
community about Citizens Master Plan 2005 and New Urbanism
in 12 presentations to civic groups, neighborhood
associations and clubs. This effort will kick off in earnest
in September when a trained speakers bureau will begin
making presentations. The goal is to reach more than 100
local groups to explain the CMP, encourage membership in
TEAM, and create a public awareness of the status of
rebuilding our City.
• Many people in the area have seen the two Greater Punta
Gorda tabloid newspaper inserts in the Charlotte Sun, one
(in early April) explained the upcoming charrette process
and a second (in July) explained details of the master plan.
TEAM Punta Gorda has purchased extra copies of these inserts
so that people living away from the City in the summer can
receive copies when they return for the winter.
• Our Government Relations Committee has spent hundreds of
hours educating city and county employees, elected and
appointed officials about the content of the master plan and
the concept of New Urbanism. These officials have final say
about what is eventually approved for construction in the
Punta Gorda area so they are our most important audience. We
have been extremely successful to date in creating an aura
of cooperation with government.
In future articles we will continue to outline the on-going
activities of TEAM Punta Gorda.
