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Tampa transportation consultant to look for SoHo improvements

 
South Howard Avenue’s booming bar scene, and the crowds like this one at MacDinton’s Irish Pub and Restaurant, have Tampa officials looking for ways to make the street less congested and safer.
South Howard Avenue’s booming bar scene, and the crowds like this one at MacDinton’s Irish Pub and Restaurant, have Tampa officials looking for ways to make the street less congested and safer.
Published Jan. 3, 2015

TAMPA — Don't expect a cure-all, but watch for the next phase of Tampa's search for solutions to the problems spawned by S Howard Avenue's booming bar scene to start as soon as next week.

City officials anticipate giving the transportation consulting firm DKS Associates the go-ahead for a study on ways to make the street less congested and safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The consultants will look at speed, drainage, pavement conditions, sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting, landscaping and traffic-calming opportunities along the road. City officials expect to end up with a mix of options, both short- and longer-term, for improvements.

"It's a step-by-step process, and we've got to start somewhere," said Jean Duncan, the city's director of transportation and stormwater services.

In recent years, residents and restaurateurs have been confronted with the by-products of S Howard's emergence as a destination for dining and nightlife: noise, traffic, crowds and their ravenous demand for parking.

The DKS study is being commissioned after business owners and residents talked with the City Council and Mayor Bob Buckhorn. It is expected to take about four months to complete at a cost of about $28,000.

"I don't think anybody's hoping for a quick fix, even though it would be nice," said Anneliese Meier, who lives four doors off S Howard and is vice president of the Parkland Estates Civic Association.

Rather, she said, residents recognize they live in an urban place and that it will take some time to address SoHo's issues, but they hope for a comprehensive effort and a city commitment to "do it right."

Howard's most pressing issue, she said, could be the deterioration of the road surface on Howard and Swann avenues. Also high on the list: making the corridor safer for SoHo's growing crowds of pedestrians and a need for better street lighting.

Some of the options identified by DKS might be done quickly and at low cost. Others could require more time, money and coordination.

"Before any significant investment can happen, there will be a lot more engineering and planning to be done," city spokeswoman Ali Glisson said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times.

In the past, Glisson said, city transportation and storm water officials dealt with Howard Avenue complaints separately. As a result of a recent city reorganization that combined the two departments into one, City Hall is in a better position to ask DKS for a "full look" at how Howard works for everyone, she said.

"Our greatest hope is that the funding will follow the study," said Stephen Michelini, a planning consultant who represents restaurants and other businesses on S Howard.

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In discussions with city officials, he said, various SoHo stakeholders have talked about crosswalks and pedestrian safety, lighting, wider sidewalks, getting Swann repaved and the idea of moving the taxi stand from near Azeele Street, where neighbors have complained, to a north-south alley behind MacDinton's Irish Pub.

On certain improvements, such as landscaping, Michelini said, some business owners have indicated they would be willing to contribute toward planting, ongoing care and irrigation.

While there may be a variety of fixes, none by itself will be "100 percent able to resolve the issues that are there," Michelini said.

That's why the city needs to look at a range of ideas, said City Council member Harry Cohen, who has been working with residents and business owners on ways to tame SoHo's unruly reputation.

The DKS study is one way. The city's project to add parking spaces to Platt Street is another. Still another is the plan to restripe Howard's intersection with W Dekle Avenue, a patch of asphalt that's now something of a no-man's land.

Together, he said, "all of these little pieces really do make for some real improvements."

Contact Richard Danielson at rdanielson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times