Residents need to attend this Planning and Zoning Board meeting and oppose this excessively large scale apartment, commercial, and retail project. This type of development project is simply too large and will generate too much traffic for our small city. Greedy developers throughout Florida have already ruined many other once quaint cities and towns with overdevelopment and they will do it here if we let them. Safety Harbor is unique in the Tampa Bay region. We still retain our small town Old Florida charms while most other cities have allowed developers to overbuild and ruin the quality of life of its residents. Remember, once we lose Safety Harbor's quaint small town atmosphere, we can never get it back again.

Does the proposal fit the development outlines of the regional planning board and the Safety Harbor downtown redevelopment plan ?
Which development rules apply? Which do they want to break?
I do not know if the last downtown redevelopment plan applies as even a guide to the Fermenich property which is obviously currently an abandoned factory unsuitable to be part of the downtown plan nor in downtown.
Would Richman Co be nice enough to show the city what else it has done ? Is there a web site?
One of my favorite design concepts of the Safety Harbor Downtown redevelopment plan is the interior storage of automobiles within the building exterior footprints with exterior landscaping. Will the developer follow the good concepts of human scale design or jampack the most possible rentable square feet and create another homage to the auto?More recent SH subdivisions have suburbanized with quarter acre lots for minimansions. The best we see elsewhere is West Chase, which is way too homogenized and deed restriction bound. The charm of downtown Safety Harbor has been in the fifty foot lot downtown streets untrammeled by deed restrictions.. Will the developer create another sterile island of high cost low value homogenous domiciles or will it attempt to craft an extension of the community ?
Safety Harbor has employed a planning person for many decades. Would Patch interview Mr McLaughlin and commissioners to see where the development plan meets or exceeds the city expectations ?

Dr. Linder,
The first link in the article takes you to a detailed explanation of what the developer is proposing for the property and what must be done to allow it to happen. The Richman Group, one of the largest residential property developers in the United States according to its website, is seeking an amendment of the city's future land use map and zoning atlas to allow the complex to be built as planned. The current zoning allows for a maximum amount of 111 apartment units.
Safety Harbor Patch has been and will continue to follow the issue closely, and that will include interviews with many of the parties involved. Thank you for your comment.

Owen - You can get the information you are looking for with these directions:

Go to www.cityofsafetyharbor.com

Click on Meeting Agendas & Video located on the left side.

Click on 2012 list of City Commission Meetings

Click on City Commission October 1, 2012 Video

The video will start load. In the meantime look at the agenda listed on the right.

Scroll down the agenda till you get to Old Business section.

You’ll see item number 2. Status of Negotiations on Development Agreement with the Richman Group of Florida, Inc.

Click on the inside of this item and it will take the video to the presentation concerning this section of the meeting. You won’t have to view the entire meeting to get to the Firmenich piece.

If you click on “Link to Old Business #2 Backup Materials” located under the agenda item “2. Status of Negotiations on Development …..” you can view and print the documents they are referencing in the meeting.

Please join us and others in the community on Wednesday night at 6:30 at Town Hall!

In this proposed 296-unit apartment complex, we may have several hundred school aged children living there that will need to be educated. Who will pay for all of these costs? Will the developers pay for these costs? Of course not. They will just take the profits and run. All of these costs will be left to Safety Harbor taxpayers. Also, the resulting increased traffic on Safety Harbor roads will mean that we will need to start installing traffic lights throughout the City. Traffic lights will only ruin the quaintness of driving down Safety Harbor streets. I think Safety Harbor officials need to think more seriously about the long term consequences of approving such large scale development projects within the city.

Anna Marie - we want to sign your petition - see you tomorrow night. We live right around the corner from Firmenich on 590 and we are not pleased, to say the least, about the current proposal...

I will sign the petition, I am a business owner of 5 months in our quaint community however I am not a resident but still that should not be an issue, I moved my business from Downtown Dunedin due to being overcrowded with unfinished condos which was an eye sore to say the least plus too many restaurants & bars which brought in the wrong element at the moment small businesses in Downtown Dunedin are hurting where attention is given to excessive bars, a lot of families have distanced themselves, I am thankful the families who used to shop at my boutique are now back to shop at my boutique here due to Safety Harbor being so unique & quaint!
Also here's another point, take a good look at Downtown Clearwater, that massive condo with retail shops below is sitting empty, same thing is happening in condos galore in overcrowded beaches with massive traffic problems!
Ideal development would be to build 2 story family townhomes which could be used for seasonal rentals to build tourism, there are so many travelers who want to lease a townhome 4 to 5 months some even for 6 months during season, it might even give them an excuse to visit during slow season, they want to be able to bring their pets with them so it is nice to have a doggy park, other amenities included would be a library, small drugstore, a surf & turf type market, a bank, a community activity room, possibilities are endless & it is good for the adjacent community, please consider this option, thanks :)

I live along the lake North of that property. When that lake fills up after a heavy rain, that lake is 'supposed' to drain out to the South (through that property) to Alligator Creek/Lake. It barely does now since they built a development (Hancock Ct.) to the West and raised their elevation with a sea/lake wall. Now that lake extends (50 ft to the East) right up to the property lines of houses at the bottom of Oak Haven Dr. It's a very environmentally sensitive area due to its drainage issues. A new development in that area is like to make things even worse. How about Safety Harbor's first 9 hole city golf course ?........I'd be in favor of that.....