"Save Our Waterfront Park" and Tampa General Hospital

“Save our Waterfront Park” says a flier from the Davis Islands Civic Association that was sent to me via email. That association is leading an effort to stop Tampa General Hospital’s (TGH) expansion efforts, especially the request by TGH to the city to rezone land for a parking garage on a piece of Marjorie Park. This request also includes a new office building on the hospital campus and permission to add a floor to the expansion currently under construction.

I am a neighborhood activist in one of the most assertive neighborhoods in the City, greater Seminole Heights, as made obvious in my repeated postings about Starbucks. (See Starbucks One Last Time, We Have Starbucks, and Starbucks) I also work for Tampa General Hospital. This could put me in a quandary as to who to support.

It does not.

The park in question is a small isolated plot of land crammed between Tampa General, Hillsborough Community College and the City of Tampa Parking Garage. The people who benefit most from the park are TGH employees and visitors. Davis Islands has a significant amount of parkland and green space (according to the St. Petersburg times article below, the most of any neighborhood in Tampa). This does not include all of the private and common area waterfront views Davis Island Residents have. Tampa General plans to replace the 0.4 acres of land with a 0.7acre linear waterfront park adding 1,100 feet of waterfront view. Many times I have had a relaxing walk on the seawall where the linear park is going be placed and thoroughly enjoyed the view of the channel, the boats across the way and cityscape.

Nothing is lost. More is gained.

Also, as in the Starbucks hearing, economics and revitalization is an issue. This may be why the Davis Islands Chamber of Commerce supports TGH.

This expansion will also economically benefit Davis Island, the Kennedy Boulevard area and more importantly, one more piece in the revitalization of the downtown area. This expansion will tie USF to Davis Islands. More staff and visitors to the TGH campus means more people who need to spend money on food, gas, gifts, and if from out of town, places to stay. (Many of our guests come from other parts of West Central Florida. Some even come from Latin America.)

So as both a neighborhood activist and a TGH employee I would ask City Council vote “Yes” to the TGH request.

More commentary on the issue

***An article in the St. Petersburg Times TO GROW, OR NOT TO GROW // Unhealthy relationship? April 22, 2005

***Information from Tampa General to City Council
"Tampa General Hospital has applied for a rezoning to accommodate the tremendous growth experienced by this community asset. Your support over the years for this great institution has resulted in TGH being recognized as the region’s only Level 1 trauma Center, the region’s only burn center, the region’s only solid organ transplant center, and a valuable part of our community.

To continue to provide these desperately needed services, we have proposed building an additional shelled floor to our expansion that we can make available in the future. We also have proposed a multi-purpose building for the University of South Florida College of Medicine to help accommodate patients and university physicians, and a garage to help us meet the needs of our patients and their families, physicians and employees. In over 78 years of service to this community this is only the second time we have asked to expand beyond our campus footprint.

In order to be the best neighbor we can be, we have worked hard to accommodate the needs of our friends and neighbors on Davis Islands. We have solicited their thoughts and ideas with three island-wide mailings totaling more than 20,000 pieces of mail. We have met numerous times with the Davis Islands Chamber of Commerce, the Davis Islands Waterfront Property Owners, the Davis Islands Neighborhood Task Force and the Davis Islands Civic Association.

At the hospital’s expense, we hosted an open house April 6 for all Davis Island residents to share our plans, answer their questions, and solicit their ideas. To help offset some of the perceived impact of this project, we have added more than 1,300-feet of linear parkland along the Hillsborough River, an addition of more than 1,100-feet than what would be affected by the rezoning. It would provide people-friendly access to the water that does not exist today.

Our efforts did not stop there. We are also committed to providing one million dollars to help fund and implement the long-range vision plan adopted by the Neighborhood Task Force after input from more than 1,000 Islands residents. "

***A comment by one of my neighbors:
“These issues about the park on Davis Island never come up until the hospital needs to do some expansion. Otherwise the neighborhood couldn't care less about it. The rest of the green space on DI is occupied by, a waterfront little league field, a waterfront tennis court complex, the Junior League building, and the DI Garden club. Not to mention the Community College's admin. headquarters. All of theses uses provide specific purposes and attempt to eliminate general public access. Now they are up in arms about the hospital's need for more parking for a facility that meets the needs of the entire West Florida region. I am always for protecting green spaces, but I find the stance of the Davis Island Civic Association hypocritical.
--Mike Ferlita”

***A letter to the Editor from Tampa Tribune
"TGH And Davis Islands
Published: Feb 17, 2005
Regarding ``TGH's Parking Garage Plan Necessary If Regrettable'' (Our Opinion, Feb. 9):

The Davis Islands Civic Association should remember what it wished for. Several years ago, after the privatization of Tampa General Hospital, I was nominated by the Davis Islands Civic Association to the Hillsborough County Hospital Authority, the board that owns the land and buildings and holds the lease for the hospital.

My assignment was to protect the citizens of Davis Islands and to do my best to see that the hospital remained on Davis Islands. Residents were fearful of what would replace the hospital. I'm now in my third term and thrilled that we have this wonderful medical center in the heart of our community. If the citizens want the hospital to remain here, they must support its progress.

A Level 1 trauma center must keep up with the latest technology and expand to fill the needs of our growing population. Ron Hytoff is proposing a wonderful compromise in his linear park plan. Residents of Davis Islands can now have the best hospital in the state and more green space than the 0.4 acres the hospital needs.

BARBARA HENDRY Tampa"

***An editorial in the April 21, 2005 edition of the St. Petersburg Times
“...... Several community leaders on Davis Islands, where Tampa General sits, object to the hospital building a garage on part of a waterfront park.

The park is a park in name only. Tucked behind the existing garage, the land is tiny, hidden from public view and used mostly by employees as a cut-through between lots and buildings. The hospital wants to take less than half an acre to construct a 1,400-car parking garage, part of a larger expansion Tampa General needs. In return, the hospital would build a walkway along seven-tenths of an acre of adjacent waterfront on Seddon Channel.

The affluent community of Davis Islands might have more parks than any other neighborhood in the city of Tampa. Having more is always good, but there are better places to start. Why does Hillsborough Community College have an unpaved, surface parking lot on city land just steps away from the parkland in dispute? This land is easier for the public to access, and it would compensate for the land Tampa General wants to build on. Let HCC park in the garage. The city could also do more with the waterfront strip behind the nearby Little League park, extending an already popular walkway along the Seddon Channel.

Protecting parks is separate from milking a taxpayer-supported hospital. The island needs to realize that many others have a stake in how the hospital spends its money, from patients and their families to the average taxpayer. That $1-million should go for medicine, not to humor people whose priorities are out of whack.”