Tampa City Council members on Thursday unanimously approved the Tampa Downtown Partnership's Franklin Street Vision project. The $6 million investment supported by Council members serving on the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) will improve the historic street that runs through several downtown neighborhoods.
The project aims to combine historic charm and modern enhancements such as streetscape and infrastructure upgrades and mobility enhancements.
Funding for the Franklin Street Vision project will be spread over three years and will come from the Downtown CRA using property taxes generated downtown that must be spent on projects that benefit downtown -- and not from the general City of Tampa budget.
"To ignore the work that needs to be done on Franklin Street would be the biggest crime, given all that we are doing to improve slum and blight in the downtown CRA," said CRA Board Chair Gwendolyn Henderson. "I appreciate that we brought together voices from the community to collaborate on how best we can bring Franklin Street back to life for our downtown residents and visitors."
The Tampa Downtown Partnership started with a vision plan in 2020 for the project, in which they solicited feedback from more than 550 respondents, including downtown workers, residents, business owners and visitors.
"I think this plan is very different than any plan that has been tried before for one major reason, and that is that people now live downtown," said Councilwoman Lynn Hurtak. "That is the game-changer. People live downtown, so we now need to place make."
A timetable for starting and completing the project will be established in the months ahead.