Chapel development may slow

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Article published Jan 16, 2006

Chapel development may slow

Commission expected to side with homeowners over students
By Julian Pecquet
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

In Tallahassee's perennial struggle to satisfy both college students and homeowners, city planners are siding with residents who want to put the brakes on high-density developments along West Pensacola Street.

City commissioners are expected to vote next week on the recommendation, which includes promoting homeownership in the neighborhood around Chapel Drive, near the Florida State University campus.

"I'm very encouraged by the decision that (the planners) took," said Michael Dalton, who has lived in the nearby Bradford Manor neighborhood since 1973, except for a seven-year stint in Central Florida .

But some real-estate investors take issue with the proposal, saying that Chapel Drive has a more than 75-percent rental rate - a 50-percent drop in homeownership in the past six years.

"It makes absolutely no sense," said Erwin Jackson, an investor who owns a couple of houses near Chapel Drive and scores of properties throughout town. "That area is the closest area to FSU. . . . Commissioners have got to ask themselves, where do they want the kids to be?"

Since early last year, city officials have been charting the future of the West Pensacola Street area, which is sandwiched between FSU and Tallahassee Community College and extends from Tennessee Street in the north to the railroad line in the south. Commissioners already have agreed to preserve four neighborhoods in the area (Cactus Street, Pepper Drive, Oxford Road and Cardinal Court), but haven't decided whether homeownership should be promoted along Chapel Drive.

"I think everyone understands the fact that this area is going to grow," said Darrin Taylor, the sector plan manager for the Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department. The question is, "where are the areas that are going to be long-term single-family, and where are the areas where it's feasible for growth to take place?"

The West Pensacola area has seen a steady drop in homeownership over the years, as more and more residents have sold their homes to investors like Jackson, who then rents them to students. The result: one of the highest-density areas in town, with 10 percent of the city's population living on 2 percent of the land.

That also means a high number of associated problems: late-night parties, traffic and parking nightmares and code-enforcement violations.

Meanwhile, city planners are stuck between keeping homeowners happy while trying to develop an area they feel is suited to student housing, since the area is by major roads and bus service and could keep students from spreading all over town.

"This area has a lot of advantages in trying to direct students into mass transit," Taylor said, and the city would like to see more development along the major corridors, namely Tennessee and Pensacola streets and Ocala and Appleyard roads.

But interior neighborhoods, like the ones around Chapel Drive, are more problematic. Many homeowners already have moved out, and the numerous parked cars (with license plates from Florida, Arizona, Georgia and other states) and overflowing garbage containers attest to the large concentration of people living in that small area.

But some residents of nearby neighborhoods are worried about the trickle-down effects of higher densities and feel the existing issues need to be addressed before more development is allowed.

"I don't see how the right policy statement can be . . . to increase density in these areas," Dalton said, "when there's already all these problems."