Westminster Heights Neighborhood Plan - City of St. Petersburg

WESTMINSTER HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Westminster Heights Neighborhood Plan was developed as a result of collaborations with neighborhood
residents, businesses, Westminster Heights Neighborhood Association, community organizations, schools,
developers, investors, and other stakeholders. The Westminster Neighborhood Plan is a blueprint: plan of
action, setting policies, priorities, goals, objectives and action steps for community revitalization. The
neighborhood created a vision and identified the steps needed to reach their future goals. This plan organizes
many of the stakeholder’s ideas into a single document that can be shared with residents, potential community
partners and investors. This plan is comprised of six (6) elements defined in the Westminster Heights
Neighborhood initial “brainstorming” session hosted by the Westminster Heights Neighborhood Association.
The elements are: Housing, Infrastructure, Public Safety, Traffic Calming, Business & Commercial, and
Community Appearance. Once the elements were defined and approved by the neighborhood on May 21,
2007, the Westminster Heights Neighborhood met monthly to develop programs and projects to address the
identified issues and concerns.
The Westminster Heights Neighborhood, 9,169 acres in total, encompasses the area between 49 th Street South
on the east and 58 th Street South on the west. Central Avenue is the northern boundary and the Pinellas Trail
forms the boundary on the south. The east end of the neighborhood is primarily commercial and general
office along Central Avenue from 49th Street South to 58th Street South. Adjoining the east end commercial
area on 49 th
Street South are several blocks predominantly zoned Neighborhood Traditional Single Family
(NT-1) and Corridor Commercial Traditional (CCT-1).
In addition, an active City Team meets to identify and resolve priority properties and/or issues within the
neighborhood. The neighborhood association selects the resident representatives who serve on the City Team.
To date, priority properties/issues identified by the neighborhood representatives on the City Team have been
specific day-to-day concerns. There are 18 properties that have been resolved by representatives of City
departments, including but not limited to Neighborhood Partnership, Police, Codes Compliance Assistance,
Engineering, Sanitation and Internal Services, since the inception of Westminster Heights City Team. In an
effort to create an inclusive resource system for the neighborhood, other city department representatives were
invited to participate. This neighborhood collaborative has created an environment of empowerment and
commitment to revitalize the Westminster Heights Neighborhood.
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