The current City Hall site, and some of the area immediately surrounding it, is commonly referred to as Banyan Village. The City has exciting plans for Banyan Village that will change downtown’s landscape forever by creating more green space and giving the public more access to our precious waterfront.

The City Commission passed a resolution to create a waterfront village, called Banyan Village, and sell the current City Hall on July 15, 2002. On November 17, 2002, the City issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the development of the Banyan Village site. As a result of the competitive RFP process, the City selected DACRA to develop Banyan Village on August 18, 2003 through Resolution # 03-53.

Much of the talk about Banyan Village focuses on three parcels of land: the current City Hall site, the former site of the Helen Wilkes Hotel, and an area called “uplands,” which is a piece of land east of Flagler Drive controlled by the Palm Harbor Marina. It is currently a surface parking lot.

City Hall is five stories tall. Under current zoning, the owner of the former Helen Wilkes Hotel site, WCI, can erect a building up to five stories tall on its property. (WCI has plans for an upscale, five-story condominium building called The Madison.) Also under the current zoning, a building up to four stories tall can be constructed on the uplands area, east of Flagler Drive. This scenario results in a five story building on the City Hall site, a five story building on the former Helen Wilkes Hotel site, and a four story building east of Flagler Drive on the waterfront. Such an arrangement results in the City Hall’s view of the water being blocked by The Madison, as well as The Madison’s view of the water being blocked by the new building on the uplands.

The City has negotiated an alternative to this scenario; a deal designed to expand and preserve public access to the waterfront, as well as get the highest value possible for the City Hall site. Under the terms of the deal, WCI would donate the former Helen Wilkes Hotel site, valued at $13 million, to the City, and the City would turn the land in to a public park. In addition, the City would sell the current City Hall site, on 2nd Street, to the builder DACRA for $26 million. DACRA would then use the site for a four-star luxury hotel and for a condominium. The “uplands” area east of Flagler Drive would be public-oriented. Hearings would be held to determine exactly what type of publicly accessible space would work best for this site, and what it might look like. As a result of this proposal, the City would realize $2-3 million in new annual tax revenue. Also, moving City Hall from the current site would help reduce traffic in the area, resulting in a 42% overall traffic decrease compared to the current zoning situation.

Opportunities to create permanent green space and develop the waterfront, our City’s most precious natural asset, do not come along every day. This new plan would not only be an approximately $40 million value for the City; it would create a public park on the former site of the Helen Wilkes Hotel and increase the public’s access to the waterfront, making our City more livable for future generations.