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From:  Charlotte Sun, Our View, January 9, 2019

OUR POSITION: The conversation on Punta Gorda’s future began with the Journey to the Future Conference.

Any time a town is talking, it’s moving in the right direction.

The Journey to the Future conference was the beginning of the conversation for Punta Gorda.

The conference, well-organized by a group led by TEAM Punta Gorda, drew 700 people to the Event & Conference Center on Monday. They came to lend an ear to what the experts had to say. Their voices will be heard later.

A lot was said over the course of the five-hour event, much of it dealing with growth and how to manage it. There was a panel of local historians whose presentation drew well. But this was about Punta Gorda’s future — where it’s going and how it’s going to get there.

“Punta Gorda’s best days are in front of us,” said restaurateur Chris Evans, a member of the history and culture panel. “The market will drive what Punta Gorda looks like in the future, because it has to work. It can’t just look good on paper.”

The new master plan will include rewritten building codes. It will resolve the issue of building height in downtown Punta Gorda — right now a contentious issue. The hope is it will form a unified vision from competing points of view that are, at the moment, pushing short-sighted, singular agendas.

In her opening remarks, Mayor Nancy Prafke called Monday’s conference an “event to prepare us for … the next chapter in Punta Gorda history.”

Earlier, she referred to the 2005 master plan — the one about to be revised — that was forged out of the rubble left behind by Hurricane Charley.

“We wanted to make our community better than it was before,” she said.

The goal must remain the same.

To get it started, TEAM Punta Gorda and its alliance of organizers put together a lineup of speakers that included Tim Hernandez, who held sessions on best practices in community development; Rick Severance, president of Babcock Ranch, who discussed developing award-winning towns; Victor Dover, co-founder of Dover Kohl & Partners, the firm that will develop the new master plan as well as a conceptual plan for a water activity center at the Bayfront Center; and John Redmond, the Allegiant Airlines executive in charge of developing Sunseeker across the bridge in Charlotte Harbor.

What they all had to say was interesting and informative. Dover’s was particularly compelling because it is his firm that will be developing the new master plan, beginning with an economic and budgetary analysis. Dover Kohl also will look over Punta Gorda’s existing land-development regulations, assess them, and make recommendations on what stays and what goes, including the two-story requirement and the 50-foot height restriction.

In March, it will host a series of charettes, or focus groups, that will invite public input into shaping the city’s future. In August, it is expected to present a finished master plan to the City Council and the community.

“That’s an aggressive schedule,” City Manager Howard Kunik told the audience near the conclusion on the conference. “Hopefully, we can stick to it. And out of that will be a vision for our future.”

Now begins the time to talk in earnest.

Source:  http://portcharlottesun.fl.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=02a59e1e3