Beach by Design – link to full file on City website
The City of Clearwater is committed to the revitalization of Clearwater Beach as a “great” place to live and visit. Clearwater Beach is both a world famous tourist destination but also home to more than 8,000 families.
Clearwater Beach is comprised of two elements: the natural environment and the built environment. The natural environment – the beach, the bay and near shore waters – are
remarkable resources where residents and visitors can recreate and relax. Clearwater Beach is recognized as one of the truly great beaches in the United States, if not the world. In contrast, the built environment on central Clearwater Beach – the
traditional tourist area – suffers from obsolescence and age.
Most of the buildings in Clearwater were built at a time when the tourism business was very different than it is today and the strength of the City’s tourism is not sufficient to support
modernization and redevelopment. Beach by Design assumes that there is considerable market support for residential, hotel, time share and retail uses on a revitalized Clearwater Beach if the negative aspects of character and quality of the public realm,
including traffic circulation and traffic, are improved.
In 1997 and 1998, a Plan was prepared for Clearwater Beach entitled “Clearwater Beach: Strategies for Revitalization.” This Plan was prepared after an extensive public process,
directive surveys and input from the City Commission and City administration. The purpose of Beach by Design is to implement the recommendations of that Plan in light of fiscal
and legal constraints, analysis of the economy and the market, as well as changed conditions.
Clearwater Beach: Strategies for Revitalization presented a number of strategies which if implemented would lead to the redevelopment of the Beach. These strategies can be
grouped in the following generalized topics:
Transportation and parking
Redevelopment of the superblocks between Clearwater Beach and the Hilton and redevelopment of the Mandalay retail district
Upgrading of the Beach
Gulfview/Coronado hotel/retail redevelopment
East Shore entertainment district and marina
Bayside multi-family redevelopment
Brightwater Finger redevelopment