Several rounds of questions were posed to the Imagine 2040 Working Group at its first visioning workshop held on February 12. Eager participants used hand-held electronic voting devices  to express themselves.

The group spoke loudly when asked:

Coming off their big win as the first place team in the Tampa Bay Region Future City competition, students in Berkeley Preparatory School's Future City Club just returned from Washington, D.C., where this young team made a winning impression with the judges at the national finals. Their hard work and first place regional finish already caught our eye, so we invited this inspiring young group to be part of our Imagine 2040 Working Group!

 

Berkeley Prep's Future City Club students and faculty participating at the 1st Imagine 2040 Working Group Visioning Workshop

The Future City Competition is a national, project-based learning experience where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade imagine, design and build cities of the future. In January, the team's "Jugnum Novus Orbis" project took first place out of 20 other schools in the Tampa region. In February, the team competed against 36 other regional winners from across the country and came home with the award for Best Residential Zone in a City. Jun-Min Liu, representing the seven chapters of the Chinese Institute of Engineers - USA that reviewed the entries, said, "Your project has the highest score among all entries and exhibited excellent vision, incorporating innovation, integrated use of resources, and local governance/ collaborative."   

 

"I'm thrilled, not only that we won the regional competition, but also that we did so well with such young competitors on the national level," said Kate Baten, a middle division science teacher at Berkeley and director of the Future City Club. She explained that the winning team presenters Bethany Schneider, Nirav Aggarwal and Kelland Timothy are all in the 6th grade, making them some of the youngest competitors in the national competition. The Future City competition requires students work as a team with an educator and engineer mentor to plan cities using SimCity™ 4 Deluxe software; research and write solutions to an engineering problem; build tabletop scale models with recycled materials; and present their ideas before judges. Berkeley's project was a three-tiered city housed within a dormant volcano. 

 

Baten explained that the team's winning project was based on an essay by two Berkeley 7th graders, Faizan Sagheer and Andre Armero, following an assignment for the entire 7th grade class who were asked to envision their idea of a utopian society after reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. The students were asked to realistically explain how the city's infrastructure, like storm water run-off and power grids, would function. In fact, Berkeley's Hannah Cesaretti's essay on storm water runoff issues - this year's competition theme - was so well articulated that it took the first place prize for Best Essay at the regional competition.

 

We are looking forward to continue planning 2040 with these very dedicated and talented student visionaries!

 Thursday, March 28

4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

in the  

Planning Commission Boardroom 

on the 18th floor at

County Center 

601 E Kennedy Boulevard Downtown Tampa 

 

Light refreshments

will be served.  

 

We want to have an open conversation about the open space and recreational use policy in the County's Comprehensive Plan. The Future Land Use Element Policy 14.5 requires new development provide 25% open space, including 5% functional recreation. We've heard that achieving this is difficult on infill sites and want to hear your ideas for potential solutions or revisions to this policy. For more information, contact Marcie Stenmark, AICP, at 813.273.3774 x364 or stenmarkm@plancom.org.

 

A:  The Green ARTery 

 

The Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and the City of Tampa partnered to develop the Tampa Walk-Bike Plan. Two phases of the Tampa Walk-Bike Plan have been completed:  Phase I identified candidate projects to connect the surrounding neighborhoods to each of the City's three major business centers (Downtown, Westshore, and USF) and Phase II filled-out a grid of bicycle and pedestrian facilities in Central Tampa and South Tampa.

Phase III of Tampa's Walk-Bike Plan has two major objectives: 

1. To work with the Green ARTery community organization, City of Tampa Transportation Division, and City of Tampa Planning Division to refine the Green ARTery "Perimeter Trail" concept
2. To complete the coverage of the City by identifying bicycle and pedestrian connectivity opportunities in New Tampa  

About 40 people brought their ideas about this trail route to the first interactive workshop held in February. Now it's your turn to bring your ideas to an upcoming workshop from 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. on:

• March 27 at the Rogers Park Golf Course Clubhouse, 7911 N 30th St in Tampa - focusing on the East Seminole Heights, East Ybor, Hampton Terrace, Rogers Park, and Southeast Seminole Heights neighborhoods
• April 24 at the DeSoto Park Community Center, 2617 Corrine St in Tampa - focusing on Palmetto Beach, Encore, South Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights, and V.M. Ybor neighborhoods
• May 29 at the Seminole Heights Garden Center, 5800 N Central Ave in Tampa - focusing on East Tampa, Historic Ybor, Old Seminole Heights, Ridgewood Park, and Woodland Terrace neighborhoods   

For persons in need of special accommodations, please contact Michele Ogilvie at 813.273.3774 x317, or ogilviem@plancom.org, at least three business days prior to the public meeting you wish to attend.