Maintaining that character was important to neighborhood residents , as was delivering on their desired parking preferences . The team ’ s initial design called for eliminating parking on one side of the street to make room for designated bike lanes , but when they took the concept to the public for input , it was soon evident they had other thoughts .
Tampa resident Kelly Grimsdale has owned property on Columbus Drive for more than 20 years and was serving as president of the neighborhood association at the time . Grimsdale , pictured at right , remembers sending texts to fellow residents to let them know the meeting was coming up .
“ We all wanted to provide our input to make sure that the project served our neighborhood in the way that we needed it to serve us ,” said Grimsdale , now vice president of the V . M . Ybor Neighborhood Association .
When the project team started presenting plans that incorporated bike lanes , she and her neighbors pushed back .
“ For people in our neighborhood , that didn ’ t make sense along that corridor because a lot of the houses either had limited parking on the sites or they didn ’ t have parking at all ,” she said . “ They were going to make bike lanes on the road and then designated parking on one side , and the neighborhood really needed parking on both sides , so we asked for the bike lanes to not be included , and they listened to us .”
Hardie said it was soon clear that on-street parking wasn ’ t a want but rather a need , “ so we decided to pivot greatly
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