DESTIN — As the city’s Town Center Community Redevelopment Area continues to struggle with sagging property values and tremendous debt, its residents and business owners have no shortage of ideas on how to improve the area.
“I think we need to start making Main Street a center for activity,” said Ron Sandstead, co-owner of Flutterby Antiques. “You can’t get people to Main Street by threatening them; you have to make it fun.”
During a Town Center CRA Advisory Committee meeting last week, stakeholders were invited to attend and share their opinions on how to improve the area. About a half dozen people attended.
For Sandstead and his wife Michele, who serves on the Advisory Committee, Destin’s strict regulations may be one of the culprits.
“My wife and I have struggled getting people to Main Street for 11 years,” he said.
“I think a lot of it has to do with signage,” Sandstead added. “I think we should consider a banner (across the road) for Main Street. It would just get everyone’s attention.”
Tom Holt, who operates the Main Street Market with his wife Amy, said the number of visitors to the Saturday market has decreased by 40 percent since it opened a few months ago.
“We can’t get people down there,” he said. “We can’t have signs … We’re (the city) all about enforcement and prohibiting.
“It amazes me that we don’t already have signs advertising what’s on Main Street,” Holt added. “What mechanisms are there in place to help bring in change?”
The simple solution for Holt was to use a portable electronic sign that could be placed at the intersection of Main Street and U.S. Highway 98. The sign would notify people the market is open, in addition to other activities underway.
Holt said vendors at the Sunday farmer’s market in Rosemary Beach can make about $500, while they can make only about $65 in Destin.
He said the market’s future is in doubt.
“It’s either going to flourish or it’s going to die a slow, painful death,” he said.
The Town Center CRA is bounded on the north and east by Airport Road, on the south by U.S. 98 and on the west by Beach Drive. It includes the Downtown Destin and Shores shopping centers as well as property fronting Main Street between Harbor Boulevard and Airport Road.
For developer Peter Bos, Main Street is in dire need of changes as it relates to ordinances and regulations that hamper those who may want to develop a commercial project. He said there are other areas of Destin that are more attractive to developers at the moment, which doesn’t help.
“Right now, if nothing changes it’s not going to be built on,” he said. “What is it that we can do to start raising money for this road?”
After listening to the comments, advisory committee Chairman Joe Rector said the city must take action sooner rather than later.
“We need to get the ball moving forward on this,” he said.
Committee member Lockwood Wernet agreed and proposed several recommendations — all approved unanimously — to help with signage issues along Main Street.
The committee recommended placing a sign promoting the Main Street Market on Destin’s Town Center CRA sign at Main Street and U.S. 98, while also considering installing an electronic sign at the same location.
At the suggestion of Rick Johnson, co-owner of Merlin’s Pizza, Wernet also recommended the city consider either numbers or letters that would designate streets and attractions for motorists, similarly to what is done in Panama City Beach.
The final recommendation was to form a seven-member blue ribbon panel of developers, residents and business owners to look at other ways to help revitalize the Town Center CRA.
“It would be awesome to get our (committee) seats filled and to get people at these meetings and involved,” Rector said. “It’s hard to know what everybody wants … Public opinion is what helps sway things.”