Guest Book
July 24, 2007
Please post your comments and thoughts on the United Vision project and the City of Titusville.
Separately, we are also asking for your personal response to the question, “What does ‘Small Town Atmosphere’ mean to you? Please respond directly to this question HERE.
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You need to take a trip down South street from SR50 to the downtown area. It is an awful sight. The road itself is bad, and the scenery isn’t much better. We certainly don’t need anymore storage units on that road. We could use some restauraunts and business that are going to lure folks to the downtown area, but we need to make it safe. As soon as you get to the Rock Pit Road area if you haven’t turned around already you are surely going to. It is awful there to US1. Those two horrible looking motels on US1 are a mess. Then you have all the unkempt areas along Deleon and South Park. Its really sad that the Sheriff station sits right there. Why isn’t the police station there? The Sherriffs dept. should be on 50 giving it better access to 95. The Titusville Police Department should be where it could do the most good. If you don’t clean up the areas on Park and Deleon close to the downtown area no one will come here. You can’t go through there at night. Poor toursists have been mugged and carjacked there already. They get lost and end up in the bad part of town which is our downtown and they are out of luck. Its a mess.
Oh and the speeding through school zones in this town is disgusting. The Police Department could recoup their budget shortfall and then some just by sitiing there and writing tickets in the mornings and afternoons. I sit in the car line at two schools here Apollo and Jackson. Jackson seems to be the worst in the afternoon. Why aren’t there more officers giving tickets there. I have a school zone almost directly in front of my home on Knox Mcrae near Park and people speed through it like it wasn’t even there. These are elementary school kids kindergarten and up walking riding bikes to Apollo and they can’t give them 3 extra minutes of their time so they can get home safely. There are really so many things wrong. We need more entry level positions in this town because unfortunatley most of the people living here are not educated enough to obtain higher paying jobs, but they still need to live.
We need more for the young people in this town to do. There aren’t enough jobs to employ the young people, and the retirees and the moms that need partime positions. We need a nice movie theatre that drug dealers don’t stand outside of at night. We need parks the kids can use that don’t have folks hanging out in them using drugs and worse.
Get the nudists off our beaches so they can be for all of the public. We have great beaches but no one will take their kids there because of all the naked dirty old men hanging out there. Its not intended for that purpose so fix it.
How about no more condos. Maybe some waterfront restaurants where you could actually dock for lunch or dinner. Clean all the trash along the river. I went jetskiing the other day it is embarrassing all of the trash in the river. Not to mention hazards that boaters could get hurt on. Could you make the citizens a little more welcoming to newcomers? I know that may not be possible, but it would be nice. How about no more low incoome housing. It creates a bigger burden to our schools, medical care, and taxpayers. Oh and the new project for the Needs a miracle Mall area. Putting housing above the business is going to create a problem. It will limit the types of business that can be placed there. The people living there will complain about noise etc. and business owners will not be happy having to limit hours to accomodate residents. Not to mention the crime. We really need to get a lid on that before we can move forward in this town.
Why is all of the low cost housing always built in one part of town if its good for everybody why not put them by the river or in Windover or why wouldn’t the folks at Emperial give them a nice warm welcome? We all know why and nobody says it. It’s crime, the whole lifestyle that goes along with low income uneducated families. Well you need to stop building low income housing altogether if you wouldn’t put it just anywhere.
We need a recreation park like Port St. John. Or how about a nice shopping complex like Viera. Why not Lagoon like Daytona. Or how about Dave and Busters like Jacksonville. Some more water recreational business. Like jetski rentals or boat tours, fishing tours, lunch and dinner sails. The big issue is money though nobody has any here. We need more jobs, crime prevention, activities for young people to keep them from spending their time drinking and doing drugs. I don’t think you have a clue what really goes on in this town, most teens who use drugs start at 12, drinking too. It is really scary how many kids are using too. Whats scarier is how many parents say not my kid. My daughter went to middle school here and it was awful.
That brings up another topic we need more middle schools especially. They are really overcrowded. I’m not sure how your going to do it. This town has been neglected for so long.
You seem to mess up the things that are working and do nothing about the things that aren’t. Like I could have done without a new trash can and less service and would have been alot happier with more police officers to keep our town safe. Or the new Park conveniently placed right in front of the three new monsters on the river, what was wrong with SandPoint? Why couldn’t you have cleaned that up instead with its falling Pavillion. With the money you spent there you could have really put a shine on Sandpoint. I noticed the beautiful docking facility that was made possible by the city for the three monsters on the river why doesn’t our town have something like that available to it?
Can you please do something about th hookers that pick up dates on Park in front of the park for the kids and then take then down to Garden towards Canaveral to do their business in the bushes along the water. Yeah I have been making notes and paying attention.
Why are so many middle school plus kids seen roaming the streets and not in school.
I could go on for days. Can you please do something?
Good luck. First comment I want to bring up is Sisson Road. Please drive the two plus miles of Sisson Road, from Hwy 50 to Hwy 405. At present, by my count, there are nine subdivisions being built in one stage or another and what a mess Sisson is. Pot holes over potholes, the road is failing in many areas, traffic is becoming very heavy, cars weave to avoid the potholes, and its a two lane road. Who would approve all these new homes, townhomes, and condos and not widen and improve the road. Its a disgrace. I am no longer growth orientated, due to politics, lack of planning, lack of road, lack of water, and I think with the recent hurricanes, real estate tax increases, insurance premium increases, the growth will take care of itself. The real estate market is flat, and will continue to be for the next two years. And in Titusville and North Brevard, we are facing the threat of economic calamity with the layoffs and the spin off of the layoffs. I figure that with 3,500 people getting layed off (and I may be conservative)that 1,500 will be from Titusville, and that will affect approximately 8,000 residents. Interesting times ahead.
As I have conflicting schedules, I cannot attend the Workshop but would like to offer a comment for consideration.
Here in Florida we have a natural energy resource which is provided to us free. We just have to put those resources to use. I think a Solar energy program should be offered to the city residents and a reporting system that publishes the amount of oil saved by the use of solar energy by the city and its residents.
Solar energy systems is not cost effective at this time but cost effectiveness should not be a consideration. The loss of the space shuttle program could be mitigated by converting to alternate energy research and development.
Thanks for listening.
One of the clearest signs that an elected body has lost touch with the people that elected them is when that elected body starts spending tax money on useless projects like “establishing a vision.” Suggest that this “Titusvillevision project” be terminated immediately and the remaining funds dedicated to the project be used to reduce Titusville taxes.
best feature: Low housing prices compared to those within 30 mile radius
challenges: 2010 and believe by many residents and leaders that wealth redistribution from the productive to the unproductive is good.
Titusville in 20 years? not much different than today, just more worn out. I can see no reason a successful business owner would want to risk his personal and company’s future in Titusville.
A person starts a business to make a profit. If they can’t make a profit, only the most foolish would invest money / time to start a business. I challenge the council to come up with and share a list of 5 reasons a business owner could be more profitable in Titusville than surrounding area with similar access to river, beach, highways, port.
I’ve been living in Titusville for the past 5 years and I can’t help but wonder where the Code Enforcement people spend their time. If one takes a good look at the city and surrounding areas, it is very apparent that “Code Enforcement” has fallen by the wayside. The condition of the area in general is less than adequate as far as ascetetics. Abandoned furniture lines the streets, trash fallen from the Sanitation trucks is littering the streets, abandoned buildings abound and are unkempt, neighborhoods are neglected as far as painting, lawn cutting, repair, etc., in short, Titusville presents an eyesore to the incoming and local traffic. This city has endless possibilities for becoming a nice, pleasant, attractive place to live, SO, WHAT HAPPENED????
I moved to Titusville when it was the Miracle City. No longer. With the space program winding down, and a five year plus hiatus in launching schedule, I think we have serious problems with budget, roads, job growth (which is non-existent with the exception of retail and service jobs)and lets forget about the workforce housing. Prices are down significantly and teachers and poolice officers can afford housing now much easier than two years ago. Take that off the table because it does not exist as a problem anymore.
The first thing that has to be done is to cut the budget, and start weaning the staff, as our growth is over and I believe that we will see some of our seniors move back north due to the cost of living here. Second, lets do something on the river, and at least start the river walk. I have been to many communities around Florida, and some of the cities aka Stuart, Clearwater have done a great job on the waterfront. Lets have a venue on line that we can chat with each other, and city staff so we can all come together at one time with ideas.
Well, it doesn’t look like you’re getting an awful lot of positive comments or, for that matter, a lot of comments at all. Perhaps we have more of a problem than our city fathers would like to have us think. Surely the six items listed on the “Save the Date” postcard can’t be all there is.
Shall we begin by asking you to please look at the postcard itself. Look at the photo of what should be “Beautiful Sandpointe Park”. Notice how well the grass is kept. How nicely the walkway is edged and trimmed. How nice, clean and in perfect order the pavillions look. Notice how the walkways have been beautifully black-topped and the trees and shrubs trimmed. Aren’t you proud of that park? Frankly, I’m not. Nor are many people in Titusville. But, that you would choose that photo is surely indicative of the level of quality you seek for our city.
Yes, those six items are very important. They surely will be important factors in the future of T’ville. But, it’s not those items themselves. It’s how do we get there? What steps should be taken the achieve the goals which MIGHT be set by these workshops? There should be an immediate beginning. Some finite decisions in order to achieve success for our future growth.
Titusville is a diverse city. Three beautiful country clubs. Multi-million dollar condominiums and river front mansions mix with tar paper shacks. Hundred year old buildings house theaters and restaurants while prostitutes operate unscathed on our poverty ridden streets. Fantastic river front views are marred by unkempt parcels of land often patronized by the homeless. Businesses attracted by recent growth fail for lack of support and lower income residents struggle for survival. Is there a solution?
Begin by saying that City Planning is not limited to the location of shopping centers or the step-by-step growth found in text books. There MUST be an overall plan which would not only control the growth, it would control the quality of that growth and the overall management of the quality of life in Titusville.
Begin, please, with a look at the building and maintenance codes for the City of Titusville. Are they adequate? Are they realistic? Are they enforceable? If the answer to these is unacceptable, then, fix it!! Clean up our city! Enforce its regulations. Require city workers to work a full 8-hour day and replace those supervisors who fail to perform. If we can’t afford inspectors, start a volunteer inspector program. Ask retired seniors to volunteer. Train them. Get them out on the streets writing citations. Watch how quickly Titusville Shapes UP. Noting gets
more action than that which hits the pocket. A couple of dozen fines in the right places will surely help.
That’s an ongoing project…. inspection - citation - follow-up. But, what about the city’s own maintenance program? Titusville, a city of 65,000 people owns but ONE street sweeper. But, for the last year or so, it has been inoperable. When’s the last time you saw Titusville’s street sweeper in operation? Perhaps those same “volunteer inspectors” might also check up on our water, sewer and maintenance departments. Do you suppose we’d have some action there too?
Surely we realize that appearance is 90% of ones first impression. IF our city looked like quality, perhaps we’d attract some quality. It’s a good place to start.
PRESERVING OPEN SPACE, ETC.
Unless you’re looking to change the existing plans, why not simply enforce them. Avoid variances of any type. Require compliance with the existing plans. Don’t allow the developers to ruin the natural beauty of our city. The odds are against us if we bend the rules for the big guys.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT AND REDEVELOPMENT will happen IF we make the rules and regulations work. Nobody wants to come into a messy town with a new, expensive project. Once we show them quality, they’ll bring more. Attract developers by showing them a city with definition. A clean, progressive city with goals and aspirations that reach high and have high standards.
I, for one, have high hopes for Titusville. I know that with some strict application of the rules, we can have a terrific Titusville. I surely look forward to seeing it happen and I hope our elected officials will take hold, bite the bullet and put an end to the downward spiral.
Good luck to us all.
Please include for discussion the growing problem of illiteracy facing our community. In recent years the illiteracy rate for Brevard has risen from 18 to 24% of the adult population. This impacts our community in many ways including: parents helping children with homework, students dropping out of school before graduation, the workforce in employment and job promotion, the health of our community, knowledgable voting, and community service.
Margie Kinslow
Executive Director
Literacy Alliance of Brevard
609 Garden Street
Titusville, FL 32796
321-917-8952
additional “mixed” comment.
From a citizen standpoint - a good thing about titusville is very little traffice
But from a business owner, that’s one more reason not to open a business in Titusville. Business needs a growing population. While Titusville had some growth during the real estate bubble, the population seems to be about where it was 10-15 years ago. For a business that needs a growing population to become more profitable, Titusville just isn’t the place to be.
part time resident three years–
Good luck on your vision project.
I hope that Titusville realizes what a unique position it has, to be able to make decisions about its future. Most of the Florida coast has already made these decisions, and is living with the resulting high rises, shopping and traffic.
With a little foresight and long range planning, Titusville will be able to take advantage of its natural beauty and location, and will resemble St. Augustine rather than Melbourne.
Please have the vision to forgo short term gain in favor of long term value, and Titusville real estate will be a hundred times more valuable in the future than most of the coastal cities.
Let’s take care of the spectacular blessings that Nature has bestowed upon us!! Titusville will be a charmed city in the future, if the right decisions are made now.
Just outside of town, there’s a small hotel, four floors high. A girl used to sunbathe there every day. Since there were no higher buildings near it, she decided one day to take off her bathing suit and be in the nude. So, there she was in the nude, lying on her stomach, when she heard a man pounding heavily up the steps. She grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her. The man said, “I wish you wouldn’t sunbathe up here.” She said, “You never protested before.” He said, “No, but before you were wearing your bathing suit.” She said, “Why do you care? I’m up too high for anyone to see me.” He said, “Madam, you happen to be lying on the skylight of the dining room.”
Despite how anyone may feel personally about nudity, it’s time for everyone in Titusville to acknowledge that nude sunbathers are an important part of Titusville’s future just as they have been an important part of Titusville’s past for more than sixty years.
They have been among us since World War II, not on the skylight over the dining room but in a little corner of Playalinda Beach where they bother no one, but where a lot of people try to bother them.
Why are they important?
Because thousands come here every year, making some half-million or more trips through our streets and into our business places on their way to and from the northern end Playalinda Beach. Unlike the bikers who roar through twice a year or the birders who chirp in once a year, or the Shuttle watchers who stomp on our grass and clog our streets for a few hours every now and then, the skinny dippers are here quietly EVERY DAY.
No one ever sees them with their clothes off unless they go a long way out of their way to look. No one even knows they’re here unless someone tries to get rid of them as they are now to fulfil some personal, political, or religious agenda. In fact, the skinny dippers are so inconspicuous most of the time few people realize they might be living next door, pushing the cart in front of them at the supermarket, or sitting in the next pew in church.
We took a survey this summer, and you know what we found? Ninety percent of all the people who go to the clothing optional area of Playalinda Beach are our fellow Floridians; a third of them live right here in Brevard County, and half of those are from the immediate Titusville area. They are retirees, lawyers, doctors, scientists, workers at the cape, business people, teachers, nurses, and even ministers and politicians. Nude sunbathers come from all walks of life.
To them, the naked body on the beach is not an object of sexual temptation, but as our churches teach, the temples of our souls, and we treat them that way.
But beside the question of human rights, there is an important–selfish–reason for you to include them in Titusville’s future: As the bottom falls out of the building boom leaving hundreds of unsold homes and condos in our midst, as NASA nears the end of the shuttle program, and–as you read in the local paper this week–the cruise ship industry bypasses our nearest port, the nude sunbathers, invisible as they are in their little corner of Playalinda Beach, bring tons of money into our local economy.
Not only are these naturists who live among us paying rent, taxes and mortgages, buying food, clothing, and automobiles, all locally, but others travel here in great numbers from all over the United States, in fact from all over the world using our bait and tackle shops, our stores, restaurants, motels, and entertainment venues, of which they wish there were more and better choices.
On a recent weekend our survey found people from Australia, Costa Rica, Italy, and Poland, as well as from nineteen different states of the union from New York, to Indiana, to California, and Hawaii.
Each one of these tourists, by an estimate of the Space Coast Tourists Bureau, spends an average 341-dollars a day. Those who live here, like the rest of us, spend virtually all of their income here.
Between the locals, including Floridians from as far away as Pensacola, Sarasota, Tampa, and Miami and out-of-state and foreign tourists, it all adds up to well over a hundred million dollars a year pouring into Titusville and environs from nude sunbathers–a hundred million dollars. But recent actions by the superintendent of the Canaveral National Seashore has placed these gentle people in danger of being arrested, hit with a $500 ticket or jail for simply sitting peacefully in their little corner of the beach.
Superintendent Carol Clark has abrogated a commitment made by her predecessor to erect signage similar to that which once stood at crossover 13: BEYOND THIS POINT YOU MAY ENCOUNTER NUDE SUNBATHERS. Such signs were first put up in 1995 after county commissioners passed an ordinance designed to keep nude sunbathers off other beaches in the county, including the other 12 beaches at Playalinda. These signs told naturists where they can go and told others where not to go. But they have since been taken down, and Superintendent Clark has put up other signs that confuse and confound nudists and non-nudists alike. To fulfil a personal agenda of her own, she has started a war that smacks to us like something very similar to ethnic cleansing.
Various naturists organizations are attempting to solve this problem peacefully with her superiors, but in the meantime she has already frightened away hundreds of these tourists. It’s time for you to join our fight against a personal agenda that is making trouble for everyone, driving away nice people, and taking money out of Titusville’s pockets.
Urge her to leave the skinny dippers alone behind proper signs in their tiny corner of the beach, and they’ll promise to stay off the skylight over the dining room and continue to quietly pouring millions of dollars into our economy. Driving them away can only lead to more empty houses and closed businesses in Titusville.
I’ll conclude with the words of Pope John Paul II, who said: “Because God created the human body, it can remain nude and uncovered and preserve its splendor and its beauty.”
A Gathering Threat … Gangs!
Another category that is recommended for public input to the United Vision initiative should include “Community-wide Health, Safety and Well-being.” Otherwise there’s a perception that the objective of the united vision quest is to serve the economic benefit for a privileged few. I believe the greatest challenge facing Titusville is the increasing number of youth becoming at-risk. I recognize this phenomenon as a gathering threat that has already manifested itself into increased violent crimes in our recent past, and will continue into our future to seriously affect the overall health to our community and any economic development visions. Orlando failed to recognize this same pattern of behavior in its communities at-risk, and as a consequent, it experienced increased slayings, rapes, robberies, assaults and other violent crimes spread throughout its surrounding areas causing major economic impacts, death and fear in the city. Orlando basically declared a near state of emergency in which the State, Federal and nonprofit entities are working with local sheriff and police authorities who are still attempting to correct this deadly problem.
Last year, Titusville experienced a deadly trend that averaged a slaying nearly every month. Titusville Leadership who represents our economic interests, health and safety concerns should not continue to ignore this serious issue with inaction. This threat continues to perpetuate itself through increasing numbers of at-risk youth from mostly low social-economic neighborhoods dropping out of school, displaced from their homes and thrust into near survival posture that tends to lead them onto a trail of criminal activities. Unfortunately, many at-risk youth have already evolved themselves into a sub-culture less mainstream and emerging through perpetual cycles of behaviors much less conducive to good citizenship values. Illicit drug trade, robberies, assaults and other harsh crimes fuel this condition that’s nearly reflective of a mini rogue nation of third world order within the backyards of our own community.
This situation continues to grow and poses a likely probability of harm to you and me, but especially our families and loved ones because these at-risk youth already attend school with our children, live within our community not far from our homes. Orlando found itself nearly besiege from violent incidents because they failed to recognize the symptoms of its gathering threat until it was too late, and it impacted their economic well-being which scared tourist and potential business away. Innocent citizens are assaulted and killed during home invasions, carjacking; convenient store robberies, holdups at banks, pizza shops, ATMs, hotels and restaurant because they are easy targets of opportunity. Yes, you use these places too …and yes, you can become a victim. Today as you read these words, Orlando police authorities and even the Guardian Angels continue their attempts to contain the outgrowth of the threat from a reactionary response mode, but current efforts does not significantly employ adequate intervention or future practical preventive measures. Unfortunately, the Orlando situation will only scattered the criminal elements to other surrounding communities, integrating into our own existing local problems.
This comment is not an attempt to cause you alarm, but to provide an informed reality that confronts us if we choose to ignore it like Orlando. Many of us living here recognize the situation because we live among these youth at-risk, and many of your children or grandchildren interact with them. Few organizations have the ability to provide a prevention/intervention after-school programs to these youths who are socially, academically or environmentally at risk. It is recommended that plans be incorporate into the Titusville United Vision initiative to make available daily after-school educational and real recreational activities to help divert the energies of at-risk youth to broaden their minds and introduce positive avenues for alternative life choices beyond a criminal path of self destruction and harm to those of us.
We must engage the community in this issue and hold all parents and/or guardians accountable for their youth behaviors, and provide a support system to help them with approaches that work. We must put our youth to work through programs to build their employability skills, respect, communication and better decision making by discussing values, human growth and development, relationships, making better choices and increase their awareness of the risks on the dangers of drugs, negative associations and helps them cope with stress and the issues related to the social and emotional transitions from adolescence to adulthood.
It’s time for a transformation in Titusville, and I believe that Titusville Leadership should be at the fore-front of this serious issue to bring collaborative influences to unite local police authorities, churches, non-profit organizations and concern citizens into a pro-active stance to address this gathering threat.
It is so unfortunate that we are faced with this type of problem during our times, but it’s a reality and one issue we just can no longer ignore. We as a community should demonstrate though our action that the life of all our youth has value, and once we can demonstrate that end, then we can concurrently accomplish economic development without facing the threat of harm to our health, safety and well-being.
It is time for the “city of service” to really rally behind that motto. It seems the answer to any new project or redevelopment is simply “no” - not no, but we will help you though the process. No, but we want to work though the issues. ANY project that someone wants to do that is within zoning and land development regulations should be welcomed. I am not writing here about height or “taking our river view”, I am writing about a new office building in place of a run down shack! I am writing about the redevelopment of old commercial buildings along US I, Garden, and Cheney. These developers should be welcomed and warmly.
Other issues - clean up the streets, enforce codes, reward owners who “beautify” their property - no just with an increased tax bill.
Police the parks!
I’d like to address this comment:
“Get the nudists off our beaches so they can be for all of the public. We have great beaches but no one will take their kids there because of all the naked dirty old men hanging out there. Its not intended for that purpose so fix it.”
As a loyal Playalinda Beach lover since 1985 I think the misconceptions posted above really need to be addressed. The nudists take up a very small part of the park although it’s by far the busiest part. It’s the nudists who financially support the park with their entrance fees. I was there on Mother’s Day and saw no “naked dirty old men”. What I did see were families with children, women not afraid to be there alone and lots of couples and small groups of happy people, fun volleyball games and kids playing frisbee. It was a very family oriented scene to say the least. Those folks spend a lot of money in your area. Some are locals and others travel from other continents to be there. I myself now travel from the Tampa area several times a year to enjoy my favorite place on earth.
Please don’t comment on what you know nothing about. The non-nudists have about 90% of the park to use, and the nudists have tried to get proper signage up for years to let people know which tiny part is clothing optional. The park management is to blame for not having that implemented.
And look around at the very trackable dollars at other Florida nude beaches like Haulover Beach where they make several million a year just in parking fees alone. Add to that money spent at local motels, restaurants, etc. Don’t complain about a lack of money in Titusville when you are wanting to throw away millions because you don’t understand that mere skinnydipping is just not so horrible. People have been using Playalinda in the nude for over 60 years. It’s a time honored tradition that shouldn’t be thrown away because some people are not informed as to what nudists are really about.
The only time the beach population becomes lopsided is when those healthy families are chased away by the ignorance shown by the present park management. It’s been proven more than once that if nudists are made to leave a recreation area you end up with the perverts taking over. Indeed, over the past two years there has only been one complaint lodged about the nudity which, as I said, could have probably been prevented had proper signage been in place.
Sorry I missed the meetings. I would like to offer a suggestion: When water usage soars above normal usage, it would be a relatively easy process to configure computers to signal a problem might exist. For example, my water consumption is between 3000 and four thousand gallons a month…not twenty-one thousand gallons. My meter was read on 12.09.07 and my bill wasn’t received until 27.09.07. Had a system been in place to notify me of the unusual water usage; I would have been able to correct the problem and not have continued to waste our precious water resource. The subsequent increase in my October water bill would have been would have been avoided. I talked with a water adjustment person suggesting this simple programing addition and she said we did not have the resources. I believe that we cannot not afford not to make this change to protect our water resource and reduce the economic impact to the individual user and the future of our water resource. Thank you for considering this proposal.
It’s a shame you don’t learn the truth about this place until you have already moved here. I think the worst is yet to come. Most folks I have chatted with are just waiting for the market to stabilize, to sell. At least the nudists have a place to get naked, I hope they can support the city. In the meantime most folks will keep going to Cocoabeach or Daytona. Titusville should take a hard look at Rockledge. Maybe they can learn from their mistakes. I am no longer interested in contributing to this town, just waiting to leave.
Fees for occupational permits have skyrocketed. That type of approach tends to indicate to me and to anyone that the council is anti-business. For example for an occupational permit in Cocoa it only costs between thirty to thirty five dollars. In Titusville it goes over one hundred dollars. What you need to have is for the fee of such a permit to be no more than ten dollars which would be a processing fee. However, I have mentioned this several times at coucnil meetings and it goes into one ear and out the other.
Another issue is what Titusville City Council passed an ordinance not allowing short term rentals. This goes against property rights and it interderes with the rights of parties to contract with each other. If a party that has short term rentals they should not have to ask the city for a permit and they have property rights. There situation should override ythe wishes of any of the other property owners that have been opposed to that.This policy is very totalitarian and extreme. So next time a council member says that there are property right they should be reminded that people only now have limited property rights.
Now that there has been some proerty tax reform (almost nothing) yes council did correctly by loweing the millage rate. However they went ahead and increased the fee for water.Citizens should demand a referendum as an ammendment to the city charter by putting caps on any increase in assesments and/or fees. The only time a fee can increase or an assesment has top be also by population growth AND/OR INCOME INCREASE AND IF IT GOES OVER LET US SAY 3% THEN COUNcIL HAS TO SUBMIT ANY REQUEST TO THE VOTERS VIA REFERENDUM.
One of the council members justified the increase stating costs go up. However and I have said this time and time again that to keep costs down Titusville needs to privatize all departments and that way there would be a savings of between 10 to 20%. Ihabe been saying that since the year 2000. Again, in one ear and out the other. Look at Weston Florida how they did and are saving money along with Aandy Springs Georgia outside of Atlanta.
What good does it do to make comments to something like this when the likelihood is that all our comments will be “interpreted” by someone at the City a consultant on the City payroll to result in whatever the string pullers want the result to be?
I went to one of these things a while back and when it was all over despite almost everyone at the workshop saying they didn’t want more high buildings and they didn’t want the town to grow bigger and bigger the council is still permitting skyscrapers and crammed together houses. All the people that said over and over we didn’t want that were just ignored.
Whoever is going to give the results of these expensive workshops is going to say exactly what he has been told to say—not what the people said they wanted.
The old line controlers at the City want the population to increase so the vocal local business community will be happy. That very self centered business community will only be happy if local government is cranking out more and more new residents.
Population growth means bankers lend money, building contractors keep building, real estate brokers keep getting new commissions, developers keep getting rich and we dummys who live here keep paying for it all. Not just in additional taxes and cost—my taxes went up and my water bill went up—why? because it costs more to provide for all the “new residents” (make that “new customers of the business community”). We don’t just pay in dollars we also pay in our lives as this beautiful SMALL town becomes just another Florida mess because the City fathers won’t say no.
You will never see bankers, contractors, real estate brokers or developers wasting their time at these workshops. They weren’t at the one I went to. Why? because they can stay home, pick up the phone and make a couple of calls to City Hall and to the council members they control and have the results of the citizen’s workshops interpreted to mean “Titusville needs to keep growing”.
You want a comment? Here’s mine. The City is big enough. Other cities write rules that constrain expansion in order to keep a better life for its current residents. I used to live in one. If the City listened to its residents it would be moving in that direction–not cramming more people into less land by building high rises that are totally out of place here.
As usual, I don’t expect my comment nor the ones of most of your other commenters who seem to agree with me to even be considered.
I did not attend the workshops but I have followed this vision thing on the webpage. It sounds like citizens don’t want to try to come up with solutions because they don’t believe they will be listened to. That has probably been their experience here.
Maybe the first step in this process is for whoever it is that holds these vision meetings all the time to get a clue and make sure people here get what they seem to be asking for—a different approach to how the place is being developed.
Anyone who wants to redo an old building or store should be welcomed warmly but developers who want to build more ticky-tacky little houses should be sent down to Palm Bay where ticky-tacky reigns and they don’t have a decent store in town or a road you can drive on either. That’s where we are headed with the “vision” we have had.
I agree with the people who are saying the town is big enough right now.
T. Strawbridge
This is the only place I can find to post a general comment. This Titusville Homepage is not user friendly and is difficult to use.
I found it almost impossible to track down the government TV schedule. It was buried under some department or another. These sites should be easy for normal people to use—not set up as this one is for staffer heads.
I am not getting my dollars worth for the tax money spent on the whole community communications division of the City. The taxpayer supported “Government Access” TV that Titusville puts out is far from informational in regard to allowing the people of Titusville to see their government in action. I have no idea how muelected officials in operation whether it be at the City or County level.ch money is spent on that department but it clearly does not give me enough of an opportunity to see my
1. The public meetings at City Hall are not broadcast and rebroadcast enough during the times people would normally be watching their TV’s. There are meetings being re-broadcast in the middle of the night—like at 2:00AM instead of during normal hours.
2. I am sick of seeing the Florida State Committee on Stormdoor Improvements everytime I turn on Channel 99. I am also sick of seeing obsure State committee meetings of any sort almost everytime I visit the local–repeat local—government channel. Play that state meeting garbage in the middle of the night instead of the Titusville meetings.
3. Most of the day on this channel it seems there is absolutely nothing playing that is of any interest to someone living in Titusville or in Brevard County. I want to see all the meetings that are held at City Hall including the Marina Park and Pier meetings because I can’t make it to them because of physical conditions.
4. I want to see the important Brevard County meetings that affect my County taxes and the School Board meetings that affect my taxes and any other local meetings that affect me. And I want them all rebroadcast often enough through the week that most people can catch them at one time or another without having to stay up till 3:00AM.
I do not want to see the State Committee on Dade County Lawn Maintenance Provider Licensing. Is that clear??? I do not want to see the Army recruitment P.R. spam. (let them buy their own channel). Play that stuff at off hours if you must.
How about looking into your TV scheduling and giving the taxpayers of Titusville what they are paying for—–Access to their local and county government and the decisions that their local government officials are making that affect all our lives.
G.T. Manley
My family moved here several years ago because we liked the small town feeling of Titusville. The kind of things that are being built here now are changing that and it makes us sad. I think the people ought to wake up and tell the city government that Titusville is big enough now and we don’t need to keep getting more and more crowded with all the new houses being built.
Soon the place will look and be just like a Levitt town or some other overcrowded place that noone wants to live in because once you start there is no reason to stop.
I hear the real estate workers telling everyone that Titusville has to grow as if we were stupid and didn’t understand a thing. It is obvious that any place will grow over time but what they want in the way of growth is much more than the citizens want. If they want to make more commissions they should move to Orlando.
I do not believe very many working or retired people who have moved here want Titusville to be the size of Melbourne or Merritt Island. Most of this growth fever is coming from starving real estate salesmen who need to find a job doing something they can be proud of and stop whining about not enough growth in Titusville.
There are plenty of already built homes that people would like to sell. We don’t need more now or in the future.