Small Town Atmosphere
November 1, 2007
What does “Small Town Atmosphere” mean to you?
What should the City do to protect its small town quality?
Please provide your response to these questions below. If your comment is general and not in reference to the questions above, please post them on our general comments page. Comments not directly related to the above questions will not be approved.
*All comments will be held for moderation before they appear publicly. All comments will be approved, assuming that no offensive language or material is submitted. The moderation process will serve only a means to prevent abuse and not as a method of censorship of any kind. You may post as often as you wish. We encourage you to post your name and email; however, anonymous posting is permitted. Submitted email addresses will not be published and will be used only to prevent abuse of the system and permit follow up regarding any comments that may need clarification.
Establish the mechanism for zoning regulations to be replaced by deed restrictions and allow homeowner associations to enforce them. Each homeowner group will decide which deed restrictions they wish to have on their by laws. Abolish all zoning regulations. Houston texas has no zoning regulations. They go by deed restrictions.
Before I answer what a small town atmosphere means to me, let me tell you what I think it is not. It is not a closed-minded attitude; it is not a backward thinking government run by the good ol’ boys. Small towns should be pleasant and forward thinking. They should encourage growth and economic development. They should be full of small shops and good restaurants with pleasant music for dining that cater to locals, neighbors, and tourists. Titusville’s downtown should take a page from the book of such wonderful small town neighbors as Cocoa village, Deland, and New Smyrna Beach. Give people an ongoing reason to go downtown and they will despite the competition of Wal-Mart and Target. Small town atmosphere is more in the mind than it is on the street. If we have the right attitude, we will have the right atmosphere.
“Small-town atmosphere” means a town that is clean, well-maintained, safe day and night, friendly, visually appealing, and uncongested (eg. plenty of space for the number of cars and population.) It would have adequate shopping but not so much concrete the environment is “commercial.” It would have an adequate water supply to allow for watering lawns and parks. It would have parks and a variety of recreational areas for all ages.
I believe a small town atmosphere is both a tangible and intangible. I have lived in several “small towns” and they have been places where you have an open, friendly setting. A place where people know each others names and are not afraid to talk to people they have not met yet. It is a place where people are encouraged and empowered to visit and reward businesses with their patronage and a place that fosters businesses to cater to the needs and wants of its local citizens. It should have a presence to enforce its rules and regulations without being harsh and provide a sense of tranquility so people feel safe to be there. It should provide opportunities for growth with choice vs. growth under pressure. It should be a place that is continually clean and maintained so people can feel a sense of pride and take ownership to keep it that way. A small town atmosphere is a good attitude to life, helping others, welcoming visitors and moving in a forward direction.
Thanks for taking the time to understand our community.
Titusville is my adopted home for the past 15 years. I love the uncongested river community that Titusville is. I do not like the lack of architectural integrity.
The dilapidated buildings need incentive for redevelopment and an architectural program to work within. I would like to see a neo-traditional maritime theme. New buildings need the same guidelines.
The high rise buildings lack architectural character and public access and are out of scale for our home town. They reflect someone else’s pocketbook and disgrace this City.
Titusville has the potential to set its course, but it has to happen efficiently or the development industry will continue to dictate our future.
Height and density need to be managed. I think we can set a height limit of 45′, allowing more height only if there is a balance of varying roof heights to get that urban village look. This can be outlined within a set of architectural guidelines including a height to setback ratio. This will protect our historic buildings, neighborhoods and open spaces from being overshadowed and maintain a hometown scale while allowing a manageable density.
I fully agree with Mr. Ihler’s statement that a community surrounded by green should maintain green spaces within the City. This can be achieved by requiring a percentage of existing canopy preservation on new development; every development can provide a percentage of open space and a neighborhood park for the quality of life of its residents and value appreciation of the homes and land. Also, by public acquisition of our conservation/open space zoned lands and other sensitive areas we can establish recreational corridors within the City to relieve the stress of working life for us.
We need places to go and recreate on a daily basis. We need to be able to get out of our homes and meet people in great open spaces, on neighborhood trails and in downtown mixed use village public spaces surrounded by inspiring open space features and moving architecture.
Hometown, small town Titusville can be an active but uncongested human scale maritime/space city USA - City that people love, take pride in and want to call home. And visitors have all of this and more to come back for.
I hope Titusville’s future will grow as an ecotourism City, limited in resident density but capitalizing on tourism due to the natural resources around us and the architectural and natural beauty within the City.
I hope Titusville develops a warm ecotourism character, maintains a low density, keeps the building height to setback ratios very strong, thus limiting overall height.
Small town atmosphere? I live in one up north, and Titusville. Similarities: the small theater, excellent public access to natural areas, a still functioning downtown, lush natural surroundings full of wildlife, lack of non stop never ending shopping. While growth came to our small town up north, it did so on the outskirts of town similar to what is going on here, but we don’t have to deal with 4 lanes of US 1 going through the middle. Now imagine if you would what it would be like if we ran US 1 through Cocoa Village. It’s funny at first to think of theater goers running for their lives, the traffic roar so loud that folks can’t eat outside, but that is what we have to deal with. Our “Cocoa Village needs to be on the East and West Cross streets of US 1. Let’s really drop the speed limit in the down town section. School speed limits are 15 mph because people are present. I think we want people present, so just slow the traffic down and really develop the side streets.
Titusville’s small town atmosphere could be enhanced with better landscaping, better code enforcement(which has recently begun), and assisting the local and out-of-town developers with guidelines and incentives. We have several hard-working members on the city staff but it is very difficult to get through a lot of the processes required. We need a real vision for the city and commitment to work toward it.
I hope to live long enough to live in a vibrant, walkable downtown with cafes, shops, offices, and room for a diverse population. I hope that is Downtown Titusville in the next 2 - 5 years.
Many long time residents tell me that it will never happen. Many of the CAVE (Citizens Against Virtual Everything)people, say downtown is dead and will never be anything but shabby used furniture and book stores. I have decided to work to change that and put my money into improving my properties (and I do not mean just paint) and so are others.
I believe that Titusville is getting better from the new shopping centers at I-95 to the renovations of the shopping plazas on Cheney and Garden, to the efforts made in downtown. Our new park is magificent and as are all the downtown parks - maintained - but still need improvements and activites to draw residents to them.
However, most the high dollar property bought with $10 million waterfront bonds is not even mowed! Why are the taxpayers in debt for 20 years to buy property that we can’t maintain? Why are we taking property that was generating tax dollars off the tax rolls if we don’t have money to care for them? What would have been so terrible about redeveloping and/or developing with restaurants, shops, and condos? Again, vision and a way to pay for it is missing. I know plenty people would like to DRIVE up and down US 1 and not see a building on the river, but that is not possible - we can’t afford that as tax payers. Wouldn’t it be nice to have restaurants and shopping along the river, so we could do something beside DRIVE US 1 and SEE THE RIVER from a car? Why not walk or drive a bike to restaurant for lunch?
Titusville has a lot of appeal and we attract those who want what we have - beautiful waterfront, relativity speaking affordable housing, quaint downtown, great fishing, lots of activities focused around nature (kayaking, bird-watching)light traffic, and easy commute to the airport and Orlando. Let me not forget, great people are a part of the draw. That is small town atmosphere!
1) A small town is not urban. Never wants to be urban. One important fact is the height of the buildings; small towns are not high rises heaven. Don’t we have enough approved high rises to satisfy everyone? Residential does not need to be more that 45 - 50 feet max. Four story max.
2) Small towns are small because of the size of their population. Titusville’s current population is around 45,000; with approved projects and those that are currently under construction in Titusville, we will be at 50,000+ very soon. I would not be surprized that by the time we have the 2010 census we are at 50,000. Anything larger than 50,000 moves us away from a small town and toward a metro area. We will need to develop a land use map that support a population of 50,000.
3) Small towns have manageable traffic. People can get around town without having, or being impacted, by road rage. People do not sit through two or four redlights before they can move forward. Were you here in 2004 trying to get onto and move on I95 with all your neighbors? What will it be the next time? Titusville is identified as a coastal high hazard area because, it is. The vision and the comp plan needs to consider this important issue with foresight.
4) A small town offers more than 50 foot wide lots for single family homes. What is now being builded in Titusville are bigger and bigger houses on smaller and smaller lots. A small town can and should have a range of homes that includes estate homes. Why is this important? Density. We need a way to control density if we are truly going to stay a small town. Estate homes does more than help density, the people who want these kind of homes bring businesses and jobs to Titusville. We need them, and we should want them to be here.
5) Small towns value and protect their natural resources. Stop clear cutting natural areas. We were a tree city. What happened to that value?? A natural environment is compatible with the vision of a small town and it serves the human being and their sense of well being. Protect conservation areas for furture generations. The conservation areas could be part of the density control issue if we so desired.
6) Small towns value and protect their historic buildings and sites. They also protect them from encroachment by overbearing developments and demands on the our fraigle infrastructure.
To maintain Titusville as a “small town”, we write a comp plan and land use map with supporting LDR’s that support the vision and the goals of the community. Thank you.
New development looking cutesy and “small town” DOES NOT make for a small town but… The absence of crowds, massive “brick and mortar”, signs, traffic, pollution, trash in a town WHERE Law and Order can be established and maintained WHERE The “town” belongs to the people who are heard by the City “Fathers” who can be trusted to work FOR the citizens and not their own personal gain and if they don’t, something can be done about it WHERE Citizens respect and care for one another and take pride in their homes and businesses and everyone feels safe for good reason, ALL, certainly contribute to the small town atmosphere.
What part of “small” don’t some people understand? Small Town means a town that does not have thousands and thousands of people being crowded into less and less space because the local realtor/developer/banker/merchant machine wants more paying customers. Local people being forced to accept less and less in the way of City services in order to provide those services to more and more new residents is “not” a small town atmosphere. “Big Town” town means a lot of people. Small Town town means not a lot of people.
Small Town means buildings and structures that are not huge and imposing like those built recently on the river. Those new buildings look like they belong in Chicago or New York’s Financial District not in a “small town”.
Small Towns have low water bills because there is not a constant demand for more and more city water as the supply dwindles. People in Small Towns don’t have to sit at 2 or more stop lights waiting for the line of traffic to creep ahead because somebody just built another 1000 home subdivision and left town with his money. New growth doesn’t pay for itself. Titusville grew a lot the last few years. My taxes went up and so did my water bill.
What’s the magic “people” number that’s realistic for Titusville before it is forever lost to “bigness”? Probably the 45-50,000 population some other comment mentioned. Certainly no more than that. Can a City legally control population? Of course it can.–by controlling how it’s land is developed.
Practical answers for how to achieve this? Its done in small towns all over the country with regulations that require lots of open area actually “between houses”, making commercial developers leave abundant space or parks around and between their buildings regardless of how loud they scream, putting serious limits on the number of units built on one piece of land, not letting buildings be taller than about three or four floors, setting the boundaries of the City at something a lot more manageable than whatever it is in Titusville now, and requiring that if you build something new you have to pay the full 100% hit for the full cost of all your new services including water,roads, police, fire and schools. Those things are all legal and they will limit the number of new homes that can be constructed.
Titusville doesn’t do any of that now. Instead everything possible is done to give Titusville a “Big Town” atmosphere because there are still some people here who think it is 1986 and the City is “depressed”. Where have they been the last 20 years? By constantly telling us the city is depressed they can distract us from the fact that Titusville is still a good place to live and their “growth fixation” is about to turn it into a “big town” which won’t be a good place to live anymore.
It all boils down to this: “Small town atmosphere” is not possible when the primary goal is to “Grow our City”. When the priority changes to “Provide a Small Town Atmosphere and make Titusville a nice place to live for Residents” maybe we will actually achieve what people say they want in a place to make their homes.
(and please don’t somebody try to tell us that any town no matter what size or population or how big the buildings are or how crowded the roads and schools are can still have a “small town atmosphere” if it’s “planned properly”. What nonsense.–we’re not that dumb yet, I hope, and we can all recognize baloney when we hear it.)
Paul Tillney
What creates a “Small Town Atmosphere”?
1. Normal size buildings—no highrise condos and no other buildings over two or three stories high. Big tall buildings belong in big, big cities—not here.
2. More large trees and lots more flowers and less asphalt everywhere.
3. Not a lot of people—a small town atmosphere requires a small population—30,000 or less.
4. Schools that are safe and not overcrowded.
5. Parks instead of concrete
6. A downtown with a place for people to park their cars that is not a highrise parking garage
7. Plenty of water to water lawns and not just for building more houses.
8. Friendly merchants that appreciate my business instead of chain stores
What to do to achieve this “small town atmosphere”?
1. Stop building more and more and more houses on every piece of land in town. Leave room between
houses.
2. Make it so expensive to build here that only the very nicest of subdivisions can be built—raise the quality of the housing by reducing the availability of easy rezoning.
3. Make it a requirement for builders to leave all the natural trees over a certain size in place and make them build their houses around them. Odd shaped lots are better than little square ones anyway. Deny future permits for 5 years to any builder who cuts down trees by “mistake”.
4. Do not allow anyone to build another highrise condominium on the River.
5. Keep the marina area for people with boats and not for developers.
6. Pay attention to what people say they want over and over—–they don’t want a big city here.
Thank you, M.D. Regionni
I move here from a larger city because Titusville was a smaller town with less people. In the last 5 years I have seen changes that move away from that small town look and feel.
I am happy you are trying to keep the look and feel like a small town.
I do not like the tall buildings that were built in the city. They are not what I expect to see in a small town I like. A small town does not have such high apartments and towers. A small town atmosphere does not have so many cars racing through the middle of the downtown center.
A small town has many trees, pretty houses and friendly people. It has peaceful parks and most of all it has a lower population than the other cities in Brevard County that are overrun with new construction.
I do not care if this city I live in has a lot of restaurants since most of them are fast food restaurants. I also do not care if I drive a few minutes to Viera or Orlando for major shopping. We have fine shopping here now. In a small town you have smaller type stores.
It is time to stop trying to have bigger and more of everything and appreciate what is here now and hold onto it without letting so much building change the peacefulness to frenzy.
I recommend lowering the number of houses that can be built every year and buying more riverfront for the people and having houses and buildings that are smaller in stature.
Thank you for allowing my thoughts.
Singyn Patel
Found this site looking for a way to pay my water bill on line. No luck.
I am glad someone is doing something to have a vision for T’vill because it sure needs one.
To me small town atmosphere means what we had when we were children in Florida—Lots of room and lots of green everywhere–not just some landscaping. Stop tearing down everything that grows when things are built and quit building houses and parking lots that cover an entire piece of ground. And no skyscrapers, either. Leave something for the wild animals to live in and stop polluting the river.
A small town is a place you have churches and people are not afraid to speak to one another. Melbourne is not my idea of a small town. Neither is Orlando or Daytona or Merritt Island either. Titusville could have a small town atmosphere if some changes were made to actually keep it small.
Terry Strawbridge
Small Town Atmosphere–what does it mean?
Take a look at the slide show of photos on this page. There are 11 photos running. 9 of the 11 photos are pictures that evoke a “small town atmosphere”–pretty little houses, riverfront parks, nice landscaped areas, a city hall building that looks reasonably inviting—all things you would expect to see in a pleasant, suburban community.
And Then———————there are the two glaring pictures of concrete monoliths–the out of place high-rise condominium buildings that stick out like a sore thumb as exactly what a small town atmosphere is not!!!!!
Look at the pictures–they say it all. Those buildings are the exact opposite of what creates a small town atmosphere. The slide show is all anyone needs to see the contrast. I suggest you remove those two photos from this website. If this is a discussion of small town atmosphere, those two photos have no place in it.
G.Manley
The comment by the person #14 is right. All the photos of quaint little places are nice and small townish and then you are suddenly jolted by those two pictures of the concrete monster apartment buildings. What the heck are they doing on the small town atmosphere page?
In fact, what the heck are they doing on our waterfront or in Titusville anywhere? Such things are really out of place here.
Back to the question what does small town mean to me:
A small town has lots of things for people to do that bring them together in public places that are comfortable and safe—like the little theatre for example.
We used to enjoy the Indian River Festival years ago when it was small and local and everyone participated in small town type events–softball games, raft race, things like that. Now it has become just a big, loud, obnoxious, bawdy, carnival for tourists and kids. It’s like going to the Central Florida Fair only even more seedy and cheap. We haven’t been back since it changed.
It would be nice to have a City event on the waterfront that did not depend on large scale commercialized high tech productions and noisy rides and loud bands–something like an outdoor concert on the green or a sailboat race.
That would be something that would create a small town atmosphere.
Angel Dejournette
Someone where I work attended the meetings and showed me this place to say what a small town is supposed to be.
I used to live in a small town in Georgia before moving here and there were many things that are similar that I like about Titusville.
I like the river and the fact that I can go shopping here without having to search forever for a parking place. My house was affordable but I am afraid this neighborhood near the Searstown Mall will not be safe forever because there are a lot of renters who do not take care of their yards and homes.
In Georgia where the population was about 35,000 people, all the businesses took much better care of their properties. You would never see weeds in the front of a business there. Every business there had nice trees, clean parking lots and attractive plants which they kept trimmed and blooming. In Titusville there are practically no attractive business buildings.
In the small town where we used to live there were a lot of old homes and people fixed them up and they were some of the nicest homes but here it seems all the old homes have been torn down to put up ugly commercial buildings that the owners don’t take care of.
I would suggest to have a small town atmosphere the City should make all the businesses clean up their weeds and plant nice landscaping and take care of it year round. If the business owners in Georgia with fewer people in the town could make enough money to keep their places looking nice why can’t the business owners in Titusville,which is larger, take care of their propeties? And I don’t mean just the large chain stores. I also mean all those little private businesses with ugly property.
Bunny Winkowski
I agree that just having buildings with cute old timey designs or new housing developments that call themselves “Green Acres” or “Quaint Villas” won’t do the trick. And nothing short of rerouting the highway to the other side of the tracks will ever make the downtown a city center.
If Titusville keeps on growing and growing like Orlando or even Melbourne, no amount of planning will ever be able to create a small town atmosphere.
The people have to get behind the idea of keeping it small in size and lower in the number of new homes built. To have a small town atmosphere new residents have to want to come to Titusville to live and work because it is quiet, uncrowded and nice–not because it is a good place to buy a cheap second home or to make an investment.
How to do that?—change the leadership to people who understand there is more to prosperity than just having a bunch of houses and Walmart stores here.
Isac Walsey
Small and “ideal” can sometimes go hand in hand and that is what Titusville has the potential to be - ideal. We are small enough to have the “small town atmosphere” which I believe means knowing your neighbors and your community, low crime rates, no traffic congestion, not overcrowded and jammed together or any of the other elements that you find in a metro/urban area. We have that less then 30 miles away if that is what someone desires to be in and that is the one thing that makes us ideal. We are literally within minutes of an “Olive Garden”, mega shopping malls and any of a number of things one would want when in a big City. We basically have it all right at our finger tips, yet we can leave it all behind when we don’t want it.
This is how the city can keep Titusville with a small town atmosphere:
Reduce the amount of new houses and subdivisions. Reduce the densities everywhere.
Do not allow any more buildings of any sort that are over 2-3 stories high in the city.
Require the chain restaurants like Burger King to put up Florida type buildings and small signs—no more big red roofs and golden arches.
Do not allow any more close together housing projects or shopping centers that take down all the trees.
If you do these few things then Titusville will look like a small town and have the kind of atmosphere people like my family moved here for.
Thank you,
Andrew Lloyd
What does Small Town Atmosphere mean?
Small Town Atmosphere means low population, uncrowded roads, no highrises or tall buildings in the town, and plenty of room in the schools for my kids.
How can the City can protect what’s left of our small town atmosphere?
Reduce the number of new homes(expecially the highrise condo homes and apartments).
Reducing the number of new homes means the roads won’t be crowded.
Never build another highrise in the city.
And last but not least, reduce the number of new homes so my kids can go to school in a small town atmosphere.
What does it all come down to—reduce the number of new homes and don’t build tall buildings or highrises or whatever they call those things that look like big city buildings. That’s the first step to protecting the small town atmosphere.
The rest of it like friendly people and safe streets will follow because people will act like they are in a small friendly town if they see small town stuff around them and aren’t worried about having to cope with big city type problems that come from overcrowding.
I’m glad you asked me. It seems pretty simple.
I agree with most of the other comments. A small town atmosphere cannot be achieved with a rapidly growing population that has no limits other than what can be accommodated through concurrency. Just because something CAN be built does not mean it SHOULD be built if the desire of the residents is to retain lower densities (lower population).
Neither can such an atmosphere be achieved by simply sticking some “suggestions” in a design criteria manual.
Pleasant small towns typically have a green and spacious feel and look. That means there is not only open space within individual neighborhoods in the form of integrated parks, but there is also enough room on individual home sites to provide green area and mature landscaping around the individual buildings. Patio homes on 40-50′wide lots are the antithesis of this concept.
Pleasant small towns have a feeling of “permanence” and stability. They do not appear to have been built yesterday. Mature landscaping and buildings that reflect the history of the community create this feeling.
The built environment of a place with a small town atmosphere has buildings that are actually human in scale–that do not dwarf the natural tree canopy or the other buildings around them. A 100′ high and 1000′ long wall of buildings like that recently approved on the paintball property at the south end of town is NOT human in scale regardless of the roof decoration. It is a perfect example of what does not promote a small town atmosphere regardless of wetlands left behind the building.
Small towns invite their residents to participate daily in enjoying the benefits of non-urban life—safe uncrowded schools, activities that focus on families, recreational opportunities that don’t require expensive outlays, roads that are uncongested, and elbow room for everyone regardless of economic station.
How can the City achieve this small town atmosphere?
1. Remove the goal of “Position Our City for Strategic Growth” from our comp plan. (It is a goal for the 80’s when it was written—No Florida City in 2008 needs to go out and actively seek additional residential growth). Ditch this outdated and irrelevant language. It has been translated almost exclusively into residential growth at the expense of any significant economic improvement.
2. Replace that goal with “Retain a Small Town Atmosphere for our City” which is what the residents from all backgrounds have said repeatedly they like about Titusville at every opportunity they have had to participate in visioning exercises for the last five years. Isn’t anyone listening?
3. Freeze the existing densities allowed under the current FLUM (it now allows over 70,000 population if built-out I have been told). Institute a “no net gain in density” policy—-allow only transfers of density within the City limits—no additional increases without a corresponding reduction in some other location.
4. Make it more expensive to remove existing mature trees and existing natural greenery than it is to design around them. This is easy to do if you are willing to tell developers they aren’t entitled to maximize their density on every site.
5. Cherish the historic buildings and places in the City and use them to promote a small town atmosphere. Do this through both incentive programs and regulatory restrictions.
6. Be honest about what constitutes “human scale” buildings and stop giving us architecture for big city urban centers instead of the kind of suburban community Titusville is best suited to become.
Titusville is ideally positioned to develop as an attractive suburban community benefiting from the greater shopping and entertainment opportunities offered in nearby larger metro areas south and west of here. We do not have to constantly focus on becoming what other places now wish they were not—cities that have confused residential growth with economic prosperity.
Thank you for allowing these comments.
Laura Ward
I have used Titusville as home base when ever there is a life change for me. It has always been home, even if home is slightly unpleasent at times. I would insist on the schools being cleaned up (it would encourage pride in the children, which is the future). Maybe a couple some of the churches that give out charities could require man hours of service in order for the assistance. Police posted out side of the school or maybe cameras to record and ticket traffic offenders. That should increase the police budget. We have the community watch…maybe we should support them more and encourage them to continue to be our eyes and ears. I love my neighborhood. Please understand that. We pull together. We know one another. Together we laugh and cry but help the people pack and move or help them unload the truck when they come. Its a small community in its self. If we teach our children that pride in being a good neighbor. We do have problems like landlords that dont repair their property. Its almost never the tenants fault. I thing we should hold the owners of rental properties more liable for the disrepair. I rent. I am moving because of his failure to upkeep the basics. My house and 2 others on this street is the same way. The quality of people that are moving in after each person moves out will get worst because of the lack of repair. There goes the neighborhood, because of one or two owners are refusing to do anything but turn a profit. Please understand I have called code enforcement and the health dept but they do not have the personnel to investigate each complaint. They should have the forced enlarged. One last thing that involves the schools that is a side note. Out side of Astronaut High there use to be street painting of the graduate class. It was taken out. I think it should be allowed again. It encourages pride and togetherness. I remember as a child my dad pointing his blob on the street. I remember doing it my self. It was another tradition of Titusville we erased…traditions is somthing that binds which will help in the long run.