City Council Looks at Alleys

Tampa City Council members heard staff reports about Tampa's alleys yesterday. The basics: Tampa's older neighborhoods, especially those closest to the Central Business District (CBD), grew up with alleys to hold the "business end" of households and commercial enterprises. Trash collection, as well as public and private utilities were routed here. There are paved (concrete and asphalt), dirt, shell, and grass alleys that are still in use as well as overgrown, trash strewn, and vermin infested alleys. I assume they are counting both human and rodent vermin as crime was cited as a problem too. Though most of the crime was noted as illegal dumping. In the early 80s there was a push to vacate alleys as quickly as possible, in part because garbage trucks were getting too large to navigate many of them. Over 90% of the alleys vacated since 1980 were vacated in the 1980-1983 period.

Now, alleys are in vogue again. The historic areas of Hyde Park, Seminole Heights and Ybor City embrace them as part of the original landscape and new developments are being built with alleys for detached or rear loading garages. Here in Port Tampa South Tampa Square is laid out in a "neo-traditional" pattern with rear loading garages opening to, yes, alleys. (Full disclosure- I love this new urban model. Wish a side/rear loading garage had been available with our house.)

As for Port Tampa's historic alleys, I am not aware of any that are still completely open, though many have not been officially vacated by the city. Under current rules, which City Council wants to refine, alleys are vacated only when a property owner requests it. Reasons for approval include: crime, illegal dumping, vermin infestation caused by overgrowth, to recognize what's already happened on the ground through the construction of fences or buildings that make the alley impassable, or when someone owns more than one lot and wants to make the property more buildable. In Port Tampa, Council routinely approves alley vacation. Garbage collection is all done at the front now. But even if you can't detect the old alleys on the ground you will often see where utility lines run down the back property lines instead of down the streets. (The photo above is a partially vacated alley that is still used. Note the sidewalk to nowhere put in by the builder of the newly constructed houses on the left.)


Here are pictures of an overgrown alley in southwest Port Tampa and a new alley put in by developers just east of Wall Street. City council did not make any decisions in yesterday's workshop but it appears clear they do not favor wholesale vacation of alleys, but do want to come up with a uniform approach to handling when/if to vacate. I thought I sensed reluctance to vacate alleys that are still at least theoretically passable, perhaps after clean up. New criteria for people seeking to have an alley vacated should be out in a couple months.