What area improvements are important to people in High Point?
Background
Pinellas County formed a High Point Community Advisory Group to develop a Community Plan, listing improvements people would like to see in High Point. The advisory group consists of residents, service providers, business owners, educators, clergy, and law enforcement from the area. The group met and shared ideas, eventually developing the goals and strategies below.
A community meeting was held on July 27, 2021, to hear the ideas and to offer feedback.
Members of the High Point community are encouraged to read the information below and then take the survey to offer their input.
After receiving additional input from residents, a final High Point Community Plan will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners for adoption. This plan will guide the County’s work in the community. County staff will identify priority projects, partnerships and funding to carry out the vision of the High Point Community.
The draft High Point Community Plan and ideas from the community meeting are below:
Goal 1: Enhance Community Connectivity
- Install additional sidewalks
- Improve unimproved rights of way
- Make intersection safety improvements
- Improve pedestrian crosswalks
Priority Projects:
- Pinellas Trail Extension
- Russell Ave walking and biking path between Avalon and 58th St.
Ideas from the community meeting:
- Create east-west connections to the Pinellas Trail within the High Point community and throughout the county
- Work with the community to prioritize sidewalks/connections
- PSTA Route 52 should continue to service the Avalon Loop during evenings and weekends
- Add street lighting throughout the neighborhood, particularly at the intersection of 58th Street N and 150th Avenue N
- Address 62nd Street N's lack of shoulder and ditch. Consider sidewalks and/or bike path on the west side
- Address safety concerns at the intersection of 58th Street N and Roosevelt Boulevard
- Consider lower height of street signs and speed limit signs
Goal 2: Enhance Economic Opportunities
- Support partnerships between local businesses, Pinellas Technical College and CareerSource
- Create or support job training programs to match needs of local businesses
- Identify internship opportunities
- Support and assist small businesses
- Organize or support local job fairs
- Address employee transportation
- Expand internet access (broadband, wi-fi)
- Implement the Gateway Master Plan
Ideas from the community meeting:
- Partner with Habitat for Humanity
- Employment assistance and better advertising of this service
- Support to help people enroll in P-Tech and other local schools
- Website where you enter your skills and find volunteers of fee-for-service workers
- Address empty storefronts
Goal 3: Expand Service Delivery to the Community
- Increase service provider partnerships
- Identify existing gaps in services
- Promote services to residents using multiple languages
- Increase family programs
- Address homelessness
- Provide access to library resources
- Offer or identify ways to provide language courses
- Provide outdoor recreational activities
- Create a community newsletter
Priority Projects:
- New HPNFC Youth Empowerment Center
- High Point Community Park
Ideas from the community meeting:
- Facility for homeless people (food kitchen, showers, a place to stay)
- In the park set aside a place for a butterfly garden and pollenating plants
- Health fairs (Saturday free dental)