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Panama City officials and residents call for formal planning process for downtown marina and uplands
Summary
Residents and city staff discussed reusing prior visioning work, hiring consultants and holding public charrettes to guide redevelopment of the Downtown Marina, the Greenway Parkway and adjacent uplands; PFM and Dover Cole materials were cited during the meeting.
Speakers at a town-hall meeting in Panama City urged the mayor and city staff to open a formal planning process for the Downtown Marina, Greenway Parkway and adjacent uplands, and to build on earlier visioning work the city already paid for.
The push came from a resident who said the city should “initiate a planning process” and use materials created by Dover Cole in a prior visioning effort. “They’ve done all the legwork,” the resident told the gathering, asking the mayor to bring the two efforts together so public workshops and updated drawings guide any redevelopment.
City Attorney Nevin Zimmerman and Development Services Director Michael Fuller both described current consultant activity. Zimmerman said the city had received a task order from PFM and expected to present it for approval, and that the city was also expecting materials from Dover Cole. Fuller said he located Dover Cole’s 2019 visioning plans for the downtown marina and circulated those documents to elected officials and senior staff.
Fuller said the intent is to update rather than replace prior work: “They actually did this already in 2019 specifically for the downtown Marina,” Fuller said, and staff will share the documents publicly through the city’s public affairs channels.
Discussion at the meeting also emphasized the role of private partners and existing agreements. Staff and speakers noted that Gulf‑coast landowner St. Joe has a contractual right of first use in parts of the marina uplands that affects redevelopment north and south of Government Street. City staff described a mix of tools — public charrettes, land-development code changes, tax incentives through the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and the Downtown Improvement Board (DIB) — that officials could use to shape upland development and attract the “first‑mover” projects that developers and lenders require.
Speakers urged that early public workshops identify what uses the community wants and does not want (for example, limiting visual features that would “butcher up the viewshed”), and that the city coordinate consultant efforts so the public sees consistent proposals rather than conflicting drawings.
City staff said next steps will include presenting consultant agreements to the commission, scheduling public charrettes, and sharing the 2019 Dover Cole materials so residents can compare past work with any new proposals.
If the city approves the PFM task order and schedules charrettes, staff said they will post dates and workshop details on the city’s normal public‑notice channels.
