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Dunedin unveils business-survey action plan to address growth, parking and permitting

Dunedin City Commission · January 6, 2026

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Summary

Staff proposed a seven-part action plan informed by a 2025 business survey: growth management and preserving small-town character, housing affordability tools, communications and a business academy, parking/transportation strategies, permitting transparency, storm resilience, and business retention measures.

City staff presented the Business Survey Action Plan at the Jan. 6 workshop, summarizing input from roughly 279 partially completed business surveys and proposing seven focus areas: growth management/small-town character; housing affordability; communications and business engagement; transportation, parking and walkability; permitting and code enforcement; storm preparedness and business resilience; and business retention and off-season support.

The plan highlighted that 35% of respondents feel Dunedin is growing too fast and that permitting and parking are recurring business concerns. Staff said the city has implemented an online permitting portal with fast turnaround for routine reviews (commonly two business days) and recommended publishing permitting metrics on a dashboard. Proposed measures include a business education "BEAP" program (business academy), downtown signage and remote-parking wayfinding, a resiliency rebate (launched Oct. 2025), and closer Chamber-of-Commerce partnership for corridor outreach.

Why it matters: commissioners pressed staff on how to define and preserve the city's "small-town character," whether perceptions match data, and how to ensure equitable promotion for non-food retailers during special events. Staff cited compatibility provisions, architectural-review standards and the design-review process as tools to manage form and scale downtown and agreed to explore limited, event-based sidewalk merchandising and code tweaks with risk-management input.

What happens next: staff will put key performance indicators into the city strategic-dashboard effort (target: spring rollout), bring code-change or BPI/CPI items forward as needed, coordinate with the Chamber and Pinellas County Economic Development on retention programs, and explore sidewalk merchandising rules for special events.