Cedar key, City Hall Area
Urban Design & Housing Study
A resilient future for Cedar Key through a new civic center, adaptive housing, and community-centered urban design.
Cedar Key unique location along the Gulf makes it highly susceptible to tidal flooding and storm surges. Recent hurricanes have repeatedly flooded the Historic Downtown, disrupting essential services and businesses that the community depends on for daily life and recovery.
A Flood Safe Civic Center
To secure Cedar Key’s future, this initiative proposes relocating critical facilities, including the Fire Station, Police Department, Post Office, and essential businesses, to higher ground around City Hall. The relocation creates a civic hub enhancing community resilience and adaptation.
A Cohesive Redevelopment
Building a new resilient civic center involves reorganizing and modernizing the hilltop public housing. By optimizing this site, the plan aims to create the critical space needed for emergency services while substantially improving the quality of the social housing stock.
Core Values
Community Heritage: Preserving Cedar Key’s cultural identity through community-led design.
Neighborhood Harmony: Blending active civic and commercial functions while maintaining the quiet, peaceful character of surrounding residential areas.
Appropriate Housing: Providing safe, modern housing that supports the social fabric and improves quality of life.
A Civic Common: Creating a shared, accessible, and flood resilient refuge for all residents.
Study Area
The Area of Study (AOI) covers 118 parcels, including 22 vacant lots and two municipal properties, but primarily focuses on the four public housing parcels owned by the North Central Florida Housing Authority (NCFHA).
Based on stakeholder input and standard benchmarks, the table above outlines the estimated relocation needs for essential services and businesses. These initial figures provide the necessary baseline to test various site organization and layout scenarios for the new Civic Center.
Urban Design Concept
Civic Nodes
3 development sites, each with a singular role:
Water Tower Site: family-friendly housing
City Hall Site: civic/services
D Street Site: workforce housing/commerce
G St.-6th St. intersection becomes the new district
core integrating: public plaza/commerce/services + pocket park + waterfront access
Water Tower Site
Family-friendly row houses benefit from direct proximity to Cedar Key School.
Six two-story, ground-level homes arranged in two triplexes.
G Street front porches blend with the neighborhood architecture.
Private backyards and a shared green space provide a safe central playground for residents’ kids.
City Hall Site
Option 1
Active pocket plaza at 6th and G Streets surrounded by covered arcades for cafes, seating, and civic activities.
A quiet, canopied interior park offering a quiet green space for the second-floor residential units.
Pedestrian-focused 6th Street exclusive accesibility for
emergency vehicles and delivery.
Dedicated ambulance parking located along F Street.
Integrated access points for efficient parking and delivery.
City Hall Site
Option 2
Pocket plaza as in Option 1
6th St closure creates large internal open space integrates the Burial Mound Park and the Fire Station Esplanade.
Dual-purpose esplanade serving civic events and fire department training.
Firetruck circulation entering from the esplanade and exiting onto F and 6th Streets.
Dedicated ambulance parkinglocated along F Street.
A large hardscape staging area for the fire department on the F Street side.
D Street Site
A diverse development blending market-oriented and modern workforce public housing.
An active D Street pocket plaza with shops and elevated workforce row houses with integrated workspaces.
Public plaza apartments elevated above D Street’s retail spaces.
Market-oriented shoreline facing townhomes with coastal views, built over commercial zones.
Overview
The Development Sites in Numbers
Project Outcomes & Reports
Cedar Key, City Hall Area: Urban Design & Housing Study
Project Report
Brochure
