TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Demolitions are on hold after distraught neighbors urged city planners to stop tearing down decades old homes in a historic African American neighborhood in Tallahassee.
It's all part of the final phase of the joint city/county FAMU Connector Project.
The plan includes paving through the Boynton Still neighborhood.
Neighbors and preservationists complained tearing down the buildings was taking away the past.
Two projects that will connect the Bond neighborhood and Cascades Park to the St. Marks trails and extend toward the airport will replace everything sitting between Miles Street and Still Court.
Now city planners are looking back to see if the five remaining structures tied to the neighborhood can be moved to make way for the project. The current idea includes saving them as a memorial.
"We may not be able to move those structures based on the condition that they're in right now," said Wayne Tedder, Assistant City Manager for City of Tallahassee. "So we'll look at all of that and if there is opportunities to relocate those structures to the park then we'll absolutely consider any opportunity we have to preserve the history along that corridor."
Tedder says planners are also looking into creating more affordable housing in the neighborhoods affected by this project to help anyone displaced find a home near where they were living.
Neighbors we've asked about this say they're happy planners are looking into how these historic buildings can be saved.
We're told there were 23 structures in this area before the demolitions. Now only five are standing and people say they want it to stay that way.
