Streetcars: A good investment?

TAMPA — The role streetcars can play in redevelopment will be a topic Tuesday at a discussion sponsored by the Tampa Downtown Partnership on Harbour Island.

Ray Chiaramonte, executive director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, will provide a briefing on the group's analysis of Hillsborough County's 2010 referendum on a penny sales tax. The referendum, to invest in a countywide transportation improvement plan, was voted down.

At the meeting, Chiaramonte will reveal results of the planning group's study, and present options for moving forward with a new transportation plan, according to a statement by the Tampa Downtown Partnership. Clarence Eng, senior transit project manager at Kimley-Horn & Associates Inc., will outline the role streetcars play in redevelopment.