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Dunedin Official Stepping Down After 35 Years

Mark S. Schantz/SUNCOAST NEWS

Kevin Campbell, who has retired as Dunedin Community Services director after nearly 35 years, with a photo of the city's downtown area before its transformation via redevelopment.

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: January 12, 2008

DUNEDIN, Fla. - DUNEDIN, Fla. - The city lost its living land-use reference library last week when Kevin Campbell retired after nearly 35 years as the community services director.

Colleagues like Assistant City Manager Harry Gross say Campbell had a knack for recalling the zoning and development history of property all over the city.

Campbell's onetime boss, former City Manager John Lawrence, said in a telephone interview Campbell had amazing powers of recall and offered a valuable historical perspective on land-use matters.

During his years with Dunedin Campbell demonstrated "Unquestionable integrity" and treated everyone fairly, said Lawrence, whose retirement days since leaving Dunedin turned out to be relatively brief. Lawrence is now community development special projects coordinator in Powder Springs, Ga.

You have to love your job to remain with the same city 35 years, said Lawrence.

Campbell, 60, who started with the city in 1973 as a planning and zoning technician, said his days on the Dunedin staff were "one hell of a ride."

He never expected to stay as long as he did in one place, but he always enjoyed coming to work, Campbell said.

Campbell said he hoped he had a positive influence on the city.

One of his biggest impacts was on downtown redevelopment. Campbell recalls meetings in the mid-1970s with downtown business people who wanted to liven up the city's dormant downtown commercial core, along Main Street.

At the time, few people ventured downtown and anyone who did might have seen a tumbleweed blowing down the center of Main Street, Campbell joked.

The downtown transformation in which Campbell had a hand is now cited as a prime example of a successful redevelopment effort.

"It took time, but everybody then got onboard to create the showpiece downtown we see today," said Campbell.

The job, however, is not done, Campbell said. There are still 15 to 20 years of redevelopment to take place within downtown's 275 acres, he said.

The Gateway commercial-residential complex planned for the eastern entrance to downtown and a large parking garage and municipal services complex are two major changes in the wings, Campbell said.

One of his toughest challenges as commercial services director, Campbell said, was getting businesses to comply with revisions to the municipal sign code that regulated large billboards within the city.

One of the exciting parts of the job was helping a developer bring a project to fruition, Campbell said.

A Pasco County resident, Campbell said he thinks it was wise that he never moved to Dunedin because he could not have been viewed as impartial if he lived here.

He said he will miss the city and plans to keep an eye on future development.

Campbell said he and wife Regina, a former elementary school teacher, plan to travel to places like China. Then he may do some consulting work.

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