Retail space in the Live Oak Shopping Plaza on E. Howard St./US 90 remains mostly empty, but city officials hope to change that.

Ninety-four new businesses have opened up in Live Oak from October 2013 to September 2014, reported Development Manager George Curtis at the Feb. 10 joint workshop meeting of the Live Oak City Council, Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners, Suwannee County School Board, and Suwannee Correctional Institution. The town of Branford was also invited but no representatives were in attendance.

Future businesses include a new Shands medical center in the Live Oak Plaza on East Howard St./US 90, a space that has attracted interest from other businesses as well.

“If we can get more storefronts in the plaza, it can become more functional and effective really soon,” said City Councilman Keith Mixon.

Other businesses could include a Social Security office, governmental offices, and medical offices to go into empty space at the former K-Mart Center on South Ohio Ave./US 129, which currently houses Save-a-Lot, Fred’s, and Goody’s; and a new stand-alone Dollar Tree is in the works near Tractor Supply on 72nd Trace, Curtis said.

With this business and job growth, the need for rental properties and apartments has increased as well. A 2013 housing study evaluating 11 complexes in Live Oak found an occupancy rate of 98.7 percent.

“While the occupancy rates for apartment housing continue to be at or near capacity, the undertaking of new apartment construction to meet the needs for current and future growth has not occurred,” stated Curtis.

The city and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) are working to promote the growth of rental housing, including possible second-floor apartments or condos in downtown buildings.

“There’s not enough places to rent,” said Mixon. “Klausner [employees] live in hotels right now. We’re losing dollars to leakage into other communities, from housing to entertainment.”

County Administrator Randy Harris believes the governmental agencies at the workshop could accomplish these things by establishing goals and focusing on “polishing” the community before expanding it.

“We do this every year and we come back with about the same results,” commented Harris. “Unless we change what we’ve been doing, the same conversation will be occurring twenty years from now.”

Harris said that when potential new residents, workers, and businesspeople come into Live Oak, the city or the “product” being advertised is not that attractive.

“We’ve got to polish what we have,” said Harris. “If we work on what we currently have and we clean it up and polish it and make it the best that it can be, we can attract the people and companies that can help get us where we need to be.”

The recently updated city housing codes will help reduce some of that unattractive blight in residential neighborhoods, Curtis said, by setting a standard for future housing.

“Now it’s just working through the process of undoing what’s been done,” said Curtis.

School Board member Jerry Taylor agreed with Harris and called for a more comprehensive intergovernmental workshop in the future.

“If we do the same old thing the same old way and expect something different, everybody knows that’s the definition of insanity,” said Taylor. “We need to evolve past this. When I see things like Heritage Trail – there’s always naysayers – but good gracious, we’re polishing the apple. Rather than you coming in and seeing everything deteriorating and falling down, you see life and you see growth. You see something happening and that’s positive and we need to continue to pursue that.”