About Denise Kowal
Denise Kowal is an artist, mom and businesswoman, not a politician. She has been an activist for city issues for the past 20 years. While it is easy for elected officials to have a long list of accomplishments once in office, it is admirable for Ms. Kowal to such a list being one of us, a citizen, who not only envisions a great quality of life but a force creating it here in Sarasota.
Denise moved to Sarasota from Cohasset, Massachusetts in 1982. She has been in business downtown for 24 years in both the Antique and the Jewelry industries. She is a single mom who has raised her sons Austin and Kenyon for the past 12 years in the historic 1920's building they purchased in 1986 in downtown Sarasota's Burns Square. She has shown her commitment to preserving our historic neighborhoods and historic structures while supporting smart growth within our city.
Denise Kowal is a past president of the Burns Square (Business) Association and currently is the president of the Burns Square Property Owners Association. Over the past 20 years she has been instrumental in revitalizing the Burns Square area. Denise had her architect create ideas that implemented the redesign of the intersection of Orange & Pineapple Avenues by the City of Sarasota in the 1990's. Denise was vocal on behalf of the Burns Court property owners ensuring the Savoy project did not get allowances that would further overpower their properties. She has worked for the past eight years with the County and City designing the storm-water drainage in Burns Square that travels into the Hudson Bayou, construction starts this summer. She wrote and received the first grant for the area. In 2005 she organized a charrette with the property owners and Urban Planner Ramon Trias to create a cohesive master plan for public improvements as well as future development that would preserve the character of the neighborhood - an effort that was funded totally by the neighborhood, without city assistance. In 2007 she organized a second smaller charrette with Bill Dennis to improve the 2005 public improvement master plan. Denise has been a voice and inspiration, creating partnerships and community. That same year, Denise supported the down-zoning a part of the Burns Square area from CCBD to Downtown Core (a loss of 8 buildable stories). She was successful in gaining approval several years ago for a decorative lighting project that was installed and completed this past year.
One need only visit the historic Herald Square building to see Denise's commitment to a beautiful, character-rich downtown firsthand - she recently installed in the sidewalks several decorative mosaic tiles designed and hand-crafted with her friend and artist Randy LaSalle-Fox. In addition she has painted her sidewalks with fish and alligators further making a visit to this area anything but mundane. Over the years she has commissioned artists to create work for her building and they remain for everyone's enjoyment today. Her apartment in the Historic Herald Square building was the first and only apartment to ever be on the "Historic Tour of Homes." She was the first and only jeweler to open her home and work-studio to the public during the "Creators and Collectors" tours.
Realizing the importance of the Sarasota School of Architecture, she has started to renovate the 1950's Paul Rudolph building she owns that is currently covered with a different facade. The 1920's Burns Square building will also undergo a renovation over the next several months. This will be the second major renovation she has made to this historic structure, this time with 20 years of experience behind her. Further demonstrating not only her commitment to preserving our history but to be a contributor to our affordable housing shortage. She has provided 13 affordable rentals to this community for over 20 years. She understands first hand how difficult it is to keep affordable housing within our city. This hits her personally as well with two boys 18 and 21 still living home.
Denise Kowal earned the highest honor of Master Valuer in the jewelry appraisal industry in 1996. She is an instructor to the professional jewelry trade, jewelry designer and Private Jeweler. She has appeared as a jewelry expert on television programs as "Collecting around America". Denise is an expert witness and has testified in many cases that involve jewelry, precious stones or metals. She has taught classes on the most complicated subjects in the jewelry industry such as opals and identifying hallmarking on antique jewelry to professional jewelers. Denise has donated tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry to local charities over the past ten years.
Denise has a strong bond to Laurel Park and in 2005 was one of eight committee members studying the zoning when the current zoning was being challenged. She supported maintaining the historic zoning and integrity of the neighborhood, which the majority of property owners wanted. That year Laurel Park was successful in maintaining its current zoning of RMF9.
Denise was instrumental in the creation of the Downtown Merchants Alliance. She was part of the group that formed in 2005 to bring together for the first time, all five shopping districts in the downtown area to cooperatively work together to improve our city and shopping experiences. Denise has also provided over 15 thousand square feet of retail rental space downtown for many years. In her Herald Square building she has provided 7,500 square feet of rental space for over 20 years giving her a personal understanding of the issues retailers face downtown.
Denise Kowal was an active participant in the charrettes with Andres Duany and DPZ, architects of the Downtown Master Plan 2020. She has continued to be involved with smart growth and has a certificate from the Congress of New Urbanism for which she is a member. She has traveled to Italy and India with the University of Miami Master of Architecture Program studying architecture, has in fact received a personal endorsement in this commission race from Mr. Duany based on her involvement in and commitment to New Urbanist ideals.
Denise was the co-chair of the Downtown Mobility Study group that worked for approximately 2 years to gain City Commission approval for the de-designation of US41 along the bayfront (Downtown Master Plan Improvement). The City Commission was presented several options over a period of time (2 lanes, 4 lanes) and denied every option. As a last effort, staff requested the approval to continue efforts to de-designate US41 without any changes to the road and the commission denied that as well. Denise is a supporter of the continued effort to de-designate US41.
Denise Kowal served on the stakeholder workshops for the development of the Downtown Parking Master Plan. Two years later, the plan is still not completely adopted by the City Commission. Of the eight priorities, the top three are recommended to be completed by the year 2008, and none of the three has even started construction nor is construction even in sight. Denise strongly supports the urgent need to build civic parking facilities.
Denise worked with the Downtown Association creating a trolley system around town and out to Lido Key, which may have been premature at the time but the viability for some small-scale downtown transit may soon exist.
Denise was one of the first ten local graduates of the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) course with nationally renowned civic theorist and author John McKnight. The ABCD course identifies tools and gives lessons on how to build neighborhoods by discovering their assets, where citizenship can be expressed. Today, thanks to Michael Raposa, the City of Sarasota, Sarasota County and SCOPE there are approximately 60 ABCD graduates in Sarasota County. Denise Kowal is a founding member of the Sarasota ABCD Alumni Association which will sponsor the next training session in Sarasota this summer to neighborhood leaders.
Denise Kowal strongly supports education on how we can all locally begin to protect our environment. She believes in the "cradle-to-cradle" concept for sustainability instead of our current acceptance of creating "cradle-to-grave" materials that are toxic, pollute and destroy our environment without any further use after its life cycle. She supports our community submitting an application requesting participation in the LEEDS NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT studies.
Denise has raised her sons financially alone, which certainly developed her entrepreneurial spirit. She has worked for herself since the age of 19 (24 years) and has never shied away from trying different ventures, venues or styles with some decisions being more rewarding than others. What she has been able to do is quickly adjust to the challenges she gives herself and if change was in order, she did it swiftly. Denise is happy she has been able to provide for her children, contribute to historic preservation as well as give to her community in so many ways.
Denise has traveled all over America and to England, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Virgin Islands, Cuba, Barbados, Petite St. Vincent. These experiences have given her a unique perspective on the City of Sarasota from a global, rather than a provincial standpoint.