Council Approves Midtown Redevelopment Plan

After nearly an hour of passionate pleas from St. Petersburg residents to help Midtown and south St. Petersburg, council unanimously passed an ordinance to create a community redevelopment area (CRA) and established a tax increment financing district in Midtown. 

Mayor Bill Foster, the public and city councilors called the plan a no-brainer and an easy decision to make. 

Final approval for the creation of the CRA and TIF district now heads to the Pinellas County Commission, which approves CRA districts since county tax dollars generated in CRA districts stays in the district and not the county. 

If approved by the county, tax dollars brought in through the TIF fun can only be used for redevelopment projects within the CRA, which is 

Council chair Karl Nurse said for an area that has struggled Thursday's approval was a sign of good things to come. 

"This is important because this is a minimum of a 20-year commitment," he said. We don’t make 20-year commitments often.

"This is the kind of thing that when I’m done with my job here, this will clearly be one of the most important things I'll get a chance to work on," Nurse added. 

While the city's approval was met with unanimous support, council member Leslie Curran cautioned the public that this was the easy part. This was the baby step to redevelopment. 

"It’s a first step toward creating an area that over a long period of time can bring in some dollars just as we have seen in the downtown," Curran said.

It will be years, she said, before the city realizes any revenue that it can use for redevelopment within the CRA. 

"I don’t want to create any false hopes that we are going to have a lot of money flowing in that area to do something (in the short-term)," Curran added. "I do think it’s a good start."

To read the city's report on the CRA and the blight study, click here.