Local Leaders Object to Pinellas Development Plan

A proposed land development ordinance that would allow the Pinellas County Commission to control county-owned properties in other jurisdictions is not going over well with local leaders.

Arguments against the proposal helped push Tuesday night's county commission meeting into the early morning hours.

According to an amended version of the ordinance, which was released to the public Friday, the proposal refers to “county-owned properties … that contain facilities that have a countywide benefit and are operated under the charter powers of the county."     

The proposal was met with dissent from area civic leaders and citizens, who say the ordinance will remove developmental rights from local governments and allow the commission to put unwanted structures, such as digital billboards, on or near its properties within city limits.

“We did have a discussion at our council meeting last Thursday night about this issue … and I can tell you they were not in favor of it as it is presented,” said Tim Cadle, Pinellas Park government relations administrator.

“You are elected people. It’s your responsibility to look out for the people that you represent, and I think our council feels the same way. It’s their responsibility to look out for our people, and they think they may be able to look out for them a little bit better than the people up in Clearwater,” Cadle told the board.

Rick MacAulay, chairman of the St. Petersburg Planning and Economic Development Department, also expressed his city’s strong opposition to the proposed ordinance.

“The St. Pete City Council is opposed to this ordinance moving forward. We would like to see you deny this ordinance this evening on first reading. We’ve simply not had a lot time, really any time, to deal with this proposed ordinance,” he said.

Commissioner Kenneth Welch agreed with MacAulay’s request. “We do need to get together and talk about some of these issues,” he replied.

Despite pleas from Latvala to have everyone involved read the amended version of the ordinance, some officials, such as Largo City Attorney Alan Zimmet, said they had done so, and it did not sway their opinion.

“Make this clear: I have read the new ordinance. It makes no changes – in fact, it’s worse. It takes out the listing of the properties that are regulated by the ordinance, and it now says all county-owned properties are controlled by the ordinance,” he said.

“We would request, on behalf of the city, that at a minimum you would delay the passing of this ordinance," Zimmet said. "Ultimately, we would request that you vote the ordinance down.”

Maureen Stafford of the Council for Neighborhood Association of Southern Pinellas (CONA) was on hand to express the feelings of the organization's board members.

“Because it has the potential to usurp local control, the proposed ordinance has great significance to the city of St. Petersburg and other municipalities in Pinellas," Stafford said. "The CONA Board of Directors requests that the Board of County Commissioners delay scheduled public hearings on this matter to give citizens and local governments time to review the proposed ordinance.”  

Upon hearing this input, the board unanimously decided to delay the next public hearing, which was originally scheduled for Oct. 11, until Oct. 25 to allow more time for discussion on the matter.

Redistricting Proposal Approved

The last item on the agenda was a proposed redistricting of the boundary lines for the county’s four single-member districts and three at-large districts. The commission operates under a policy that allows for a 3 percent deviation from the average district size based on the population within that district. Based on the 2010 census, the Pinellas County population has shifted only slightly, requiring only minor changes to district boundaries. 

The board voted 6-1 to approve the measure. Neil Brickfield cast the lone dissenting vote, citing the fact that the only response the commission received regarding the changes came from the Barrier Island Government Council, an organization made up of beach mayors.

“The only correspondence I’ve seen was from the beach mayors, who have expressed a desire to have one commissioner represent all beach communities. We got one piece of correspondence from 914,000 people,” Brickfield said.

Tuesday's marathon commission meeting began at 3 p.m and ended just before 1 a.m.