Catalyze 2023: County Commission Chair Charlie Justice

We’re asking thought leaders, business people and creatives to talk about 2023 and give us catalyzing ideas for making St. Pete a better place to live. What should our city look like? What are their hopes, their plans, their problem-solving ideas? This is Catalyze 2023.

Pinellas County Commission Chair Charlie Justice hopes to increase affordability and job prospects for Pinellas residents while continuing to enhance an underserved community in 2023.

He relayed an old saying about local government; “you buy things and build things.” He said the board of county commissioners did plenty of both as the area emerged from the pandemic, and he hopes to build on 2022’s successes.

Creating jobs that pay wages commensurate with the soaring cost of living in Pinellas is critical to ensuring affordability, said Justice, and he believes the new Tampa Bay Innovation Center can help achieve that goal. The county is spearheading the project after receiving a federal grant to construct the 45,000-square-foot business incubator in St. Petersburg’s Innovation District, and local leaders broke ground on city-owned land in February.

He anxiously awaits its opening in 2023.

“The goal is that we don’t have to attract companies from the outside,” said Justice. “We can cultivate and grow our own. That is going to help facilitate some of our young, bright minds that have the next great idea.”

Increasing the housing stock is another priority, although Justice prefers the term “attainable” rather than the ubiquitous “affordable.” He explained that the county’s public servants – first responders, teachers and nurses – also struggle to find housing amid soaring costs and inflation.

Pinellas has nearly 900 affordable and workforce units in the pipeline, Justice noted, which should help address a critical need in the coming year. He added that cost of living increases also played a significant role in commissioners lowering the Pinellas property tax rate for two consecutive years.

“It’s also why we resisted urges last year by some folks to raise our gas tax,” said Justice. “What we want to do is keep moving these projects along … we want to make sure we’re making headway on them.”

He noted that the school board decided to transform a vacant building in downtown St. Pete into workforce housing and said other public and private entities should consider following suit. Justice said the entire commission is open to conversations with developers to increase the county’s inventory of safe, attainable housing for employees and residents.

“That’s what we all want,” he said.

In addition to the Innovation Center, Justice relayed that county leadership has invested millions in county tourism taxes and American Rescue Plan Act funding to improve greenways, infrastructure and sidewalks. He realizes those initiatives are not always the “most exciting or sexy” to the general public, but it increases the quality of life and can spur jobs and economic growth.

Pinellas will also continue undergoing extensive pipe and sewer repair and maintenance to ensure “everything goes like it’s supposed to go.” Justice is also excited to move several park developments forward in 2023.

He specifically mentioned Highpoint Park, the Tierra Verde Community Center and Raymond H. Neri Park in unincorporated Lealman as a continuing focus for county leadership.

Commissioners invested significant time and money in improving the Lealman Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) in 2022. Justice anxiously awaits seeing those efforts bear fruit – or honey – in the new year and beyond.

Justice relayed his excitement for the first-ever Lealman Honey & Arts Festival on Feb. 18. He said it will showcase the underserved yet burgeoning community to the surrounding area and will resemble what people might expect to find in downtown St. Petersburg’s Williams Park. “It’s going to be a big day for Lealman,” he added.

He noted that he recently attended a tree-lighting ceremony in the community. County government and local organizations hosted the event, and Justice said those respective officials took a moment to soak in the outpouring of civic camaraderie.

He believes it’s the dawn of a new era for Lealman.

“Those are some of the things that are building blocks,” Justice said. “That I think we will look back on in a year, two years and five years and say, ‘man, that was the beginning of something really special.’”