Place
City to purchase Salt Creek property for preserve
City Councilmember Gina Driscoll has eyed vacant property along Salt Creek – nearly three acres of it – for years. She thought St. Petersburg, undergoing rapid development, could use additional greenspace.
Administrators – realizing flood management and educational opportunities – agreed. The city will now offer the seller $2.9 million for three adjoining parcels fronting 4th Street, 18th Avenue and 17th Avenue South.
Driscoll’s colleagues on the council approved the initiative Thursday at a Committee of the Whole meeting. Mike Jefferis, community enrichment administrator, said the acquisition “really makes sense.”
“We know many communities are converting current parkland into solutions for flooding,” Jefferis said. “So, this really is the best win. It’s taking property that is not currently parkland, making it parkland, a preserve, and then utilizing it for that purpose.
“It’s a win-win in our eyes.”
An overhead view of the three parcels. Screengrab, city documents.
City documents state the owner recently reduced his asking price from $3 million to $2.9 million. While the property appraiser’s website shows the land has a $731,302 market value, those same documents peg that number at $2.88 million.
City Administrator Rob Gerdes suggested the council approve spending up to $2.9 million for the property. “We don’t want to negotiate with the seller here in the public,” he said.
“We think maybe we can do better than that,” Gerdes added. “But I would not like to approve anything higher than that and give the seller any indication we would move any higher.”
City officials believe the property would provide several benefits. Driscoll noted the greenspace would sit across 18th Avenue South from Bartlett Park.
Jefferis said the property would extend the park and feature a “nice walkway,” lamps, benches and “landscape the 4th Street corridor.” Administrators will also move a planned pump station for Bartlett Park to the new greenspace.
Jefferis said the parcels, bifurcated by Salt Creek, would serve as a marshland preserve with native plants, trees and St. Augustine grass. The park would also serve as a flood barrier for homes to the west.
Brejesh Prayman, engineering and capital improvements director, explained that the location slopes toward Lake Maggiore, which experienced substantial flooding during Hurricane Milton’s downpours. “In fact, it overflowed into many basins,” he said.
Prayman said the pump station would pull water from the surrounding floodplain and mitigate storm impacts. A building on the westernmost parcel, away from Salt Creek, would house a generator and electrical equipment.
Officials plan to install a water control gate upstream from the property, east of 3rd Street, that Prayman said will close during high tides. “That will allow us to keep the water lower in Salt Creek and Lake Maggiore,” he explained.
A force main pipe will bypass the creek and carry excess water from the gate to the pump station. Prayman said the process would help eliminate tidal impacts during heavy rainfall.
A graphic highlighting the proposed flood management system. Screengrab, city documents.
Jefferis said it is “not uncommon to put a pump station in a park.” He also noted the property’s unique shape made it “very difficult to come up with any other utilization.”
Jefferis plans to “soften” above-ground infrastructure with landscaping and, potentially, public art. He compared the project to the Clam Bayou Nature Preserve.
Educational components will feature prominently in the new park. Jefferis said officials envision using QR codes and placards that inform residents and visitors of what “a municipality can do to help with the negative impacts from flooding that so many are faced with.”
The city will purchase the property using Weeki Wachee funding. St. Petersburg bought the 440-acre recreation area in Hernando County because of its springs in 1940. Officials abandoned costly plans to pipe its spring water to citizens and later sold the property to the Southwest Florida Water Management District for $15.9 million in 2021.
The proceeds act as a trust to fund projects that create or enhance green spaces.
Previously budgeted money and grants would pay for the pump station. The city council must still approve utilizing Weeki Wachee funds to acquire the property.
Council Chair Copley Gerdes referenced the 2010 movie The A-Team and said, “I love it when a plan comes together. I just appreciate the continued innovative thinking.”
