Sierra Club recommendations for Gas Plant redevelopment

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The Historic Gas Plant District represents one of the most consequential redevelopment opportunities in the modern history of St. Petersburg. As residents, stakeholders and advocates who live, work, and participate in the civic life of this city, we believe this moment presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a redevelopment that honors the promises made to the HGPD residents in the last century and reflects not only the aspirations of today’s St. Petersburg but the needs and realities of the 21st century and beyond. When placemaking, we need to ensure that our developments are designed to stand the test of time. 

This redevelopment should aspire to be more than a collection of buildings or a real estate transaction. We should not lose the chance to create a model for how communities in Florida, and across the country, can thoughtfully integrate sustainability, resilience, affordability, ecological restoration, multimodal mobility and economic opportunity into the built environment. At a time when cities across the Gulf Coast are confronting intensifying climate pressures, rising housing and utility costs, aging infrastructure, and questions of equitable growth, the Historic Gas Plant District provides St. Petersburg with an opportunity to demonstrate principled leadership and long-term civic stewardship. 

We believe the redevelopment can and should enhance the collective quality of life for current and future residents alike by creating publicly accessible green spaces, resilient infrastructure, resilient energy investments, walkable and transit-connected neighborhoods and mixed-income communities that remain livable and affordable over time. Just as importantly, this process should honor the history and legacy of the community that once existed here while helping ensure that the benefits of redevelopment are broadly shared for generations to come. 

Accordingly, Sierra Club respectfully offers the following guiding principles and policy recommendations to help inform a site-specific master plan, future negotiations, development agreements, procurement processes and measurable sustainability benchmarks associated with the redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District. These recommendations are intended to support the City’s existing sustainability, resilience and equitable development goals while helping ensure this redevelopment becomes a lasting source of civic pride for the people of St. Petersburg. 

Booker Creek Restoration and Publicly Accessible Green Space 

Booker Creek should be treated as one of the defining public assets of the Historic Gas Plant District. Done well, the restoration of Booker Creek can serve multiple public purposes – improve water quality, reduce downstream flooding, expand public access to urban nature, create habitat for Florida wildlife in an urban setting, and help the City meet its long-term sustainability and resilience goals – all at once. 

The redevelopment should use Booker Creek and the surrounding public commons as a centerpiece for ecological restoration, climate adaptation, and community placemaking. This is an opportunity to transform a heavily paved urban site into a living example of how green infrastructure can enhance quality of life while also helping St. Petersburg prepare for heavier rainfall, extreme heat, and future climate impacts. Prior Sierra Club stakeholder comments (see addendum) have emphasized that native green infrastructure, public parks, flood resilience and Booker Creek restoration should be embedded as core requirements rather than optional amenities. 

It has been firmly established that at least 14 acres of the redevelopment must be dedicated to publicly accessible open space in order to meet the City’s goal of reaching a 30% citywide tree canopy. However, the City can and should make every effort to create a larger central public park, potentially up to 30 acres or more, that can serve as the civic and ecological heart of the redevelopment. 

As an impaired waterway under Florida’s Impaired Waters Rule, local governments are obligated to take remedial action for restoration. As part of the restoration goals for Booker Creek, the Sierra Club recommends a minimum 250-foot vegetated and riparian buffer on both banks of Booker Creek, using native vegetation to stabilize soils, filter runoff, create habitat, provide shade and help manage stormwater before it reaches Tampa Bay. Preference should be given to a single large, connected park and habitat area over a fragmented, multiple-pocket park model. As noted in prior Sierra Club commentary, the community should think beyond manicured landscapes and concrete-constricted water features, and instead pursue green spaces that improve both ecological function and the public’s outdoor experience. 

Recommended Strategies 

Sierra Club recommends that the City require future development proposals and agreements to incorporate the following: 

• Naturalized Booker Creek restoration where technically feasible: including widened riparian buffers, native plantings and softer, meandering edges that improve ecological function rather than relying primarily on concrete hardening. 
• A publicly accessible park and trail system along Booker Creek that allows residents and visitors to walk, bike, gather and experience urban ecology in the heart of St. Petersburg.
• Green stormwater infrastructure throughout the site: including bioswales, rain gardens, permeable pavement, tree trenches and other low-impact development features that slow, absorb and treat stormwater runoff. 
• Constructed wetlands, stormwater gardens, or ecological park features where appropriate, especially in lower-lying portions of the site that may be more vulnerable to flooding. These areas should function like sponges, holding and filtering water during heavy rainfall events while providing public and ecological benefits under normal conditions.
• Expanded native tree canopy and shade coverage: with careful selection of native tree species that are resilient to hurricane-force winds, extreme heat and drought, where relevant, and future climate conditions facing coastal communities. 
• Habitat-friendly landscaping: native plants that support birds, pollinators and other urban wildlife while reducing irrigation, fertilizer, and maintenance needs. 
• Litter and debris capture systems, such as WaterGoats or equivalent devices, are placed where appropriate upstream and downstream of the site to intercept trash before it flows into Tampa Bay. 
• Educational signage and ecological interpretation, allowing residents and visitors to understand Booker Creek’s history, previous cultural uses by residents, its connection to the Tampa Bay watershed and the role of green infrastructure in flood control, water quality, and climate resilience. 

Potential Measurable Targets 

To ensure these priorities are more than aspirational, Sierra Club recommends that the City incorporate measurable requirements into future development agreements, procurement documents, and evaluation criteria, including: 

• A minimum of 14 acres of contiguous publicly accessible open space, with consideration of a larger central public park as a preferred public benefit. 
• A 250-foot native vegetated buffer on both banks of Booker Creek, except where technical constraints require limited and justified deviations. 
• Specific tree canopy targets for the redevelopment that help advance the City’s 30% citywide canopy goal and that utilize native species following the principles of right plant, right place.
• Requirements for Florida native landscaping across parks, streetscapes, creek buffers and public spaces. 
• Sitewide stormwater retention, treatment, and flood attenuation benchmarks that exceed baseline code requirements where feasible. 
• Requirements for public access, shade, seating, ADA accessibility, and trail connectivity along Booker Creek and throughout the public realm. 
• Ongoing maintenance standards for green infrastructure, tree canopy, litter capture devices and restored creek areas. 

In short, Booker Creek and the surrounding open space should be designed as ecological infrastructure, public amenity and flood resilience system all at once. This redevelopment should allow St. Petersburg residents to see, use and take pride in a restored urban waterway that improves the health of Tampa Bay while creating a more beautiful, shaded, walkable and resilient district for generations to come. 

Clean and Resilient Energy 

The Historic Gas Plant District should be designed as a model for clean, reliable and resilient urban energy infrastructure. Given the size, visibility and central location of the site, this redevelopment offers an opportunity to reduce long-term operating costs, strengthen energy reliability, improve disaster preparedness and support high-performance buildings that benefit residents, businesses, visitors, and the broader St. Petersburg community. 

The City should ensure that clean and resilient energy strategies are incorporated into developer selection criteria, design standards, development agreements and long-term performance benchmarks. These strategies should be framed around practical outcomes: lower utility costs, stronger building performance, improved reliability, reduced strain on the grid and enhanced disaster recovery capacity. 

Because the Gas Plant site is relatively high and dry compared to many parts of St. Petersburg, it can serve as an important asset in the City’s broader disaster preparedness and recovery strategy. During hurricanes, heat emergencies or extended power outages, key portions of the redevelopment should be capable of supporting emergency response, cooling, communications, charging and community relief. 

Goal 

Position the Historic Gas Plant District as a model for reliable, renewable and resilient energy systems that reduce long-term costs, improve disaster preparedness, support high-performance development and help advance St. Petersburg’s clean energy goals as identified in the Integrated Sustainability Action Plan and our community’s energy footprint and resiliency. 

Recommended Strategies 

Sierra Club recommends that future redevelopment proposals and agreements incorporate the following: 

• High-performance building design that prioritizes energy efficiency, passive cooling, efficient appliances, durable materials, and reduced long-term utility costs.
  • Application of the City’s Sustainability & Resiliency of City Facilities Ordinance No. 359-H as a baseline standard for not only applicable public facilities, infrastructure and City-owned assets within the redevelopment, but also private developments. This ordinance reflects the City’s commitment to high-performance, sustainable, and resilient design and should be used to inform sustainable building design standards and targets.
  • Adoption of site-specific zoning for the building standards before the land is leased/sold.
• Solar-ready construction across applicable buildings and structures, including roof design, conduit, electrical infrastructure, inverters and other design elements necessary to support future solar photovoltaic installation.
• On-site renewable energy generation on rooftops, parking structures, civic buildings, public facilities and other suitable portions of the redevelopment. 
• Battery storage and smart-grid technologies that improve reliability, reduce peak demand and support critical operations during outages. 
• Renewably powered microgrids serving key public, civic, residential or community-serving facilities within the District. These systems should be designed to provide resilience services before, during and after disasters. 
• A resilience hub or network of community-serving facilities capable of supporting emergency response, cooling, communications, medical needs, device charging and temporary relief during hurricanes or extended outages. 
• EV charging infrastructure and EV-ready design, including Level 2 charging capacity and future-proofed electrical infrastructure for residential, commercial, civic and public parking areas. 
• Renewable energy procurement and power purchase agreements (PPAs) for renewables options for any City-owned buildings, facilities or land within the redevelopment.
• Building electrification in applicable new construction, especially where it improves efficiency, indoor air quality, lifecycle cost and resilience. 
• Transparent energy performance reporting, including periodic public reporting on building performance, energy use, renewable energy generation and resilience infrastructure for all new construction on site – both public and private. 

Potential Measurable Targets 

To ensure these goals are actionable, Sierra Club recommends that the City incorporate measurable benchmarks into future agreements and evaluation criteria as a desired standard, including: 

• A district-scale energy feasibility study to evaluate opportunities for solar, battery storage, microgrids, demand management, thermal energy systems, and other cost-effective resilience technologies. 
• A geothermal energy scoping study to better understand whether ground-source heating and cooling or district geothermal systems could help efficiently meet on-site energy demands, reduce operating costs, conserve water, and improve long-term building performance. 
• Use incentives to encourage high-performance construction, such as reduced fees or other benefits for projects that meet recognized sustainability benchmarks, including LEED, Energy Star, Envision, or equivalent third-party standards for major buildings and infrastructure—both public and private. 
• Adopt site-specific zoning for the building standards before the land is leased/sold to ensure a private developer encounters sustainability expectations during site-plan review, to incentivize negotiations, redevelopment agreements, or future code updates derived from ISAP goals 
• Require future-ready energy design for applicable buildings and structures, including solar-ready construction, electrical capacity for future Level 2 EV charging where appropriate, and infrastructure that supports long-term resilience, reliability, and lifecycle cost savings. 
• Establish clear expectations for on-site clean energy and resilient power, including renewable energy capacity, battery storage, and backup power for critical facilities. 
• Complete early-stage feasibility analyses for district-scale energy strategies, including microgrids, priority facilities for resilient power, geothermal energy applications, demand management, and other cost-effective technologies. 
• Provide public reporting on energy performance and resilience investments, including building energy performance, clean energy generation, storage capacity, critical backup systems, and lifecycle cost savings over time. 

The Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment should be designed not only to use energy efficiently, but to help St. Petersburg withstand and recover from natural disasters. Clean and resilient energy infrastructure should be treated as a core public benefit of the redevelopment — lowering costs, improving reliability, supporting emergency preparedness, and helping create a district that is built for the next century. 

Affordability, Energy Burdens, and Community Ownership 

Affordability should be understood not only as the cost of rent or mortgage payments, but as the total cost of living in the Historic Gas Plant District over time. For lower-income residents, utility costs, transportation costs, building quality, and long-term displacement pressures all shape whether a community remains genuinely affordable and livable. 

The redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District should therefore include meaningful, affordable, and mixed-income housing commitments, with a focus on households where the need is most dire. When public land, public resources, or public financing are involved, housing benefits should prioritize residents earning 80% AMI or less, rather than relying primarily on units that are only affordable to moderate-income or near-market households. Housing is generally considered affordable when it costs no more than 30% of household income, and public investment should be focused where housing cost burdens are most severe. Per 2024 Shinberg data analysis, just over 43% of St Petersburg residents earn between 30-80% of the Average Median Income (AMI), and the deficit in affordable and available housing for the 30-80% AMI households exceeds 4,700 units. At a minimum, the HGPD development should have at least 44% housing for those making 30-80% AMI to match the existing population in the city and ideally target 50%, given the significant gap in affordable and available housing for this population in St Petersburg at present. 

This priority is directly connected to sustainability and resilience. Energy-inefficient housing can deepen economic hardship by forcing lower-income residents to spend a disproportionate share of their income on utility bills. High-performance affordable housing can reduce monthly costs, improve indoor comfort, protect residents during extreme heat, and ensure that the benefits of redevelopment are not undermined by rising energy burdens. 

Goal 

Ensure that the Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment advances long-term affordability, reduces household energy burdens, creates pathways to community ownership and helps repair the legacy of displacement through durable public benefit. 

Recommended Strategies 

Sierra Club recommends that future redevelopment proposals and agreements incorporate the following: 

• Affordable and mixed-income housing, with public resources focused on households earning 80% AMI or less.
• Clear, affordable housing targets within the Historic Gas Plant District itself, rather than relying primarily on off-site units or vague affordability commitments. 
• A community land trust model or similar long-term stewardship structure to preserve affordability in perpetuity, support community ownership and prevent future redevelopment decisions from repeating past harms. 
• High-performance affordable housing, including efficient appliances, strong insulation, passive cooling strategies, efficient HVAC systems and durable building materials. 
• Nearby transit, jobs, public space and daily needs commerce to reduce transportation costs and support a walkable, livable district. 
• Pathways for wealth-building and community benefit, including affordable homeownership, shared-equity models or other mechanisms that help residents build long-term stability. 

Potential Measurable Targets 

To ensure affordability commitments are meaningful, Sierra Club recommends that the City incorporate benchmarks for: 

• 44-50% of affordable units on-site are reserved for households at 80% AMI or below.
• Long-term affordability through the creation of a community land trust, deed restrictions or similar mechanisms (such as a Community Development Corporation). 
• Energy-efficiency standards that reduce utility burdens and improve resident comfort.
• Public reporting on affordable housing delivery, income levels served, affordability duration and resident energy-cost impacts. 

In short, affordability should be treated as a sustainability issue. The Historic Gas Plant District should demonstrate how affordable housing, energy efficiency, community ownership and restorative investment can work together to create a more equitable and resilient St. Petersburg. 

Multimodal Mobility, Transit Connectivity and Complete Streets 

The Historic Gas Plant District should be designed as a walkable, transit-supportive, people-centered district that improves mobility for residents, workers, visitors and surrounding neighborhoods. This redevelopment should reduce car dependency, improve safe access to jobs and public space and connect the site to existing and future transit, bicycle, pedestrian and micromobility infrastructure. 

The site already benefits from proximity to major mobility assets, including existing SunRunner service and the Pinellas Trail. Future planning should build from these assets rather than treating transportation as an afterthought. The redevelopment should function as a true multimodal hub — connecting transit riders, pedestrians, bicyclists, scooter users, nearby residents and visitors through safe, shaded, accessible and intuitive design. 

This is also an opportunity to plan for St. Petersburg’s long-term mobility future. The City should ensure that the redevelopment supports stronger north-south transit service along the 16th Street corridor, improved connections to surrounding neighborhoods and future evaluation of premium transit or rail-based service where technically and financially viable. This should include coordination with regional partners on potential CSX corridor reuse, such as light rail, a linear rail trail or other multimodal public benefit. The City should also coordinate redevelopment planning with long-term conversations around I-175, including potential redesign, removal or reconnection strategies that improve access between Campbell Park, the Southside, downtown and the Gas Plant site. 

Goal 

Create a walkable, transit-oriented and multimodal district that reduces transportation barriers, improves safe access, reconnects surrounding neighborhoods and supports long-term mobility planning for St. Petersburg. 

Recommended Strategies 

Sierra Club recommends that future redevelopment proposals and agreements incorporate the following: 

• Transit hub integration, building from existing SunRunner service while allowing for future bus rapid transit, express bus, light rail or other premium transit connections. 
• Direct connections to the Pinellas Trail and surrounding neighborhoods, ensuring safe, visible, shaded and ADA-accessible routes into and through the site. 
• A connected street grid to ensure the built environment supports walking, biking, transit access and human-scale design. 
• Complete Streets standards for major thoroughfares, including protected bike lanes, wide sidewalks, safe crossings, traffic-calming, shade trees, lighting, ADA accessibility and dedicated space for transit and micromobility. 
• Pedestrian-first internal streets and public spaces, and strong connections between housing, jobs, parks, transit and civic amenities. 
• Future-ready transit corridor planning, including coordination with regional partners on potential CSX corridor reuse, such as light rail or a linear rail trail, 16th Street north-south connections and long-term I-175 redesign scenarios. 

Potential Measurable Targets 

To ensure these goals are implemented, Sierra Club recommends benchmarks for transit integration, Pinellas Trail connections, Complete Streets design, bike and scooter parking, ADA accessibility, shaded sidewalks and trails, maximum block lengths and future transit easements or corridor protections where appropriate. 

In short, the Historic Gas Plant District should be designed as a place where residents and visitors can comfortably arrive without a car, move safely through the district and connect easily to surrounding neighborhoods. Mobility planning should advance public health, economic accessibility, climate resilience and restorative connectivity — especially for Campbell Park, the Southside and communities historically divided by past infrastructure decisions. 

In Conclusion 

The priorities outlined above represent Sierra Club expectations for how the City of St. Petersburg should approach the future redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District. As the mayor, members of council, administration, City staff and future negotiating teams evaluate proposals and negotiate with any developer or developers selected through the RFP process, these principles should help guide the City’s decision-making, contractual obligations, public benefit commitments and measurable sustainability targets. 

Regardless of which proposal ultimately moves forward, the City should require that the redevelopment reflect St. Petersburg’s adopted values, existing plans and long-term goals for sustainability, resilience, affordability, mobility, public health and equitable growth. These priorities should not be treated as optional amenities or aspirational add-ons. They should be embedded into a site master plan, development agreements, evaluation criteria, design standards, public accountability mechanisms and long-term implementation plans. 

We remain, as always, willing to work constructively with the mayor’s administration, City staff, community partners and other stakeholders to help ensure the Historic Gas Plant District becomes a model for equitable and sustainable redevelopment in Florida and beyond. Sierra Club stands ready to support a process that is transparent, accountable, community-informed and worthy of this once-in-a-generation opportunity. 

We urge you to follow these recommendations. 

Respectfully, 

Suncoast Sierra Club Executive Committee: 

Sasha Bartunek, Bryan Beckman, Megan Colby, Erica Hall, Mike Kingsford, Jamie McWade, Tresalynn Morris, James Scott, Glenna Wentworth 

Pat Fling, Co-Chair of Suncoast Sierra Club Political Committee; and Michael McGrath, Lead Organizer, Sierra Club Florida Chapter