Thrive
St. Pete advances housing plan for vacant city lots
Voters would decide whether to remove the lots from the city’s Charter Park and Waterfront Map.
St. Petersburg City Council unanimously approved the first reading Thursday of an ordinance that would ask voters to remove the protected park designation from nine city-owned vacant lots in the historic Methodist Town neighborhood, just west of downtown. This will potentially clear the way for up to 41 affordable or workforce housing units.
If approved on second reading, the proposal will appear on the Nov. 3 municipal election ballot. Voters would decide whether to remove the lots from the city’s Charter Park and Waterfront Map, a change city officials say is necessary before the properties can be considered for future housing.
The proposal applies only to the nine vacant lots. Unity Park and the adjacent Jamestown open space would remain protected under the City Charter.
According to city documents, the parcels have carried park protections since voters approved the charter map in 1984, but have never functioned as public parks. Instead, they have remained vacant for more than 40 years, are scattered among neighborhood streets and homes, and are posted as closed to the public.
The lots were originally acquired as landscaped buffers during redevelopment surrounding the city-owned Jamestown Apartments and Townhomes in the early 1980s. That redevelopment plan expired in 2012, and officials argue the properties are no longer needed for their original purpose.
The proposal would not immediately authorize housing construction, rezone the properties or allow their sale. Instead, it would remove the charter restriction, allowing the city to pursue future zoning changes and development proposals through separate public processes. Under the current plan, four lots could be developed as affordable single-family homes, while five larger parcels could support affordable or workforce multifamily housing, for a total of up to 41 units.
Most public comment centered not on whether housing should be built, but on whether two of the nine lots should remain as community space.
Isabelle Rios, president of the Methodist Town Neighborhood Association, urged council members to amend the proposal to remove seven lots from the protected park map instead of nine.
“There is room here to do both,” Rios said. “Build the housing this city needs and retain some of this ground for the community.”
