ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The sweeping redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site and the effort to keep the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg cleared a hurdle Tuesday night.
In a 7-to-2 vote, a majority of the city’s Community Benefits Advisory Committee signed off on the benefits term sheet the Historic Gas Plant District Redevelopment is slated to provide the community.
However, the board members, who are mostly ordinary citizens appointed by the city to their advisory roles, only agreed on the benefits after a lengthy discussion about the city’s shortage of affordable housing and how the development plan should address the shortage.
Hines and the Tampa Bay Rays, the team behind the redevelopment plan, have said that affordable housing is a central part of the plan, along with the new ballpark, public parks, retail space, and a focus on equity.
The current plan would provide 1,200 units of attainable housing. Of those units, half would be considered “affordable,” and the other half would be priced at workforce-income levels.
For weeks, however, a number of community members have asked the board to add more affordable housing.
“The current amount of affordable housing is abysmal,” one speaker, Warren Willingham, told the advisory board Tuesday.
Board member Ruth Whitney made a motion requesting a higher count of affordable homes in the plan. Her motion also sought to reduce the cost of many of the project’s affordable and attainable units.
While it garnered some support, Whitney’s motion ultimately failed in a 3-to-6 vote. Some advisory board members worried the price of adding more affordable units would cause the development team to cut back in other important areas, such as those focused on “intentional equity.”
“It is a bigger project than just housing,” said board member Gloria Campbell. “We are not going to solve housing with this.”
The board did take some smaller steps to prioritize affordable housing. In a unanimous vote, it increased the penalties that the development team would incur if it failed to deliver the affordable and workforce units. In another unanimous vote, the advisory board also requested that the developer build some of the affordable homes by 2028.
Ultimately, the board members who voted for the project and the benefits it is projected to provide say the deal, while not perfect, is fair, especially after the recommendations they made to the term sheet.
Though the city said the board’s recommendations will be strongly considered, they are non-binding. Next, city council members will consider the project’s benefits and the advisory board’s recommendations to the term sheet.
Michael Harrison, a senior managing director with Hines, said he needs more time to digest and review the board’s recommendations.
