St. Petersburg council members debate Rays agreement in marathon meeting

ST. PETERSBURG — Council members kicked off a marathon session Thursday scrutinizing plans to transform the land around Tropicana Field into a business and residential district after months of closed-door negotiations between the Tampa Bay Rays, the team’s partners and Mayor Ken Welch’s administration.The council’s skeptics on the deal seized the microphones early, lobbing pent-up questions and critiques they’ve been sitting on since late last year when Welch announced the broad contours of a deal. They peppered team officials on their commitment to building affordable housing, loose language on development rights and on the timeline for construction not related to a new baseball stadium.But that intensity subsided as the discussion continued, with council members asking for more specifics and recommending adjustments. Their common themes include using apprentices to help build homes and gathering places, not just pave roads and lay pipes; nailing down specifics on a childcare center or related facility; and seeking stronger language that keeps the Rays and their development partner Hines more locked into their commitments.“I think we’re in a pretty good place right now,” council member Gina Driscoll said after the meeting.Asked if the Rays and Hines would be amenable to those changes, Hines Senior Managing Director Michael Harrison said their group will reconvene and talk about how they can clean up and finalize the document.Council members had blocked off eight hours Thursday to go over the development agreement for the Historic Gas Plant District, a plan by the Rays and Hines to remake 67 acres of public land into a community, complete with affordable housing, restaurants, a hotel, performance space and an African American history museum.By 4 p.m., they had just wrapped up the first discussion and sat for another presentation on bonds and financing. It was only the second time the council has met to publicly discuss the project since a deal was announced in September. Their first meeting was in October.The meeting began with Welch reminding council members why the downtown land is available. Welch and historian Gwendolyn Reese, a paid member of the Rays and Hines partnership, spoke of the Black neighborhood known as the Gas Plant that was razed for redevelopment that later shifted to plans for a stadium to lure Major League Baseball.The next hour and a half were filled with presentations from the Rays, Hines and architects that flashed renderings of the project. They went over the broader points of the deal, including pledged community benefits.But from the moment council members spoke, the deal’s critics launched into clause by clause concerns about the legally binding development agreement.Council member Richie Floyd, one of the more outspoken critics of the deal, took issue with language that would allow “excusable development delays” as judged solely by Welch, allow Hines to pick and choose which parcels to buy or reject and let the company off the hook for building affordable housing off-site if public subsidies aren’t available.“That’s frustrating for me because it seems like this deal guarantees us affordable housing but from what I’m hearing, that’s not the case at all,” Floyd said.Council member Lisset Hanewicz, another critic of the deal, asked why the city is paying $142 million for infrastructure, including $12 million for a sewage lift station, when Hines and the Rays could sell the land.“I still don’t understand why we’re paying any of it,” she said.Hanewicz also asked if Rays owner Stuart Sternberg, who is listed on the agreement, would remain part of the development group if he were to sell the team. Attorney Peter Berrie, hired by the city as outside counsel, confirmed that he would.She also voiced concern that the agreement did not incorporate most of the recommendations on affordable housing from a group comprised of residents and people who work in St. Petersburg appointed by Welch and council members. Among other things, the Community Benefits Advisory Council pressed for a faster timeline for construction of affordable housing and stiffer financial penalties if developers fail to deliver.“Some of the most important ones we asked for didn’t make it,” said council chairperson Deborah Figgs-Sanders, the council representative who served on the advisory council.City Council member Ed Montanari asked if the 7% annual property tax growth downtown needed to pay the city’s share of project costs is overly optimistic. That approach, called tax increment financing, is a tool designed to pay off a public project via future tax gains on higher property values.“Yes, it could be higher,” said Assistant City Administrator Tom Greene.While Floyd and Hanewicz advocated using new tax money generated by the project for needs in other parts of the city sooner, council member Copley Gerdes, who has voiced support for the deal, said the ultimate return on investment downtown will be “exponential.”Also in attendance at the meeting were Pinellas County commissioners Dave Eggers, Brian Scott and Chris Latvala, as well as Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton. Outside, protesters from groups critical of the project, including No Home Run, Faith in Florida, the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area, St. Petersburg Tenants Union and the Sierra Club stood outside City Hall. Their signs read “Public Stadium Is Welfare for Billionaires” “Keep the Land” and “St. Pete is Not For Sale.”Thursday’s meeting is the first of two workshops that would precede a vote on the overall project. A second meeting focusing specifically on a new stadium scheduled for May 23 was postponed at the request of Welch’s administration. That could push official votes to July, after the City Council’s summer break.“While we are eager to advance the Historic Gas Plant Development project, we are focused on advancing it in a thorough and thoughtful manner,” city spokesperson Alizza Punzalan-Randle said in a texted statement. “These are complex agreements, and the additional time will allow the team to complete the meeting documents and allow City Council ample time to review the agreements prior to their discussion.”

St. Petersburg council members debate Rays agreement in marathon meeting

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