Aug 13, 2008
With the election behind us, the members of SOLV have been busy proceeding with the next phase of improving our community. As a practical matter, we wanted to bring our supporters, citiznes and leaders up to speed on the latest events.
1) Moving Forward: As SOLV promised, there would be no overnight explosion of tall buildings. Things are now moving in the right direction at a slow pace but things are finally getting done. The County and the State have numerous requirements which must be satisfied before any redevelopment can happen.
2) Ballot initiatives 4, 5, and 6, the three land development code provisions, (35 -- Large Resort District, 30 -- General Standards, 39 -- Town Center Core) have been adopted. They were passed by the Commission on both the first reading (3-2 vote) and final reading (4-1 vote) so they are now part of the St. Pete Beach Land Development Code. So why can't redevelopment begin in these areas? The catch is, any area conflicting with the current comprehensive plan will not be effective until the New Comprehensive Plan is in place.
3) Ballot initiative 3, the New Comprehensive Plan was passed on first reading by the Commission (4-1 vote). This initiated the review process of the plan by each of the agencies within the county and state which must sign off on it before it comes back to the Commission for a final reading and vote to adopt.
4) Progress on Changes: On July 16, the first of the County agencies, the Pinellas Planning Council, unanimously recommended the adoption of the St Pete Beach Amendment to the County Wide Plan. The Board of County Commissioners, in their capacity as the Countywide Planning Authority, will have their public hearing on August 5 at 9:30 AM. (This is the tricky one because I'm not sure how to get the point across without making things too complicated. The County Wide Plan (CWP) was not on the ballot but the City's Plan (CP) was. The amendment to the current CWP is a direct result of the voters approval of the CP. The CWP must match the CP which is why it's important to note the progress of it's approval throughout the county agencies.)
5) Legal Issues: Bill Pyle has filed two separate lawsuits seeking to overturn the election results - one was filed June 2 before the election occurred and the second was filed June 11. The cases are similar and may possibly be combined, but both are Declaratory Actions seeking to overturn the election results. SOLV has made a motion to intervene and Judge Demers will be hearing SOLV's request on August 8. Speculation is the Judge may schedule the hearing for the case sometime in August.