Jun 2, 2008
Bay 9 News ran a TV news story on the St. Pete Beach Special Election and featured Bev Garnett, our SOLV volunteer. Click here to see the story online. Here's the text of the story:
ST. PETE BEACH (Bay News 9) -- On Tuesday, a special election in St. Pete Beach could determine the future height of hotels in the city.
Tuesday's ballot features four questions that could alter the city's landscape by allowing developers to build denser and taller hotels -- up to 12 stories high. And one ballot question even calls for changing Corey Avenue into a residential and retail district.
Beverly Garnett has been working with the political actions committee that put the four questions on next week's ballot.
She said redevelopment is vital for the city's survival.
"People have to work very hard to take their vacations today, and they want to go to a nice hotel," Garnett said. "They want to stay in a nice community. They don't want to come to a run down hotel, and they don't want to come to community where stores are closing all over the place."
But not everyone is ready to say yes to the proposals.