Pinellas County/St. Pete remain deadlocked on Tierra Verde
Pinellas County and St. Petersburg officials met briefly this morning to resolve the dispute over the city's annexation of 28 acres of commercial land on Tierra Verde. County planning director Brian Smith said the meeting, held in Clearwater, lasted 20 minutes and the two sides got nowhere.
Smith said the county offered to accept an all-or-nothing approach in which the city claimed the entirety of Tierra Verde rather than a portion. As expected, Smith said, city officials balked.
"It was agreed there was no way to resolve the conflict administratively," he said.
Within the next few days, a meeting between the County Commission and City Council will be scheduled, another formal step in the process. If there's no resolution, a mediator gets involved. If the the two camps remain at an impasse, the issue will then head to the courts.
Will Van Sant, Times staff writer
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tic.tic.tic.tic...
Posted by: | January 14, 2009 at 12:32 PM
The city and county coffers are empty, so let's go to Court and throw some money at the lawyers. The inmates have taken over the asylum.
Posted by: TRUE BLUE | January 14, 2009 at 01:21 PM
"The inmates have taken over the asylum."
Hey; that's PCDEC SOP!
Posted by: FADED BLUE | January 14, 2009 at 01:41 PM
"It was agreed there was no way to resolve the conflict administratively,"
Of course the term “legally” comes to mind, but that’s also political code for, “empty the back room, dust off the ashtrays, pull out the cigars and checkbooks… it’s time for Government in the Sunshine; Pinellas County style!
Posted by: Fly on a dark room wall! | January 14, 2009 at 02:52 PM
here's me caring
Posted by: ed | January 14, 2009 at 04:01 PM
Was any of this due to our St Petersburg City Attorney Mark Winn having been charged with two DUI's in the past two years? Maybe he's not thinking clearly at these meetings.
Posted by: Tramor | January 14, 2009 at 04:22 PM
This has everything to do with Ft. Desoto Condominium and Reach Resort.
Posted by: | January 14, 2009 at 04:39 PM
The Government is not your friend! Let's steal 3,000 houses and raise their taxes to pay for our past mistakes and future tax breaks for Rick Baker and his friends.
Hi we are from St. Peterburg,trust us!
Posted by: Disgusted with the back room operations | January 14, 2009 at 06:11 PM
The "Government" isn't the problem, 6:11, it's those we elect to run the government.
The TV debacle is only phase two of a four phase plan. Wait 'til the other two come out, that'll really piss you off.
Posted by: | January 14, 2009 at 07:00 PM
Gee,
I wonder why our city doesn't want the people of Tierra Verde to have a say?
I live in St. Pete, and yes we can use the tax dollars it may generate if any.(the cost of services would eat that up fast).
We don't need to profit when it involves a hostile take over.
Posted by: Paul | January 15, 2009 at 08:50 AM
This is all part of the master plan Code Named the West Palm Beachification of Pinellas County.
Namely, it becomes or is made to be too expensive for moderate income people to live here, so people begin moving out. Just look at the contraction of the schools due to decreasing enrollment. Less people, less schools, so we necessarily close more and more schools, a trend that will continue by the way. Start looking at schools with an eye on the property they sit on. Some of these schools are on some very nice property and sooner or later a delinquent taxpaying developer who just might be a campaign contributor will get a sweetheart deal to buy and develop the property when the school board unloads it to fill some future budgetary hole.
Next, quite possibly after we build a multi-billion dollar bridge to say, uhm, Ft DeSoto, costing oh, say, uhm, $5 to $7.50 to get there and (keeping in mind that people will still be moving out of the county, and Florida for that matter), will stop going to all Parks. The numbers of visitors to Parks in general will decline and the costs associated with keeping the parks open will cause some of them to be closed, down the road of course, then some of these very nice properties will sooner rather than later be “sold” to some delinquent taxpaying developer who just might be a campaign contributor in a sweetheart deal to buy and develop the property when the Developer Shills on the BOCC unload them to fill some future budgetary hole.
Now mind you, this is not going to happen overnight, but it is going to happen in some form or fashion, and plans have to be made, criminals have to be elected, other criminals have to donate, and deals need to be in place long before the other shoe drops.
It also becomes easier for the criminals involved to get these things passed because when most of the property is owned or otherwise occupied by absentee landowners, there will be less voters to stop it, not that local elections seem important enough to actually report on, or learn about, or vote on.
And there my friends you have what I like to call the West Palm Beachification of Pinellas County.
Thank you, Thank you very much…
Posted by: None of the Above | January 15, 2009 at 09:32 AM
Oh and one more thing...
I believe it was Mr Welch who said that even had he (they) known that certain delinquent taxpaying developers were actually delinquent taxpaing developers, it wouldn't have changed the way that he (they) voted...
I'm just sayin...
Posted by: None of the Above | January 15, 2009 at 09:40 AM
Shockman's newspaper articles shows Tierra Verde what their annexed water project will bring!
Two days ago,newspaper articles , explaining that Sembler's got million in free Baywalk land, and million dollar construction loan they didnt pay back, while Sembler and company borrowed $15 million against the property for other projects, and then dumping it in forclosure shows one thing: financially they are lacking in resources for viable production of the Tierra Verde future annexed land.
Did Mayor Baker give the Semblers' their Baywalk deal they leveraged and walked away from? And didnt the Semblers pay a Palm beach lobbyist $100,000 to got a million dollar building project, only to have the man arrested ? McCarty federal indictment and Ballard's sister mean anything to you?
These are the old political players, playing hand ball with your land and your money. You'all, talk control!!
Posted by: theloneconsumer | January 15, 2009 at 10:24 AM