Rare role for developer: underdog

It's rare to see a developer cast in the role of clear underdog in front of a local government body. But the folks who wanted to build a 23-story Westin hotel on the fringe of downtown St. Petersburg got a pretty frosty reception Thursday evening in front of the City Council. In the end the council voted 7-0 against the developer's appeal.

Council chairman James Bennett set the tone when the developers' lawyer, Ron Weaver of Tampa, began his presentation by asking for extra time to make it. That wouldn't be appropriate, Bennett replied. Perhaps not used to not getting the red carpet, the developers' side had to rush and fumble through their case in 10 minutes.

The proposal was to build a 23-story, 154-room hotel on 5th Avenue North at First Street, on the northern border of the downtown area and at the southern end of the Old Northeast neighborhood. The project also included 60 to 70 condominiums and a parking garage.

In the technical sense, the Westin project complied with city codes. But there was enough wiggle room in the language about affecting the city's overall character, the project's consistency with existing uses, its adverse effects and so forth to give the council grounds for denying the appeal from the city's Environmental Development Commission, which had already rejected the project.

Still, the developer might have a court case. Weaver argued that the city was changing its tune in midstream, pulling the rug from beneath the developers. Honestly, it didn't help that a lot of the folks who spoke in opposition kept talking about how the hotel doesn't comply with the "spirit" of the city's new rules, which just took effect in September -- those rules don't apply to the Westin project.

Three thoughts:

(1) If you ask me, the thing is a monstrosity that has no business towering over the neighborhoods to the north. If the developers are intent on ramming it down St. Petersburg's throat, then I have no problem at all wishing them and their hotel a spectacular lack of success.

(2) I wouldn't read too much into the City Council's rejection, in terms of deep meaning or sea change. These were out-of-town guys with (no offense, Ron!) an out-of-town lawyer. If the developer was named Sembler, and the neighborhood was in west St. Petersburg instead of being the Old Northeast,  would the result be the same? Hey, wait a minute...

(3) On the other hand, opponents of Hometown Democracy can find some ammunition here. The citizens rallied; they hired an effective lawyer; they made their case -- and the City Council listened. In the wake of the council denying a Wal-Mart up on Gandy Boulevard, it's hard to accuse the St. Pete gov't in this case of being pro-developer at all costs...

Thoughts?

Comments

[John]

Having grown up in St Petersburg and seeing the complete paving over of the city and the monoliths going up in the downtown area, I do not trust any level of government, especially the city council of St Petersburg. If they turned down a developers request you can bet it was because of some back room policitics. The Florida Hometown Democracy initiative is the only hope for saving what is left of anything in Florida that has not been trashed by development.

If I were an Neighborhood Association President I would immediately order a copy of the video of this meeting. Next time your Neighborhood wants to object to a proposed development I would play the clip of Jamie Bennet stating that residents are "experts" on traffic, and the clip of Bill Foster stating that residents are "experts" on adverse effects, then I would march every neighborhood resident to the podium for their 3 minute "expert" testimony. Or perhaps you are only an expert if you reside in an Old Northeast neighborhood. And what's with Williams? He goes on and on about how the project complies with the Code and meets the Acid Test for approval, and how they are supposed to vote on the facts and the law, then he votes against the project??? Some backbone he has. Let's watch for Fuel Group on the candidate finance reports this year.

[Truth]

If this weren't being done during the Rick Baker regime I would say there is still hope that St. Petersburg isn't totally ruined. The city council has a long, long, long way to go to get my approval and trust.

[Blah]

LET THEM BUILD IT!~

A great decision. Massive projects such as this belong in the urban core -a concept most developers seem to understand. There is no justification for putting an architecturally uninteresting urban monolith such as this so close to single family houses.

The developers in this case only care about the dollars they can make off a project they'll never have to look at.

I wonder how they would feel if we tried to build this ugly building in their backyard?

[Jennifer W]

Excuse me fellow blog posters, but I don't get it. Why are you still angry? This building has gone up for the vote twice and lost both times.

If city council had just voted "yes build it" you would all be angry. But instead they voted "no don't build it" and you're still angry. C'mon people, give credit where credit is due.

Thank you city council for the unanimous vote to not build the condo!!!

The vote was a campaign season delay… 10-to-1 says the get it through the courts. That way, everybody wins; the politicians get to claim they tried to stop it as boast about it on the campaign trail… the developer gets to build it and boast about it at the bank… and the average voter doesn’t know a damn thing about the court system or judges.

Watch it happen.

[Patrick Slevin]

Ron Weaver is a top-flight Tampa Bay lawyer and the developer has the big bucks, but yet the project was still killed. It was killed under the system that Hometown Democracy claims to be "for the developer and by the developer" yada. Morevoer, there wasn't a citizen petition to amend the city's charter like we have seen in St. Pete Beach. Simply, the developer got outflanked by concerned citizens who won a victory under our represenative form of government. Our system is not perfect or without its faults, but this story is a perfect example why developers need to meet with citizens sooner to find commoon ground and why Hometown Demockery is the wrong direction for our state.

[Sharon Simms]

If Fuel Group takes this to court and wins, as happened in a similar situation in Hyde Park in Tampa - the building gets built anyway and the neighborhood opponents have caused a great financial burden on the City of St Pete that all taxpayers will have to share in paying off.

I think the opponents would be spending their time more productively to change the zoning and development laws, rather than attacking a company that is meeting the letter of the law.

A developer lost! After they have won 10,000 victories they have suffered one setback. Too bad that Pinellas county is already an overpopulated, overdeveloped, polluted mess which was apparently built without any concern whatsoever about the future.

Florida is going to lose its coastline to rising oceans. Pinellas county will suffer. But why should anyone care about the mess that today's babies will inherit from this generation?

James Hansen gives an 1hr 30 minute talk about Global Warming's scientific basis and threat:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8533555045369774161

These threats are not purely speculative. Dramatic changes occurring in the Arctic region should serve to wake Americans up:

"Climate Change: Entire Landscape on the Move"

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39531

***

Incidentally, the price of oil is above $80 a barrel. Gasoline is $2.76 a gallon nationally.

Americans ought to begin planning for $100 a barrel oil and $4 a gallon gasoline now.

Floridians should also begin thinking about the post-automotive future. I shouldn't have to say the obvious, but without gasoline SUVs won't go very far.

Mexico's oil production is declining steeply. OPEC's oil production is declining gradually. America's oil production peaked in the 1970's.

The oil age is nearing its end. The end of oil is also the end of the automobile. The end of the American economy as well.

Global Warming and Peak Oil will serve to demolish Technological Civilization. Humankind's dominance over the Earth will come to an end. As it should.

[Fran]

This project did not meet the "letter of the law". It met a portion of the law and did not meet another, equally important, portion. Also, the situation in Tampa that everyone, including the developer seems to rely on, was not "similar". In fact, it involved a architectural review commission denying a project solely becuase of height. Authority that body did not not have. This wasn't about height and St. Pete's commission and council does have the authority to act as it did. If the City loses an appeal, don't blame the citizens, blame the developer who didn't bother to reach out to the citizens before moving forward and then refused to resolve the case before it went this far.

[csbrudy]

Fran, which portions of the law did the project meet, and which ones didn't it meet?

[Zhombre]

Humankind's dominance over the Earth will come to an end. As it should ...

Oh yes I look forward to the end of that dominance. When people live in harmony with nature in small wattle and mud brick villages, practicing subsistence agriculture, probably a slash and burn variation. Infant mortality may be 60 percent and life expectancy a good 45 years but by then statistics, an evil relic of technological civilization, will be unknown.