Book 1 - City of St. Petersburg

Service Vehicles
The City’s Parks and Recreation Department will operate and
maintain the grounds and buildings on the Upland park lands,
including Spa Beach, the public restrooms and other public
facilities. Because seagrasses frequently wash ashore along
Spa Beach, access to this part of the site via a service vehicle
ramp will be required for cleanup. The Parks and Recreation
Department is not currently responsible for maintaining the Pier.
Economic Development Opportunities
Community Redevelopment Areas
The Florida Legislature passed the Community Redevelopment
Act in 1969, allowing for the establishment of Community
Redevelopment Agencies throughout Florida. These Agencies
have the authority to create Community Redevelopment Areas
(CRA’s) with the purpose of encouraging economic development
and redevelopment.
In St. Petersburg, the Community Redevelopment Agency (the
City Council) created (7) CRA’s beginning in 1981 with the Intown
(Downtown) Redevelopment Area, shown in red in Figure 3.25:
Community Redevelopment Areas Map. The City then prepared
a Community Redevelopment Plan to guide the projects to be
carried out within the Intown Redevelopment Area.
Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Revenue
Community Redevelopment Areas have a unique financing
method available to fund city projects called Tax Increment
Financing. When the City established the Intown Redevelopment
Plan in 1981, the assessed value of the properties in the area in
red was frozen. The value of this frozen base was roughly $108
million.
City and County property taxes generated from the growth in
the assessed value over the frozen base are placed in a special
Trust Fund to be used to fund approved projects within the
redevelopment area. The taxes generated on the frozen base
continue to be available to all local taxing agencies for operating
purposes (City, County, and School Board).
In 2012, the assessed value of the area in red was almost
$820 million. This $712 million increment over the frozen base
value of 1981 generated $7.3 million of TIF revenues during
fiscal year 2012 that was used to pay for approved projects. It
is estimated that $162 million of TIF funds will be generated
between 2013 and 2032 (the current end date for City/County
funding of the Intown TIF). All TIF revenues generated by the
redevelopment area must be spent on approved projects within
that redevelopment area (the area in red in Figure 3.25).
Intown (Downtown) Redevelopment Projects
The City’s Intown Redevelopment Plan and its TIF funding
have been used to complete many public improvement
MICHAEL MALTZAN ARCHITECTURE, INC. 3 - 45