ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A small group of residents and local faith leaders gathered on the steps of St. Petersburg City Hall Tuesday afternoon, expressing their opposition to the redevelopment plans unveiled for the Historic Gas Plant District.
Decades ago, residents and business owners were forced to leave the area to make way for what’s now home to the Tampa Bay Rays. Residents say they were promised jobs, opportunities, and a better future, but none of that came to fruition over the years.
“Residents were promised housing, businesses, and Florida many other opportunities. Instead, what they got was a lie and every promise was broken,” said Bishop Florida Florida manuel Sykes of Florida Full Gospel Baptist Church.
Aside from the new baseball stadium slated for the area, plans announced Tuesday included 1,200 affordable and workforce housing units, 600 of which would be on site. The development agreement, according to the city, also includes equity initiatives and education programs. Mayor Ken Welch said those plans will honor promises from the past, but residents disagree.
“If you redevelop a stadium and you put a museum there and you put a park there and you make it pretty, of course, the city stands to benefit. Our concern is who in the city stands to benefit from that and are we returning to that promise of pursuing black equity, the promise that was made in the 80s or are we pursuing an economic benefit that does not actually factor working class people in,” said Dylan Dames with Faith in Florida.
The group says 1,200 affordable housing units aren’t nearly enough. They want to see the land remain in public ownership and plan to express their frustrations and concerns to city leaders at a meeting later this month.
We asked Mayor Ken Welch for his response to this group’s concerns during a press conference Tuesday.
“We have kept the land for 40 years, but let’s talk about community impact. If you want the 1,200 units of affordable housing, if you want a 30% goal for minority contracting…if you want those things that we have now in agreement to bring forward, what is the alternative plan to get there? To date I have heard no alternative plan that would get us there,” said Welch.
