PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — St. Petersburg’s City Council held a marathon work session on Thursday to go over a deal that would develop 67 acres and provide a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays.
The deal would provide 5,400 residential units, build a 30-35 thousand capacity stadium, and develop retail space, hotel rooms and office buildings. The deal also says it would provide 1,250 affordable housing units, but critics of the plan say the affordable housing units are not guaranteed.
During the work session, council member Richie Floyd hammered away on this issue.
“In this current agreement, that we’ve got before us, it outlines sort of a framework for affordable housing, but it’s not actually got an affordable housing deal in it at all,” said Floyd. “You have to go and create those deals later on.”
Outside before the meeting, protestors were even more vocal about this issue.
“We are in a housing crisis. We desperately need public housing, we don’t need more of these public, private partnerships,” said Karla Correa with the St. Pete Tenant Union.
She said the deal currently being proposed takes too much away from taxpayers.
“We should not be giving away upwards of a billion dollars of our taxpayer’s dollars. We work hard to give to the city and the county our taxes should not go to billionaires,” said Correa.
At the start of the meeting, Mayor Ken Welch who helped work on the plan said it honors the history of the people who lived in the Gas Plant District, where he grew up. and it will provide jobs and business opportunities for a number of minorities.
“I believe the set of agreements that we have developed with your input and with extensive are the key to completing this journey in a way that is physically responsible,” said Welch.
Council members will have a chance to vote on the entire plan at a future meeting. The lease between the Rays and the City of St. Petersburg expires in 2027. At that time, if no new stadium is built, the team could move to another city.