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Redevelopment foes going more political

Opponents move from active criticism of St. Pete Beach's plans to saying they won't debate until ballot issues are settled.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published September 21, 2005

ST. PETE BEACH - After months of debate, an opposition group is changing its tactics and adopting less grass roots and more political strategy in seeking to overturn city plans to allow tall hotels and mixed-use development for expanded tourism.

Citizens for Responsible Growth began its efforts in March by circulating petitions that would force citywide votes on redevelopment. As part of that referendum process, CRG handed out fliers warning of the specific and often dramatic dangers of the city's plans, such as "concrete canyons," hurricane evacuation difficulties and gridlocked roads. Its representatives spoke at public meetings, berating city commissioners for what CRG said was a faulty process rife with conflicts of interest. CRG even filed a challenge to the city's updated comprehensive plan on the grounds that it was illegal.

Now, after some residents have begun questioning CRG's claims, its representatives are taking a muted course of action, refusing to discuss the merits of the city's plans until CRG's referendum questions are on the ballot. The city has asked a court to determine if those questions are valid, but CRG representatives say that challenge is an effort to stifle their voices by burying them in litigation, even while CRG readies legal actions of its own. City officials say if the referendum questions are legal, they will be on the March ballot.

"We will debate the issues, but only once we have the issues on the ballot," said CRG attorney Ken Weiss. "Until then, don't you think it's premature? I mean, there's really nothing to debate."

But CRG's actions are in opposition to the urgency of its own demands. CRG is gathering signatures for a second set of referendum questions intended, in part, to force a vote sooner than March on the first referendum questions. But even though CRG representatives say they have enough signatures for their second round, they are holding off filing those petitions, undermining their own effort to speed a vote. Likewise, CRG's challenge to the comprehensive plan would, if successful, end the city's plan and make a vote about nothing.

Some CRG representatives say they cannot discuss the city's plans because of pending legal action. They even say they have no opinion on the city's plans, only on securing a vote. At a recent community meeting, Harry Metz of CRG said the group has no position on building heights for new hotels, even though its publications and Web site decry 20-story buildings and other aspects of the city's plans.

"We don't care if it's one story or 50 stories," Metz told the North Beach Civic Association at a meeting Saturday. "We just want you to vote."

Metz said he could not talk about the specifics of the city's plans because of pending litigation. He said he thinks it's fair for the city to test the referendum questions, but that he feels threatened by being named with other CRG officers in the lawsuit challenging the referendum questions.

City officials say they had to name someone in the lawsuit but point out that they are not seeking any damages from CRG, only a judge's ruling. CRG's response to that lawsuit, however, asks that the court punish the city by awarding CRG damages and legal fees.

Some in the audience said CRG is not supporting democracy but rather its own political agenda. Noting that redevelopment plans have been part of city commission campaigns for several years, some residents say they feel they've already voted in favor of the plan because they elected commissioners who openly supported it and defeated candidates who campaigned against redevelopment. Metz himself lost a city commission election in March against Nancy Markoe, an ardent redevelopment supporter, who won with 62 percent of the vote.

Others in Saturday's audience reflected on CRG's vigorous campaign to petition against the plan.

"I signed their petition because I was afraid of 20-story buildings," said Joanne Melodayo, who now supports the city's plan. She said CRG representatives told residents there would be 20-story buildings throughout the city, even though the city's plan confines tall buildings to a one-mile stretch of Gulf Boulevard where, supporters say, there is only room for at most 10 structures total. Melodayo, who has lived in St. Pete Beach about a year, said she didn't know the details of the city's plans when she signed CRG's petitions, but that once she understood the plan, she believed CRG's tactics were inappropriate.

"Everybody has a right to their opinion," Melodayo said, "but people shouldn't be intimidated. They were using scare tactics on elderly people."

[Last modified September 21, 2005, 00:24:18]