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Foes of project gird for battle

By PAUL SWIDER
Published February 12, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - The city's west quadrant has secured a lawyer and is ready for battle.

At a meeting Wednesday night at St. Petersburg College, representatives from at least seven neighborhood organizations gathered to talk strategy in opposition to a proposed mixed-use development on the northeast corner of Ninth Avenue N and 66th Street.

The group discussed how to work with its newly hired attorney as a Feb. 21 planning commission hearing nears, which would be the first battle in opposing a rezoning necessary for the Sembler Co. to build a Publix and luxury townhomes on 18 acres Sembler plans to buy from the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg.

"We are now a different thing than we have been before," said Lance Lubin, the president of the Eagle Crest Neighborhood Association, joined by neighborhood activists from Garden Manor, Crossroads, Azalea, Jungle Terrace and Tyrone Landing, and Real Environmental Preserve Our Parks, among others. "We are a force to be reckoned with. We are the combined energy of west St. Pete."

Sembler has presented its plans for 88,000 square feet of commercial space and 50 townhomes at numerous neighborhood meetings as well as the Council of Neighborhood Associations, which will vote this week whether to oppose the project. The company talks of a neighborhood shopping center that would be a showcase of planning and design to enhance the surrounding neighborhoods. But residents in the area wonder how the company can justify a neighborhood center when the neighborhoods don't want it.

"These people don't feel a need for another shopping center," said Alan Zimmert, a Palm Harbor attorney the residents have hired to represent them against the $30-million Sembler project. "Even if you call it a neighborhood shopping center, it's still a commercial development on property that has been zoned residential."

For their part, Sembler representatives say there is overwhelming support, which the company is sharing with the city in advance of the planning hearing. The project would also serve as a redevelopment boost for the area, the company says, forcing competition and improvements on other properties.

"Sometimes the vocal minority is heard over the silent majority," said Craig Sher, Sembler's president and chief executive officer. He said he has hundreds of postcards and e-mails from residents, businesses and civic leaders supporting the project.

Neighbors feel the pressure of many other shopping centers in the area and say they don't want to add traffic and congestion. Some, who met earlier with the diocese, would prefer it had chosen other offers on the property that would have built pure residential developments or even a school.

Sher has said his company could actually make more money by building residential property on the site, but that his motivation is to create a showpiece in the company's hometown.

"We do a lot of things that aren't about money," he said, adding he's gotten calls from other neighborhoods asking that he build the project in their areas. "This is a jewel. They're going to love it the day it opens."

But neighbors are girded to prevent that opening day. "It's vital that we win this on the 21st," Lubin said.

[Last modified February 12, 2006, 00:25:19]