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The approval comes in anticipation of hurdles the city might face in the Memorial Causeway project.
By CHRISTINA HEADRICK
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 8, 2000
CLEARWATER -- The City Commission has authorized selling up to $51-million in bonds to finance building a sleek new Memorial Causeway bridge to replace the existing weathered drawbridge to Clearwater Beach.
The city doesn't actually need to borrow the money for another year, said Margie Simmons, city finance director.
But commissioners decided last week to allow city administrators to start preparing the bridge financing now because they are concerned about possible court challenges that could cause delays for the project.
"We have to assume that bridge project is going forward and if there are any challenges, we need to go through those challenges now," Commissioner Ed Hart said.
The city already has won one lawsuit that sought to stop the bridge's construction without a public referendum, but that case is on appeal with the 2nd District Court.
Additionally, former Commissioner Fred Thomas threatened at a public meeting earlier this year that legal action could be taken after commissioners ignored about 6,000 petitions to put the bridge project to a public vote.
The city has faced similar legal problems with another hotly debated project: the roundabout at the entrance to Clearwater Beach. The city has been fighting a lawsuit over the roundabout project for more than a year.
The roundabout lawsuit -- which alleges the city should have held a referendum to approve the roundabout's financing under city charter rules -- is pending before the Florida Supreme Court.
City administrators are worried about possible legal snags with the new Memorial Causeway bridge project because its schedule affects downtown redevelopment plans that are being debated.
The new bridge design will re-route traffic from the city's main downtown thoroughfare, Cleveland Street, onto Court and Chestnut streets out to the new bridge.
The re-routing would allow the redevelopment of the west end of Cleveland Street into an open-air pedestrian area with a grand series of steps descending to the city's waterfront. Shops and a new movie theater would be nearby, all part of a $200-million redevelopment of downtown.
But the makeover of the west Cleveland Street area can't happen until the new bridge is built, City Engineer Mike Quillen said.
The financing package would have the city borrow a maximum of $51-million to finance the bridge and pay off the debt using Penny-for-Pinellas sales tax revenues and money from other sources.
The city expects to receive $10-million for the bridge from Pinellas county and $13-million in state funds. The city is working to secure another $12-million in federal funding.
That would leave the price tag for the city to be about $16-million, plus an estimated $5.6-million to pay interest on the money borrowed for the bridge.
In addition to arranging all the bridge financing, the city has begun negotiating to acquire all the land needed for construction of the bridge, which the Florida Department of Transportation has agreed to build.
"The city is doing (the land buying) now because of concerns the state might take longer to do it," Quillen said.
The city already has cut a deal to redesign Pinellas County parking lots and use some county-owned land along the routes to the bridge. The city needs to buy four parcels of land that total about a quarter-acre, including part of the WTAN-AM 1340 radio station.
The design of the bridge is about 30 percent complete.