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A Times Editorial
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 4, 2001
We can't recall an issue in Oldsmar that has created as much nastiness and division as the current dispute over a proposed low-income apartment complex on Forest Lakes Boulevard.
Months after it should have been settled, the situation is instead spiraling out of control. The city and individual City Council members face lawsuits and threats of lawsuits. The city's financial well-being is on the line. So are political futures, and a petition to recall one council member who supports the project is being circulated. Now some city officials are attacking county commissioners.
Who has gotten lost in the uproar?
The little guy who doesn't have much money but needs a decent place to live, even in Oldsmar.
It is ironic that for several years, the city has worked to lure that type of person to town. Oldsmar, unlike most other North Pinellas cities, has a lot of industrial and manufacturing businesses that depend on low-wage workers. Those businesses have struggled to find enough workers. The city has helped with recruitment efforts and even the creation of new bus routes to bring workers in from outside Oldsmar.
But the city appears far less eager to welcome those new workers as residents. The Wilson Co., which develops very nice apartment complexes for people with low and moderate incomes, proposed a 270-unit complex dubbed Westminster on vacant land at the north end of Forest Lakes Boulevard, near several middle-income, single-family subdivisions. When those residents angrily rose up against the proposal, some city officials tried everything to kill Westminster.
Then-mayoral candidate Jerry Beverland not only promised the residents that he would vote against Westminster if elected, he said he hoped to prevent all future multifamily projects in the city. Beverland won, along with other candidates who opposed Westminster.
But the Wilson Co. had done things right in its application to the city, and Westminster eventually got grudging council approval on a 3-2 vote. But the council attached a parkland requirement that the company could not meet and still build a viable project. A judge later struck down that requirement.
Recently a county official determined that the city had calculated the allowable density of the project in a way that he believed violated county rules. That official said the project should have only 207 units, not 270, bringing project planning to a halt again. The County Commission, recognizing the legal and financial risks to Oldsmar of pushing the county rule, provided a way out. The commission passed a resolution that would allow the project to avoid the county rules and be built at 270 units if the city approved a bonus density pool for affordable housing projects. Many cities use density pools to encourage developers to build needed affordable housing.
Instead of being grateful to county commissioners, some Oldsmar officials have accused them of pushing the city around. A city that doesn't want affordable housing -- or the types of residents who live there -- isn't eager to approve a method to make the complexes easier to build.
On Tuesday night, the Oldsmar City Council is scheduled to meet and decide its next move. Oldsmar needs a leader who can quiet the uproar, stand up to political pressure, and lead others to do what is right. Will that leader emerge Tuesday?
It is folly for Oldsmar, a small city that does not have deep pockets, to risk its financial health on a fight that at its core is wrong. Oldsmar city government exists not just to serve the needs of residents with high incomes, but those closer to the bottom of the pay scale, too. Every community has an obligation to encourage the provision of clean, decent housing for those who cannot afford mortgage payments or market rents. Oldsmar's industries also need a steady supply of workers who live nearby.
The city and the Wilson Co. have one more opportunity on Tuesday to become partners in this beneficial effort. Only when they come together and find a way to compromise will the community be able to start recovering from the wounds of this battle.