People who live on Tierra Verde are vowing not to give up after St. Petersburg approved a controversial marina expansion off Pinellas Bayway South.
Neighbors have been fighting its redevelopment for months, and even though the group against the expansion, Tierra Verde Next, plans to appeal, they hope to continue negotiations with the developer, Greenleaf Capital in Tampa.
“[We’re] not willing to stop,” says one of the co-founders of Next, Melanie Coleman Simon. “[We] have not lost any momentum.”
In November, 2025, they brought together hundreds of residents at a church on the island to strategize on how to pack the St. Petersburg Development Review Commission meeting set for December and tell them to block the project.
Just days later, they celebrated when Greenleaf decided to withdraw the plans.
It resubmitted a scaled-back version in March, dropping the slips from more than 700 to 500 and the height from 92 to 70 feet. Simon and the rest of Next say it’s still too big, and the additional open-air “high and dry” storage facilities could be a danger during hurricanes.
“Everybody’s ready to go on for phase three,” Simon adds. “This is definitely not lying down or time to quit.”
Wednesday night, the development review commission approved the modified plan that Greenleaf spokesperson, and former St. Pete mayor, Rick Kriseman says will also be farther away from homes.
“We’re not even maxing out what’s allowable under the code, but it’s enough that it still makes sense,” he says. “They were trying to be as sensitive to the neighborhood as they could, and I think they came up with a really smart plan.”
It still must get proper permits before construction. Simon says they’re planning to appeal the vote to the circuit court.
Those hurricane concerns are still one of the main sticking points for people in Tierra Verde, and Greenleaf acknowledged it hasn’t done a required hurricane safety test. Kriseman says that’ll happen later when they apply for those permits.