ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — Residents in a St. Petersburg neighborhood are concerned about flooding coming from a nearby construction site.

Video from a viewer showed the corner of 24th Avenue North covered in water Friday.


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“I guess it was raining real big last night, and I just couldn’t figure out where all the water was and why it was flooded like that,” said a neighbor who didn’t want to share her name, but said she saw her gutters flooded Friday morning.

But it did not rain that morning or the night before. It was a post on the City of St. Petersburg’s SeeClickFix app that pointed to a church retention pond overflowing in a construction site. A viewer shared video of the water running from under the fence and into the road, to support that claim.

“Here’s the problem going on again, as we’ve said since day one, three years ago, it started and here we are three years later. And there’s a core issue going on over there,” said Randy Bryant, a neighbor who has spoken out about this problem before.

Neighbors said they knew it would happen, and warned the city against it, but felt they were not heard. 8 On Your Side reported on this story back in August when residents said the construction of the affordable housing on the Palm Lake Christian Church property added to street flooding seen on video.

The pastor of the church said their office was closed Friday, so he didn’t know exactly what happened, but was told the city responded quickly and got the water shut off. In August, the developer told 8 On Your Side the drainage system was compliant with SWFWMD and city requirements, and that they would continue to monitor it.

“We have reached out to SWFWMD once again, because what they’ve done or said that they did, didn’t work,” Bryant said.

Bryant wishes the city would’ve listen to them when dozens of residents spoke against the development.

Paul Weinberg spoke out against the project back in 2023. He said he feels there is not much else that can be done since the city approved the project. But his property is steps away from the construction site.

“So when you asked me how I felt, I was like, ‘No, not again.’ Because it’s been, it had been a recurring issue,” Weinberg said. “The water has not come onto my property. However, nobody wants to see this amount of water in front of their house, you know, because it’s not a natural thing to occur.”

8 On Your Side received the following statement from the City of St. Petersburg Monday.

“The water that flooded the streets was not caused by the contractor working on the affordable housing at Palm Lake Christian Church.

The City’s Water Resources crews had just installed a connection to our potable water main to serve the construction site. The newly installed connection failed, causing the release of the water. City crews repaired the connection the same day. 

The water that was spilled was drinking water from a potable water main. It was not caused by the construction contractor nor was it related to stormwater drainage from the site.”