selected by the City of St. Petersburg<\/a> to oversee the master plan process in June 2023. The first stakeholder meetings took place in the summer and fall of 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\nAn initial public workshop was held in August to receive public feedback. From September to October, an online survey was conducted. More than 385 responses were received.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key things people wanted were walkability, connectivity, safety and lighting,\u201d LandDesign landscape architect and project manager Carrie Read explained to the Catalyst. \u201cIn terms of some of the amenities, people were really interested in a farmer\u2019s market, night market, public art and performing spaces.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Possible features include children\u2019s areas, a volleyball court, lawn amphitheater, pickleball courts and green space.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Proposed map of the Trails Crossing site with amenities. Image: Friends of Trails Crossing, City of St. Petersburg and LandDesign<\/p>\n
She said that the Pinellas Trail has been key in selecting where the amenities will be located. \u201cSo, we really want to focus on activating that space first and foremost.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The LandDesign team has also looked at adjacent neighborhoods such as Campbell Park, where there are a lot of families, to assist in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Read said that the goal of the Thursday event was to receive \u201cconfirmation that we are going in the right direction.\u201d Additionally, the team wanted to determine what other aspects community members would like to see in the plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Landscape architect Ken Smith, who helped design the St. Pete Pier and the roof garden at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is a collaborator as well. He believes that the project requires something \u201coriginal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe highway kind of ripped these neighborhoods apart. The history of it is not good,\u201d Smith explained. \u201cBut, there are some aspects of the highway, like where at the ends it starts to splay apart, that are really quite beautiful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was able to obtain the original 1923 insurance maps of the area from the University of Florida archive \u2013 which showed how the property was organized before the construction of I-275. These documents have been an inspiration throughout the creative process, Smith added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Located between the Gas Plant, Grand Central and Warehouse Arts Districts, the site has the opportunity to become a hub.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has taken us a little while to get us to this part of the master plan process because it requires some pretty deep conversations,\u201d said City of St. Petersburg transportation manager Cheryl Stacks. \u201dThe area is also very dynamic. So, there\u2019s been a lot of changes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grand Central District Association executive director Chris Arnold explained that the community is bisected by I-275. This has led to underutilized land.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trails Crossing project in general will activate the space,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving something there that will draw people to that end of the district will really help the small businesses.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Arnold believes the project is an example of \u201cthoughtful development.\u201d It addresses \u201cwhat we actually need and it\u2019s fixing problems we already have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friends of Trails Crossing co-founder John Barkett, who has championed the effort, said that it will be completed in phases. This will determine how much the initiative will cost.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LandDesign\u2019s scope of work will include identifying funding opportunities as well. He expects that it will be at least two and a half to three years before work on phase one begins.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see our city connect everywhere,\u201d Barkett explained. \u201cThis is going to stitch a lot of those neighborhoods together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To learn more about the project, visit this link.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trails Crossing Master Plan is scheduled to be released this year after much anticipation.\u00a0 A second public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-138071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}