{"id":144986,"date":"2026-02-05T17:59:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144986\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:59:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:59:45","slug":"st-pete-council-votes-to-hold-off-on-gas-plant-work-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144986\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete Council votes to hold off on Gas Plant work for now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Some members of St. Pete&#8217;s City Council want Mayor Ken Welch to pump the breaks on development of the historic Gas Plant district.<\/p>\n<p>The council voted 6-2 on Thursday to pursue a \u2018planning-first framework\u2019 before choosing a developer.<\/p>\n<p>Councilwoman Brandi Gabbard said it is the like the city is &#8220;chasing a speeding bullet&#8221; when it comes to redevelopment. It was Gabbard who introduced the motion, which can&#8217;t force the mayor to delay the project but expresses how Council is feeling.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Ken Welch&#8217;s office received nine proposals from developers before their deadline earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>In a memo sent to the Council on Wednesday, Welch said: &#8220;Pausing all progress for yet another planning exercise \u2014 after proposals have been submitted, risks repeating a familiar and painful pattern for this community: plans discussed, promises acknowledged, and action deferred.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gabbard hasn&#8217;t officially filed but said she plans to run for mayor. Welch has filed to run for re-election.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story. Check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Some members of St. Pete&#8217;s City Council want Mayor Ken Welch to pump the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3140,63156,115,596,99,275,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835,63157],"class_list":{"0":"post-144986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-watchdog-investigations","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pinellas-county","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-spectrum-news-staff","14":"tag-st-pete","15":"tag-st-pete-headlines","16":"tag-st-pete-news","17":"tag-st-petersburg","18":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","19":"tag-st-petersburg-news","20":"tag-tampa","21":"tag-vod","22":"tag-watchdog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144986","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=144986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}