The approval came after significant concessions from the developer resulting from extensive negotiations. Petrila said the project started at 256 units, meaning the developer slashed its scope by nearly half. More than that, Petrila touts, the developer agreed to invest $5.6 million<\/a> for community amenities, such as a boat dock.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the same fight that\u2019s been going on for 20, 30, 40 years,\u201d Petrila said. \u201cYou always have a group of residents who are looking to preserve the character and quality of St. Pete Beach, and then a group who are aligned with the developers.\u201d<\/p>\n He went on to accuse his opponent, Tate, of lacking experience and only getting involved in city politics after he decided to run for Mayor. There are also questions about a third-party group helping Tate, but more on that in a moment.<\/p>\n Petrila is hoping voters will consider his track record, including how he has held the line on overdevelopment. In addition to the Corey Landings project being scaled down under his watch, Petrila has also voted against expansion plans at the Tradewinds<\/a> and Sirata<\/a> resorts.<\/p>\n Petrila also voted to lower taxes in the current fiscal year, joining the St. Pete Beach Commission majority in approving a 0.8889% millage rate reduction<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even in areas where Petrila has faced criticism, he finds a record to tout. Petrila oversaw the city through two historic hurricanes in 2024 \u2014 Helene, which brought widespread flooding and devastation, and Milton, which was more of a wind event.<\/p>\n And while some have criticized Petrila\u2019s leadership through recovery, lamenting permitting delays, he notes that the city managed to process an unprecedented volume of permit applications, leading to the city hiring 30 additional employees to cut through the backlog.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the city processed and cleared nearly 9,000 permits since the hurricanes, and waived some $4 million in permitting fees property owners would have otherwise had to pay. The number of permits processed, Petrila said, was about 10 times higher than what the city typically processes in an entire year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did the best we could with what we had available at the time,\u201d Petrila said, pointing to numerous emergency City Commission meetings to tackle challenges as they came up. He also said he inherited a leadership structure woefully unprepared for such a devastating natural disaster, and has since improved the city\u2019s emergency response procedures to ensure that the next time disaster strikes, the city is better prepared.<\/p>\n While he says any strong storm would no doubt stress the city\u2019s abilities, lessons were learned from Helene and Milton.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day we were more prepared than we ever have been before,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere we are now is infinitely better than where we were.\u201d<\/p>\n Already, the city is working to update its website, and it has already implemented digital permitting options so applicants can track the process.<\/p>\n The hurricanes also shined a light on the city\u2019s infrastructure needs. Petrila\u2019s administration has identified more than $200 million in needs to improve \u201cinfrastructure that was neglected for 20-plus years.\u201d Petrila said he has offered a variety of options to raise funds to cover needs. One of those has garnered significant attention.<\/p>\n Among Petrila\u2019s suggestions was imposing a toll at the north, central and southern access points of the island. Residents and beach employees would be exempt from the tolls, leaving only visitors to the island footing the bill. Still, some have worried new tolls would reduce tourism and other revenue-generating traffic on St. Pete Beach.<\/p>\n Petrila acknowledges the plan doesn\u2019t have everyone\u2019s support, and he said ultimately voters would decide the issue. And he said he would rather impose tolls on visitors than raise taxes for residents and business owners.<\/p>\n He also laments that while Tate has been critical of the toll option, he hasn\u2019t proposed an alternative.<\/p>\n \u201cMy opponent has ignored the need for that money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Petrila also points to a 26% year-over-year drop in crime he attributes to improving the city\u2019s relationship with the Pinellas County Sheriff\u2019s Office, which serves the community. Petrila said he met with Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, telling him he wanted \u201ca safe, clean city.\u201d Gualtieri, Petrila explained, asked him how he would like the Sheriff\u2019s Office to achieve that goal. Petrila said that\u2019s up to the Sheriff, as the law enforcement expert.<\/p>\n \u201cWe gave him free reign to do what\u2019s necessary,\u201d Petrila said, adding that the Sheriff\u2019s Office was able to more efficiently deploy deputies. The result, the Mayor said, is one of the safest cities in Pinellas County.<\/p>\n Yet Petrila is facing a major political challenge. Election Day is March 10, in just 15 days. Petrila and Tate have raised modest amounts<\/a> of cash for the race. As of the end of 2025 Tate had raised just over $14,000<\/a>, only\u00a0$1,300 less than Petrila<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Tate has a group working on his behalf. A website backed by the group\u00a0Restore St. Pete Beach<\/a>\u00a0includes a roundup of news clippings, a trove of opposition research, and an advertisement released earlier this month slamming the St. Pete Beach Mayor for having \u201cPerks for Petrila<\/a>\u201d to the detriment of beach residents.<\/p>\n Records show that from Jan. 1 through Feb. 12, a political committee under the same name raised $18,550. The group\u2019s largest contribution, $10,000, came from Ward Friszolowski, a former St. Pete Beach Mayor and City Commissioner who also serves as a Senior Principal for PBK<\/a>. Harvard Jolly Architecture, which Friszolowski ran, recently merged with PBK. Friszolowski, during his time on the City Commission, frequently voted in alignment with developers.<\/p>\n He was one of four City Commissioners who resigned in 2023 after a new state law requiring additional financial disclosures went into effect. While Friszolowski denied he was trying to hide anything \u2014 he told Bay News 9<\/a> at the time he felt the law was an invasion of privacy because it would have also involved his wife\u2019s finances \u2014 some speculated the longtime beach leader may have been trying to shield conflicts, a claim he also denied.<\/p>\n The political committee is chaired by Kenneth Amos, a local lawyer<\/a> who previously served as President of the Belle Vista Community Association in St. Pete Beach.<\/p>\n While the group\u2019s website does not directly support Tate \u2014 it lists itself as a group dedicated to supporting responsible leadership and post-hurricane recovery \u2014 a second website directly attacks Petrila. And financial documents filed with the St. Pete Beach Clerk show the group is backing Tate, along with Betty Rzewnicki, who is seeking re-election to District 3. Rzewnicki succeeded Friszolowski and was his preferred successor.<\/p>\n The political committee also received a $2,500 donation from Ron\u2019s Holdings, LLC<\/a>, a business controlled by Jacob Holehouse, who is President of HH Insurance. Holehouse has advocated for<\/a> reforms that would better protect property owners from hurricanes in flood-prone, and even non-flood-prone areas.<\/p>\n Whether Petrila manages to survive the attacks politically, he\u2019s entering the final stretch of his re-election campaign committed to one thing \u2014 continuing to fight to preserve St. Pete Beach\u2019s character and further protect the island from future storms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In just over two weeks, St. Pete Beach Mayor Adrian Petrila will find out whether voters want to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[16826,13444,3125,1802,78980,28811,78981,202,28812,204,203,199,201,200,78982,78983],"class_list":{"0":"post-165930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-adrian-petrila","9":"tag-corey-landings","10":"tag-hurricane-helene","11":"tag-hurricane-milton","12":"tag-kenneth-amos","13":"tag-scott-tate","14":"tag-sirata","15":"tag-st-pete","16":"tag-st-pete-beach-mayoral-election","17":"tag-st-pete-headlines","18":"tag-st-pete-news","19":"tag-st-petersburg","20":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","21":"tag-st-petersburg-news","22":"tag-tradewinds","23":"tag-ward-friszolowski"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165930","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=165930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/tgh_42212_01_PoliticsSponsor_Banner_728x90_L4.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FFB-Digital-Ads-728-x-90-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n