{"id":271799,"date":"2026-05-15T04:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/271799\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T04:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:19:11","slug":"st-pete-approves-sunrunner-parking-change-aimed-at-boosting-development-transit-use-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/271799\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete approves SunRunner parking change aimed at boosting development, transit use"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. Petersburg City Council voted unanimously Thursday to remove longstanding parking requirements for businesses and residential developments along the city\u2019s SunRunner<\/a> corridor \u2014 a move supporters say will encourage growth and transit use, but critics fear could worsen parking shortages in nearby neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

The ordinance applies to properties within the city\u2019s SunRunner Bus Rapid Transit overlay district, created to encourage transit-oriented development along the bus line that launched in 2022. Under the change, developments built within the overlay district will no longer be required to provide a minimum number of parking spaces.<\/p>\n

According to the ordinance, the overlay\u2019s purpose is to \u201csupport the SunRunner BRT system by encouraging additional permitted uses, increased development intensity, and transit-oriented development standards beyond what is permitted in the underlying zoning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporters argue the change will help transform SunRunner stops into more walkable destinations filled with apartments, offices, restaurants and retail.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should have happened five years ago,\u201d said Garrett Marple with Activate St. Pete. \u201cWe\u2019ll see each station of the SunRunner become its own destination where there are things to do, offices, jobs, apartments, restaurants to eat at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marple said parking minimums are outdated and discourage dense, transit-friendly development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parking mandates are kind of a junk science,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no real true science to like five parking spaces per tanning bed, or like 13 spaces per gas station.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the proposal also drew opposition from residents worried that eliminating parking requirements could push overflow parking into surrounding neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned about the impact in our neighborhood based on the reduction or elimination of parking,\u201d said Historic Kenwood Neighborhood Association President Nicholas Igneri during public comment.<\/p>\n

Igneri warned that developments built without parking near SunRunner stations could worsen congestion in neighborhoods like Historic Kenwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already see this on weekends, and it will get much worse with the proposed density increase,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Council members said they weren\u2019t as concerned and believe most developers will still include parking in most proposals in certain parts of the city.<\/p>\n

The ordinance now heads to Ken Welch for final approval before taking effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Petersburg City Council voted unanimously Thursday to remove longstanding parking requirements for businesses and residential developments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2152,116340,116339,62974,11478,202,204,203,199,201,200,12328,116338],"class_list":["post-271799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-development","tag-overlay-district","tag-parking-requirements","tag-parking-spaces","tag-residential-developments","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-sunrunner","tag-transit-oriented-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271799","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=271799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}