{"id":279663,"date":"2026-05-21T16:43:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/279663\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T16:43:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:43:52","slug":"st-pete-turns-to-land-trusts-to-preserve-affordable-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/279663\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete turns to land trusts to preserve affordable housing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Five affordable homes planned for South <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/st-petersburg\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"24\" title=\"St. Petersburg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Petersburg<\/a> would be placed into a 99-year community land trust structure designed to preserve long-term affordability as redevelopment pressure reshapes the city\u2019s South Side. <\/p>\n<p>The arrangement would place city-owned parcels at 2013 and 2021 18th Ave. S. into a long-term ground lease with Bright Community Trust, which would retain ownership of the land beneath the homes to help keep resale prices affordable over time.<\/p>\n<p>Buyers earning up to 120% of area median income would own the homes through the ground lease structure, which lowers purchase costs in a market where rising land values increasingly put homeownership out of reach for many lower-income buyers.<\/p>\n<p>City documents show St. Petersburg acquired and cleared the former Coral Diamond Apartments site through HUD\u2019s Neighborhood Stabilization Program after the housing crisis.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read the latest Tampa business news and updates<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Under the agreement, affordability restrictions would remain attached to the homes through future resales. Bright Community Trust would pay nominal rent during the development period.<\/p>\n<p>Plans call for five detached cottage-style homes of about 900 square feet with two-bedroom, one-bath layouts, shared green space and alley-loaded parking.<\/p>\n<p>Redevelopment activity, investor acquisitions and rising land costs continue reshaping South St. Petersburg neighborhoods where workforce and lower-cost homeownership have become increasingly difficult to preserve.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement requires Bright Community Trust to submit permit applications within eight months, begin construction within 14 months of Oct. 1, 2026, and complete the homes within 30 months.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/burns-ct-11-5-1000x563.jpeg\" alt=\"Vacant South St. Petersburg infill lot slated for affordable housing discussion\" class=\"wp-image-91289\"  \/>Vacant South Side parcel proposed for five affordable homes under land trust plan.<\/p>\n<p>  Read More Tampa Bay Business News<\/p>\n<p>\n    Explore the latest Tampa Bay <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/business-news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"16\" title=\"business\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">business<\/a> news, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/real-estate\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Real Estate\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">real estate<\/a> deals, development projects, executive moves and company updates shaping the region.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five affordable homes planned for South St. Petersburg would be placed into a 99-year community land trust structure&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-279663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279663","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=279663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}