{"id":310740,"date":"2026-06-17T18:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/310740\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:30:36","slug":"local-groups-seek-common-ground-on-st-petersburg-infrastructure-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/310740\/","title":{"rendered":"Local groups seek common ground on St. Petersburg infrastructure tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three community groups are working through concerns with St. Petersburg over a referendum that, if approved by voters, would create a new property tax<\/a> to finance faster upgrades to water and stormwater systems in the face of intensifying storms.<\/p>\n

Representatives from the Suncoast Sierra Club, the Council of Neighborhood Associations and the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce have been meeting with city officials to go over sticking points in the city\u2019s plans. They range from funding injection wells and addressing storm surge to having a clear road map for how the $600 million raised will be spent and publicly tracked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are substantive issues here that we do need clarity on,\u201d said James Scott, executive committee chairperson of theSuncoast Sierra Club. \u201cWe would like to get to yes. And we\u2019re working toward that and the administration has made it very clear they would work to the best of their ability to help us get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City Council is expected to vote late July on the language that would be placed on the November general election ballot. If the language isgreenlit by the council, state law prohibits city officials from spending public dollars to promote the referendum. They would rely on those local groups to convince residents to vote yes.<\/p>\n

That support is crucial, especially in a year where voters may face seemingly diametric referendums. St. Petersburg seeks a new property tax while a statewide ballot question supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis would cut property taxes for primary residences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If St. Petersburg voters approve the local referendum, property owners would pay $96 for every $100,000 of taxable property value. That money would be used to make payments on bonds issued to do 24 years\u2019 worth of projects in 19 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to improve this infrastructure. It\u2019s not built for Helene- and Milton-type storms,\u201d Mayor Ken Welch said. It\u2019s \u201ca community-specific response to a community problem that we\u2019ve talked about that we\u2019re vetting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Groups seek nature-based solutions<\/p>\n

Chief among the groups\u2019 concerns is a lack of detail in the city\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

Scott with the Suncoast Sierra Club said St. Petersburg has failed to create a resilience master plan like those adopted by other cities on the front lines of climate change. As a result, he said, it\u2019s unclear how much of this money could go toward nature-based solutions such as tree canopies, rain gardens and living shorelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvesting in infrastructure has to go alongside smarter land use and zoning decisions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Sierra Club has asked the city to earmark at least 15% of the stormwater allocation, about $37 million, to nature-based resilience and green infrastructure, according to its letter to St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n

In a response to the groups Friday afternoon, Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley said the city \u201ccan\u2019t promise to spend a set amount on just one type of infrastructure\u201d using the bond funds, but agreed to continue exploring those kinds of stormwater options.<\/p>\n

Tara Lynn Hubbard, chairperson of the chamber\u2019s Sustainability and Resilience Committee, said city staff and leaders haven\u2019t been receptive to baking green solutions into the plan.<\/p>\n

Hubbard suggested rain gardens planted in low spots in the landscape where water tends to pool and bioswales, culverts that include vegetation to catch runoff. These natural solutionsabsorb rainwater and could divert tens of millions of gallons of rainwater that stress the city\u2019s outdated pipes, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re about to spend millions of dollars on these pipes and pumps, and we\u2019re not even considering upstream solutions, which would actually prolong the life of these pipes and pumps,\u201d Hubbard said. \u201cThe current administration and employees are only seeing this from the old school engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n

City officials also said Friday that more than half of the $600 million in bond money will be used to harden utility infrastructure against storm surge.<\/p>\n

Will Michaels, chairperson of the Flood Control Planning and Resiliency Committee under the neighborhood association umbrella group, said he supports the ballot language but would like to see the city prioritize coastal resiliency projects for neighborhoods and homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I\u2019m a yes on it, with the expectation that storm surge as it affects neighborhoods directly, in terms of in-house flooding or in-business flooding, that is going to be addressed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Voicing concern with deep injection wastewater wells<\/p>\n

One example presented by staff last month suggested a deep injection well at Emerald Lake in North Kenwood could reduce flood risk for more than 160 homes and buildings.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Hurricane Milton\u2019s rains flooded residents living on the 28th Street North block<\/a> between 13th and 16th avenues, rising around 3 feet at its highest point, and ruining property.<\/p>\n

Most deep wells in the country are found in Florida, where cities and private companies bury their waste more than a mile underground.<\/p>\n

This method of waste disposal is controversial, and St. Petersburg has a fraught history with it. The city currently operates 15 wells, some of which date to the late 1970s and \u201980s, according to a state database<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city discharged 220 million gallons of undertreated wastewater in 2016, spurring an investigation by state environmental officials<\/a>. Three years later, St. Petersburg officials again broke state law by pumping 21 million more gallons of wastewater into its deep wells<\/a> over more than a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do the same thing that has been poisoning our aquifer for decades? Why not try something different?\u201d Hubbard said.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg produces 11 billion gallons of treated wastewater each year and sends half that much into its existing deep injection wells, Tankersley said. That much waste would be enough to fill 44 Tropicana Fields. St. Pete\u2019s wells are dug 1,000 feet underground into a confined layer of saltwater aquifer.<\/p>\n

The bond issue could include $30 million toward an additional six injection wells across three low-lying areas, according to Scott with the Sierra Club.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the city, the Suncoast Sierra Club said the group prefers deep wells to surface discharge, but noted that \u201cdeep injection still carries environmental, monitoring, migration and public-trust concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nonprofit asked the city to monitor its wells, look into alternatives and provide information on any past upward migration of waste into the aquifer.<\/p>\n

Who endorses the referendum?<\/p>\n

The groups hope to sign a unified letter in support of the referendum. The city is working on setting up clear guides, dashboards and yearly public meetings so residents can stay up to date on timelines and costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just feels like we could\u2019ve used more time,\u201d said Franklin Alves, president of the Council of Neighborhood Associations. \u201cI can only hope that everybody feels good about where this is at, the state of our city, the nature of the project, because we\u2019re getting close to the end of where we can change it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chamber\u2019s president and CEO, Chris Steinocher, is personally in favor of the city\u2019s referendum. He said the chamber\u2019s membership will meet at the end of the month to vote on whether it endorses the city\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get this done so toilets flush and water is fresh when storms come through,\u201d Steinocher said. \u201cI think they\u2019ve done a great job and have a great plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welch said the city\u2019s plan is a targeted approach and not intended to support all of the city\u2019s resiliency efforts. He said St. Petersburg can incorporate green solutions through its sustainability programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about fixing our plants, our pipes and neighborhood programs to get the water out of the streets and to keep our wastewater system hardened to the degree it needs to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three community groups are working through concerns with St. Petersburg over a referendum that, if approved by voters,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[15691,129555,3741,129553,129554,8191,23412,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-310740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-city-officials","tag-green-infrastructure","tag-infrastructure","tag-injection-wells","tag-james-scott","tag-property-tax","tag-sierra-club","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\/310740","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=310740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}