{"id":368843,"date":"2026-08-11T23:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T23:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368843\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T23:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T23:28:09","slug":"st-pete-warehouse-approved-after-contentious-tree-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368843\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete warehouse approved after contentious tree debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

A month after St. Petersburg commissioners balked at a developer\u2019s request to remove all of a property\u2019s qualifying specimen trees<\/a>, a redesigned warehouse project has won their approval.<\/p>\n

The Development Review Commission unanimously approved plans last week for two warehouse-light industrial buildings totaling nearly 296,000 square feet at 1201 102nd Avenue N.<\/p>\n

The commission delayed the project July 1 after members questioned a request to remove all of the site\u2019s qualifying specimen trees, rather than preserve the amount normally required under city code.<\/p>\n

The developer returned with a plan that shifts one building, reduces parking and preserves a cluster of mature trees near the property\u2019s southwest corner.<\/p>\n

A tree inventory identified more than 1,300 trees across the largely wooded, 20-acre former state institutional campus. They include laurel oaks, southern live oaks, cabbage palms, bald cypress, red maples and slash pines, along with invasive species and trees in poor condition.<\/p>\n

For this project, city regulations require the developer to preserve 25% of healthy specimen trees, calculated by their combined trunk diameter. That amounts to 526 inches.<\/p>\n

The original proposal sought permission to preserve none of them.<\/p>\n

The revised plan preserves 178 of the required 526 inches. Eleven specimen trees count toward that total, while 35 trees will be preserved overall. The developer received a variance allowing it to remove the remaining 348 inches.<\/p>\n

Plans presented to the commission show the preserved trees concentrated largely near the southwest corner of the property, but do not clearly identify the species of the 11 specimen trees being counted toward the requirement.<\/p>\n

The changes came directly in response to commissioners\u2019 concerns at the July meeting.<\/p>\n

Jake Cremer, a land-use attorney who joined the development team after the first hearing, said he reviewed the previous meeting and came away with a clear message.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe applicant got me involved because they took your comments seriously,\u201d Cremer said.<\/p>\n

The redesign shifted the western warehouse 45 feet, reduced the building footprint by about 1,800 square feet and eliminated 32 parking spaces. The development team also added more than 400 feet of retaining walls and expanded underground stormwater storage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked at a lot of different iterations,\u201d Cremer said. \u201cThis is the way the process is supposed to work. Y\u2019all held our feet to the fire and we sharpened our pencils and found ways to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ricky Peterika, an arborist with Dark Moss, said the southwest corner offered the best opportunity to preserve multiple healthy trees together. The site consists largely of slash pines and laurel oaks, he said, species that are less tolerant of construction impacts.<\/p>\n

Preserving trees throughout the property is complicated by the need to raise or excavate much of the site to meet flood and stormwater requirements. Cremer described the project as being \u201ctorn between two worlds\u201d by regulations intended to preserve mature trees and those requiring substantial changes to the site\u2019s elevation and drainage.<\/p>\n

The redesign eased commissioners\u2019 concerns, but did not eliminate disagreement over how far the developer should be required to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the focus really is the tree preservation,\u201d Commissioner Sarah Jane Vatelot said. \u201cI appreciate that efforts were made to identify trees to be preserved. I still feel like we could have gotten closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Charles Flint questioned why the speculative warehouses could not be reduced further to preserve more trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years sitting on this board, a big complaint that we\u2019ve had from citizens, neighbors, public comment has been we keep tearing down all of the large trees,\u201d Flint said.<\/p>\n

He noted that no tenants require the warehouses to be a particular size.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are spec buildings that whatever they end up with on that property, it\u2019s going to rent or sell or whatever,\u201d Flint said. \u201cLet\u2019s do it right the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The development group has not yet purchased the property. Ed Mitchell of Mitchell Property Realty said it has been under contract for more than a year and the group hopes to close in October or November.<\/p>\n

Mitchell said the team considered roughly 10 versions of the project. An early concept contemplated about 450,000 square feet before engineers determined it would not work on the site.<\/p>\n

Other commissioners questioned how much further the developer could go without making the project unworkable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at what was done and think that\u2019s a lot of money to save 11 trees,\u201d Commission Chair Kevin Reali said. \u201cAnd more would probably sink the site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Tim Clemmons approached the question more broadly. Rather than considering only how many trees could be preserved on this property, he questioned whether restricting development on land already designated for intensive commercial and industrial uses could ultimately consume more land elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we want to build it over four acres or do we want to build it over 10 acres or do we want to build it over 100 acres?\u201d Clemmons said.<\/p>\n

His concern was that regulations designed to preserve trees within the city could have an unintended consequence if they cause development to spread across more land elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we would actually concentrate some of our development where we do build, maybe we\u2019d actually save more trees and more wetlands by not even going and building there at all,\u201d Clemmons said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m tired of using regulatory rules within cities that actually the long-term impact is the reverse of what we say we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Clemmons, approving the variance meant accepting the loss of mature trees on this property while weighing that loss against how much land development consumes more broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want trees in our city, and we can have a lot of trees in our city,\u201d Clemmons said. \u201cBut we have to make decisions when we\u2019re building a city.\u201d<\/p>\n

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