{"id":400735,"date":"2026-09-15T19:38:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/400735\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T19:38:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:38:21","slug":"planning-commission-backs-change-at-showmens-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/400735\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning Commission backs change at Showmen’s Rest"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Hillsborough County City Planning Commission voted 6-2 to recommend a land designation change for property at Showmen’s Rest Cemetery in Tampa, where the owner says they want to build a home.<\/p>\n

The proposal has drawn opposition from people who believe there may be people buried at the site. The final decision will be made by the Tampa City Council, with a vote expected Sept. 24.<\/p>\n

Aileen Henderson told commissioners she worries construction could disturb unmarked graves.<\/p>\n

“This is Tampa’s history. It has to be protected,” Henderson said.<\/p>\n

Henderson said this is the second time an owner has tried to build at the site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We have to start controlling development here in the city of Tampa,” Henderson said. “You can’t start developing on whatever patch of grass that you find. Most especially one that for decades has been connected to a historic cemetery.”<\/p>\n

Quinn Steele, a senior planner with the Planning Commission, said staff recommended the land designation change based on information submitted by the applicant.<\/p>\n

“It was historically plotted as a cemetery. However, the application material submitted by the applicant includes a ground-penetrating study which concluded that there are not likely any graves on the site,” Steele said.<\/p>\n

The applicant also spoke during the meeting about the ground-penetrating study, saying they commissioned the University of South Florida to determine whether there was evidence of human remains below the site.<\/p>\n

Spectrum Bay News 9 has asked for the study to be sent for review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Hillsborough County City Planning Commission voted 6-2 to recommend a land designation change for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,558,2287,4628,115,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":["post-400735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-local-politics","tag-matt-lackritz","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400735","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=400735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}