{"id":401925,"date":"2026-09-16T22:38:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T22:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401925\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T22:38:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T22:38:30","slug":"st-pete-considers-allowing-more-5-story-buildings-near-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401925\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete considers allowing more 5-story buildings near downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The City of St. Petersburg is considering making it easier for developers to build five-story buildings near downtown and along major corridors.<\/p>\n

“Five stories are too much for this area,” said Alan Aipel, who lives in Historic Kenwood.<\/p>\n

When it comes to development in St. Pete, people are torn.<\/p>\n

Aipel loves his neighborhood.<\/p>\n

“These houses are a hundred years old,” he said.<\/p>\n

People who live in Historic Kenwood said they love the small feel of their neighborhood and want to keep the character as it is.<\/p>\n

“I want it to stay. \u2026 It’s a very nice neighborhood as far as bungalow homes, and you sit out on your porch and talk to people who walk by; it’s very neighborly and it’s kind of old-fashioned. \u2026I like that,” said Aipel.<\/p>\n

Aipel has watched St. Pete grow over the last few decades and said new buildings stick out.<\/p>\n

“It looks like a medical clinic or a steakhouse, so I don’t like that part of it,” he said.<\/p>\n

The St. Pete Development Review Commission is recommending some zoning changes that would make it easier for developers to build five-story mixed-use buildings near downtown and along major corridors.<\/p>\n

Taller buildings would make room for more housing, shops and offices.<\/p>\n

Paul Hargis owns a kitchen and bathroom design business in St. Pete. He said he also wants to see the character of the city remain.<\/p>\n

“I like the smaller community that it is,” said Hargis.<\/p>\n

But he also said taller buildings could allow for more affordable and workforce housing.<\/p>\n

“That’s huge, even my own office here \u2026 there’s a lot of people who need homes to work in the area,” said Hargis.<\/p>\n

The city council is expected to discuss the new proposed height limits in October.<\/p>\n

“There’s gotta be some middle ground,” said Aipel.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Saudi flight from Tampa, secret FBI probe reveal possible Saudi support network for 9\/11 hijackers<\/p>\n

Twenty years after the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 80,000 records compiled by the Tampa FBI Field Office remain classified. Newly declassified documents are pointing to a possible secret Saudi support network for the hijackers. Soon after the attacks, the FBI uncovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Saudi flight from Tampa and secret FBI probe reveal possible Saudi support network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The City of St. Petersburg is considering making it easier for developers to build…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[101862,2152,62363,70184,677,596,107032,202,204,203,199,201,200,5910,3670],"class_list":["post-401925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-buildings","tag-development","tag-height","tag-kenwood","tag-neighborhood","tag-pinellas-county","tag-pinellas-news","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401925","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=401925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}