The Church of Scientology and EVO Entertainment took one step closer to their proposed $50 million entertainment center in downtown Clearwater.<\/p>\n
City council members voted 3-2 Thursday night to approve the first reading of an ordinance that would vacate Grove Street, portions of Laura Street and a 15-foot alleyway in between.<\/p>\n
The streets are part of the site planned for an 83,000-square-foot EVO Entertainment family entertainment center at Cleveland Street and Myrtle Avenue.<\/p>\n
Myrtle Development LLC, the development firm tied to the Church of Scientology, requested the street handovers.<\/p>\n
The project will feature movie theaters \u2014 including what it calls the largest screen in the world at over 130 feet in width and 70 feet in height \u2014 bowling, dining and an arcade.<\/p>\n
Council members who voted in favor for the move were David Allbritton, Ryan Cotton and Mike Mannino. Councilwoman Lina Teixeira and Mayor Bruce Rector voted against it.<\/p>\n
Robert Potter, attorney and representative for the Church of Scientology, said giving up the streets is necessary to make the project possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe purpose of the vacation is to support and facilitate the construction of what we think will be a world-class family entertainment center,\u201d Potter said.<\/p>\n
He said the street vacations would give the developer greater control over the site. Potter added that it would create a safer environment when the complex opens.<\/p>\n
EVO Entertainment CEO Mitch Roberts was also in attendance to share the plan with the council.<\/p>\n
He said a public street running between the project\u2019s parking area and the venue would create safety concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot have our guests exposed to unsafe conditions when they come to our facilities,\u201d he said. \u201cWe unequivocally cannot have a public street separating our parking lot and our venue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposal divided council members over how much of Clearwater\u2019s public street grid should be surrendered for private development.<\/p>\n
Mannino supported the vacation, describing it as an economic development tool rather than simply a transfer of public property.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t view this as the City of Clearwater giving away a street,\u201d Mannino said. \u201cI view it as Clearwater strategically leveraging a public asset to help unlock a much larger private investment in our downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also pointed to Grove Street \u2014 which he said has been closed and barricaded since 2017 \u2014 and a nearby city-owned property that has been off the tax rolls for decades.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Teixeira said she supports the entertainment center but opposed the site plan as presented because of the loss of an east-west connection through downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery connection we eliminate places more importance on the connections that survive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Teixeira proposed keeping Laura Street open or finding another way to keep an open route through the development. Those proposals were not added into the plan before the council.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuildings can be redesigned \u2026 site plans can be redesigned,\u201d she said. \u201cPublic streets, not so much. Once they\u2019re gone, they\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rector questioned whether permanently closing the streets was necessary, particularly because the proposed site plan includes roughly 400 surface parking spaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis street and this the alley and Grove Street \u2026 they\u2019re in the parking lot,\u201d Rector said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about the building \u2026 it\u2019s about the parking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rector said the city\u2019s downtown has limited space for future development and argued that a parking garage could provide a better use of the area while still allowing safe access between the parking area and entertainment center.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the city\u2019s downtown development plan, saying it calls for a street that is vacated to be replaced with another connection.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It] is not not good for our city,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd here we\u2019re being asked to do that twice here in recent history without replacing it with something else, without giving an additional avenue for somehow helping support our transit grid around the downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Albritton strongly criticized Rector\u2019s opposition, arguing the city should support the private investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should be bending over backwards for a $50 million investment into our downtown,\u201d Albritton said. \u201cBut you\u2019re not doing it. I don\u2019t think you\u2019re doing your job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meeting also featured public comment \u2014 a majority of which was in favor of giving up the streets.<\/p>\n
Michael Thrash, President of the American Culinary Federation Tampa Bay chapter, said the complex would be helpful to local businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could do young culinary competitions there,\u201d Thrash said. \u201cWe could have events where we teach young children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, a few people spoke out against the plan.<\/p>\n
Brooks Gibbs, campaign director for Save the Garden, urged the council to delay the vote.<\/p>\n
He said a separate charter amendment petition is being circulated that would require voter approval for land transfers and right-of-way vacations in the downtown area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you let the people vote to give away these streets or alleyways and a city lot for the development of a theater, they will take ownership of its success and ensure the project is successful through their patronage,\u201d Gibbs said.<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s vote was the first reading of the ordinance. A second reading will be required before the street vacations are finalized.<\/p>\n
Mithil Vyas is a news intern at WUSF, the bay area\u2019s NPR affiliate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Church of Scientology and EVO Entertainment took one step closer to their proposed $50 million entertainment center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-404608","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\/404608","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=404608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}