83-unit infill apartment buildings to rise in downtown St. Pete
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About a year ago, St. Pete City Council approved a package of Land Development Regulation (LDR) changes in an effort to help reduce the cost of building housing in the city. The package of code changes was just one prong in a multifaceted approach to help address housing affordability in the Sunshine City.
One of the approved code changes was the removal of mandatory parking minimums for residential units under 750 square feet in downtown St. Pete. Mandatory parking minimums are development regulations which require a certain number of vehicular parking spaces per residential unit.
There’s a growing body of evidence that mandatory parking minimums come at an immense cost to the cities that implement them.
A 2015 study even estimated that the cost of a single parking space in a structured garage increases residential rent by $225 per month.
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St. Petersburg will test a new plant-based approach to managing stormwater as part of a $7 million project coming to one of the city’s most flood-prone areas.
The city will install eight HydroPlanters, which are modular rain gardens designed to slow and filter rain runoff before it enters the city’s stormwater system.
Each rain garden is about five feet long, three feet wide, and two-and-a-half feet deep.
Filled with specially designed soil, grasses, shrubs, and small trees, the boxes will be installed in an L-shaped configuration along a city-owned grassy area near the intersection of 50th Avenue North and 7th Street North.
During heavy rain, water from the street will flow into the planters and filter through the soil and vegetation. It will then drain into the city’s stormwater system and eventually the 54th Avenue Canal.