St. Petersburg residents face a 17.5% stormwater rate increase in October, after a 25% hike last year. Many would like to see developers contribute more to long-overdue infrastructure projects.
Multiple public speakers supported the additional costs approved Thursday evening at the city’s final utility rate public hearing, as the 2024 storm season highlighted significant deficiencies. One noted that St. Petersburg lacks a stormwater-specific impact fee, unlike several other Florida cities.
Capital Improvements Director Brejesh Prayman noted officials are “moving very aggressively” to implement those fees. However, they will likely have to wait until October 2027 due to the ever-increasing number of state preemptions.
“The State of Florida can preempt us from doing things, period,” said Councilmember Lisset Hanewicz. “They give you power, and they take it away. It’s almost like every time you try to solve an issue, you talk to legal (attorneys) and they tell you that you can’t do it.”
Senate Bill 180 restricts local governments from adopting more restrictive or burdensome land-use and development regulations after a natural disaster. The legislation encompasses site plan reviews, permitting and moratoriums – a pause on new construction.
Prayman said the state did implement new construction site stormwater treatment requirements that could benefit the city. Developers will also see their sewer capacity fees soar from $600 to $1,000, a 66.7% spike.
What can the city do?
Councilmember Richie Floyd, who “completely” supports raising impact fees, while realizing that is currently “impossible,” questioned how the city is still able to charge exponentially more for each new restroom that connects to the sewer system.
City Attorney Jackie Kovilaritch believes sewer capacity fees are exempt from SB 180. She also said the legal team can explore any potential loopholes on a “case-by-case basis.”
“So, it’s not like everything is 100% off the table before we have a specific analysis of a particular idea,” Kovilaritch added. “We need to consider it (SB 180) for everything, but it doesn’t mean we won’t analyze every idea separately.”
Mack Feldman, vice president of Feldman Equities, is active in St. Petersburg’s development community. He has not heard of any concerns regarding the increased fees and told the Catalyst that an additional $100,000 to $200,000 for a large multifamily building “won’t move the needle in most cases.”
However, Feldman noted that “every project is different,” and the additional costs will impact affordable housing projects more than luxury condominiums. “We should consider discounts for units at 120% of the area median income or below,” he said.
When asked if $1,000 per restroom is fair when Hillsborough County charges $2,000, Feldman said, “It comes down to tradeoffs.” He added that policymakers must balance the need for more housing with the equally important need for infrastructure upgrades.
“That would reduce new housing supply on the margins,” Feldman continued. “But we have a lot of infrastructure needs, too.”
The city’s stormwater master plan calls for over $1 billion in projects throughout the next 30 years. Hanewicz reiterated that meeting that goal would require a roughly $50 million annual investment rather than the current $30 million.
She said the city could not replace its water system, which has enough pipes to reach Montreal if laid end-to-end, until the year 2329 at current funding levels. “I want people to understand this – we are investing what we can.”
Feldman believes he and his fellow developers are paying their “fair share.” He explained how a rash of new mixed-use projects downtown supports “the rest of the city’s finances,” even as officials lower property tax rates.
For example, he provided a spreadsheet that showed the Saltaire condominiums increased the taxable value at 301 1st St. S. by $344.24 million when it opened in 2023. The city collected an additional $6.5 million in property taxes.
“Developers take a vacant or underutilized lot, like we’re doing with the City Center parking garage and Waldorf Astoria Residences St. Petersburg, and add millions to property tax collections after delivery,” Feldman said. “That contrasts with most other parts of the city, where many homes are homesteaded and have capped increases.”
Hanewicz similarly pushed back against the common belief that population growth is exacerbating stormwater and sewer problems. “We don’t have a capacity issue in our system,” she said.
“It’s an old system that needs a lot of maintenance, repair and replacement. It’s all the old pipes that go into every home. This city was built over 100 years ago.”
Another funding mechanism
All property owners might pay more for stormwater projects following the November 2026 elections. Voters, through a ballot referendum, will likely decide if the mayoral administration issues general obligation bonds to fund St. Petersburg Agile Resiliency (SPAR) initiatives.
An additional, separate property tax would finance the debt. Councilmember Brandi Gabbard previously said the city would not see any bond revenue until the spring of 2027, and “for me, that’s not good enough.”
The governor has also pledged to eliminate property taxes or, at a minimum, provide “relief” via a referendum next year. “You’re asking, at the top of the ballot, for people to remove property taxes, and then you’re going all the way to the bottom of a ballot to ask them to increase them,” Gabbard noted Thursday.
“I think that gives me even more concern, because it feels like that is our only plan,” she said. “I just don’t know what getting to be a resilient city looks like if we have all of our eggs in that basket, and it doesn’t happen.”
City council members unanimously approved the rate changes, with Chair Copley Gerdes absent. The average utility customer will see an 8% to 10% overall increase on their bill, starting Oct. 1.
