St. Petersburg City Council unanimously approved a major shift in the city’s development strategy Thursday, eliminating minimum parking requirements for new projects along the SunRunner corridor and signaling a continued move toward denser, transit-oriented growth with less emphasis on personal vehicles.
The ordinance removes longstanding parking mandates for properties inside the city’s SunRunner Bus Rapid Transit overlay district, allowing developers to determine how much parking to provide for apartments, businesses and mixed-use projects built along the route.
Supporters called the change a necessary modernization for one of Florida’s fastest-growing cities. Critics warned it could intensify parking shortages in nearby neighborhoods already grappling with congestion and redevelopment pressures.
But beyond parking itself, the vote showed how aggressively St. Petersburg is continuing to orient future growth around transit corridors and urban density.
City leaders have increasingly embraced policies designed to encourage development near transit routes, reduce dependence on cars and concentrate growth around walkable districts. In recent years, the city has expanded rules for accessory dwelling units (AUDs), supported the conversion of older buildings and churches into apartments around downtown, and approved policies making it easier for religious institutions to develop affordable housing on underused property.
Planning officials and urbanist advocates argue parking requirements increase housing costs, consume valuable land and discourage transit-oriented development. Removing the mandates, they say, gives developers more flexibility (developers don’t need to waste square footage on garage space, increasing units) while encouraging projects that place residents closer to jobs, restaurants, retail and transit access.
Supporters envision the corridor eventually evolving into a series of connected neighborhood hubs where residents can live, work and socialize without relying entirely on cars. Still, the city’s growing emphasis on transit-oriented planning has generated debate over whether ridership levels justify certain policy shifts like the one seen Thursday.
In a previous interview, State Rep. Linda Chaney questioned whether SunRunner’s usage justified the investment, arguing that only a small percentage of residents regularly use public transportation.
Chaney said, “Less than two percent of people actually ride the bus so ninety-eight percent don’t use the service … “PSTA is ninety-five percent subsidized by our property tax. Instead of them building an efficient transportation network, I would assert they are building a kingdom.” However, she noted that she’s not wholly against public transit, she just wants it efficient.
Following Chaney’s comments, PSTA leadership disputed those numbers, saying census-based commuter statistics fail to capture tourists, students and non-daily riders who use the system, adding that 15% of the population uses the SunRunner. (Though that doesn’t mean those commuters don’t also use, and need to park, a car).
A denser corridor may check Chaney’s efficiency box, but Thursday’s vote is likely to intensify that debate as city leaders continue adopting policies that both accommodate and effectively, whether intentional or not, encourage greater transit usage by making dense, less car-oriented development easier to build.
Opponents questioned whether the city’s infrastructure and parking capacity are prepared for the kind of density leaders are encouraging, such as Historic Kenwood Neighborhood Association President Nicholas Igneri, who warned council members that nearby residential streets could absorb overflow parking from future developments built with fewer spaces.
“We are concerned about the impact in our neighborhood based on the reduction or elimination of parking,” Igneri said during public comment.
Residents in several neighborhoods have increasingly voiced concerns that redevelopment along the SunRunner corridor is outpacing infrastructure, particularly around Central Avenue, where growth has accelerated and heightened, literally.
District 1 Council Member Copley Gerdes responded to that concern and reiterated to the Catalyst that “if Grand Central [which runs parallel to Historic Kenwood] was the only place we were going to have this mixed-use retail and residential, then that concern is true, but the changes we are making will spread this out westward.”
Gerdes noted that his district is the city’s least dense, and he has hopes that westward expansion will help capture new developments in his district. “If this happened, then people will visit all of Central, not just 15 blocks [near downtown].”
District 1 includes neighborhoods such as Jungle Terrace, Azalea, Pasadena and Disston Heights, areas historically shaped more by suburban development patterns and automobile use than the dense urban core surrounding downtown and Central Avenue.
“This is about creating more places for people to experience St. Pete as it is meant to be. I think it naturally increases ridership on the SunRunner,” said Gerdes.
When asked if ridership increases would the city increase the bus fleet, shorten intervals between pick up times or lengthen hourly service, Gerdes said “that’s something we are always looking at.”
This content provided in partnership with StPeteCatalyst.com
