Council sit this week as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Board Thursday morning with evening land use applications in the evening—each with a 12 item agenda. Of the items in the morning session they will be voting on 5 ranging from appointing members to district Citizen Advisory Council (CAC) seats to maybe, finally approving the service agreement with the city to a previously continued vote on approving $5.5 million in downtown district funds for Curtis Hixon Park.
For the jam packed agenda in the evening, most eyes will be on the first two items—The controversial Mirasol project on Davis Islands. And if council is hoping it’s smooth sailing after that, there are several items that will garner debate. A previously denied application for a project at Spruce & Lois, a request to cut down more trees and change the use from mixed use development to warehouses on eastern fringe of the city along Broadway to the final item of the evening, a South Tampa lot split that’s already garnered opposition.
Before getting deeper into each agenda, a note that Tuesday January 13th at 5pm in the Sister Cities room (not in council chambers) council will be holding a special call workshop “to discuss what City Council’s questions and priorities they want to forward to the City of Tampa Charter Review Advisory Commission.” The meeting will not be streamed live and it’s unclear if it will be recorded. The Tampa Monitor intends to attend the workshop and has a full Charter Review preview planned for next week.
CRA
One of the items on the agenda every CRA meeting is the director’s report. Often there isn’t much discussed during the meeting, but there are documents attached that are meant to inform the board. They include spreadsheets of project trackers (technically they are pdf images of spreadsheets) which leaves it up to each board member to track. Included in this month’s report is a new annual report required by recent changes to state statute to track performance goals. A topic the board could spend a whole meeting discussing but probably won’t come up at all. Especially if they are being mindful of their evening obligations and trying to avoid returning after a lunch break. Which is common.
There will be updates and discussion regarding Tampa Union Station, Franklin Street and a new presentation from the Downtown Partnership regarding the previously approved funding agreement, pending applications under the old grant policy and a presentation about “environmental policing” in city parks in the CRA districts.
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5 items will require a vote this week starting with item 8 – $5.5 million for Curtis Hixon Park improvements. This item appeared last September but the CRA Board asked for more information, particularly from the parks department on how the funds would be spent. Subsequently staff presented to the Downtown District CAC in October who approved the grant. Hopefully with the recent appointment of Ted Fowler as Director of Parks and Recreation some stability can be restored and clear answers provided.
Item 9 has been covered before—the services agreement between the CRA and the city. While the CRA is meant to act as an independent body, for convenience it has contracted with the city for administrative services. How the agreement is worded has been a point of contention for those on the CRA Board who have wanted less intervention from the mayor and administration in regards to policy. While Board member Bill Carlson has proposed and suggested changes, the city has been reluctant to engage in accepting them. Part of the problem is that Carlson’s proposal doesn’t provide any “here’s what’s different” Cliff’s Notes. When asked at the last meeting, he was unable to articulate specifics. The way it looks now the board will approve the original agreement as these are annual contracts and the can can’t be kicked any further.
Finally item 12 is re-allocating $7.5 million from neighborhood infrastructure to unit creation in the East Tampa district budget to for the Ashley East project. $2.5 million per year for 3 years. At some point there needs to be a discussion about rebalancing how much the CRA is spending on building housing and what’s being done for the existing businesses and homeowners. Whose property taxes fund the district.
Evening Land Use
As mentioned in the opening, expect a long night. Any project that garners its own opposition website is bound to have a lot of public comment. Those are just the first 2 of 12 items and as noted, several have opposition. Even without a lot of public comment a 10 item agenda would normally be a full night.
Mirasol
There are 2 parts of this project. First, item 1, the proposed change to the future land use (FLU) map from Residential 50 (R-50) to Community Mixed Use 35 (CMU35). Planning Commission staff note that under the current zoning, up to 80 residential units could be built. Under the proposed designation, 56. The trade off is in non-residential space. CMU-35 more than doubles the allowed non-residential use to 139,372± sq. ft. Less density, more intensity. What is currently on the property and what anyone says might be built next shouldn’t factor into the vote. The decision is about the land use, planning and compatibility, not a specific project. The change runs with the land and once entitlements are given, there’s no take back. The Planning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend denying the change.
The second only proceeds if the first step passes. That’s when the history of the Mirasol as a hotel, and then apartments and now a proposal to return to a hotel comes into play. Discussion about what is and isn’t historic; concerns about waivers for traffic and parking. And while the staff report dated 1/8/26 reads as if the land use change had already been approved (the FLU amendment was originally scheduled September 25, 2025), it found the project inconsistent due to the transportation waivers requested.
And while the FLU amendment vote is one and done, IF the rezoning is approved at first reading, there would be a second vote to adopt the change.
The other items to keep an eye on are:
- Item 5 is a proposal in the eastern corner of the city along Broadway east of 50th St to change a previously approved Planned Development (PD) for mixed use residential and retail development to a PD for all commercial intensive uses to include 2 warehouses and open storage. The previously approved PD allowed for the reduction of the required tree retention on a non-wooded lot over one acre from 50% to 30%. Staff found the application inconsistent on multiple levels including from Natural Resources: “The site is over 7 acres and a more thoughtful design would allow for preservation of grand tree #70.”
- Item 10 – Is a proposal to build 345 units at Spruce & Lois. A previous application with 6 waivers for 313 units was denied last April. Normally if an application is denied it must wait 12 months before re-applying however they can petition the Zoning Administrator if they feel they’ve remedied the reason for denial. This application is not requesting any waivers however it is a PD. The future land use designation is Residential Mixed Use 100 (RMU100), an extremely dense designation
- Item 11 is related to the old Funlan drive-in development which is mostly completed people starting to move in. This application is requesting additional waivers for the small commercial side of the development including a request to reduce parking and setbacks.
- Item 12 closes out the evening and is a classic lot split debate. A 100 foot wide lot zoned R-60 on Euclid Ave. between Bayshore Blvd and MacDill Ave. The request is to rezone each half to R-50. The property was platted as 2 lots and has a FLU designation of R-10 which allows up to 2 dwellings. Opponents will argue Coastal High Hazard Area and flooding, traffic and “neighborhood character.”
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