This week Tampa City Council sit as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Board for a 13 item agenda with a 12 item evening land use agenda. Discussion will range from a $50 million request in the CRA Channelside district to mid-year budget realignments in the Drew Park and East Tampa districts in the morning to the first reading of land development code changes first proposed over a year ago in the evening.

Drew Park

Last month before the CRA Board meeting, I wrote about the stadium sized elephant in the room . As of last week’s special call workshop about the stadium, there still aren’t many details when it comes to the role the Drew Park CRA district will play. The county’s presentation had the city contributing $160 million through the CRA, Tampa’s Chief Financial Officer Dennis Rogero said during the workshop it’s still being decided. The number $100 million was also floated. What ever the number, it would be a bond paid for primarily with future tax revenue within the district. There’s some “rent” discussed in the MOU for the early years before the mixed-use development were to kick in. It’s all in flux.

What we also learned is that the people who work and live in Drew Park don’t have a clue either. Speaking during public comment at the workshop, Maritza Astorquiza, one of the founders of the Drew Park CRA district and current chair of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC) said “No one has reached out to meet with the CAC nor have a community meeting with Drew Park residents and businesses.“ She described Drew Park as a mix of residential and commercial businesses, many minority and multi-generational that live and work in the district 7 days a weeks. One concern she voiced was about roads.

This week, as part of a reprogramming of Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) funds, more than $6 million will be appropriated for the street improvements outlined last month. I find it confusing as to how the district had $4 million in projected revenue in FY26 but a $18.5 million budget?

I heard several comments during the workshop about Drew Park being an underperforming district, essentially writing it off as failure to redevelop. If they’ve been rolling over that much of a surplus and not spending the money as it came in, then no wonder there’s less apparent improvement. $3 million 4 years ago would have gone a lot farther than it does now. Land could have been obtained. Something to ask the 7 board members, some who’ve been sitting for 8 years.

I put together a map to help put the proposed stadium and mixed-used development project in perspective to the Drew Park CRA district.

Ybor Harbor

But the big request this week isn’t a baseball stadium in Drew Park, it’s a $50 million request for the Daryl Shaw led development Ybor Harbor in the Channelside district. Half in the district. The project is broken down into sections, keeping the nautical theme and calling them wharfs. North, east and west. North and west are in northeast corner of Channeside at the end of Ybor Channel. The project is estimated at $211.5 million total with a $50 million request. However CRA staff recommended and the CAC approved $35 million which the applicant notes they are “amendable to.” The funds would be dispersed starting with $7 million in 2029 and each year after through 2033. The applicant stipulates the bulk of the funding would go to public infrastructure and public spaces — they are proposing 1,100 linear feet of new public waterfront in the district and 2,500 linear feet overall in the project among other outdoor spaces along with pedestrian friendly wide sidewalks.

There are always a lot of moving parts for larger projects like this as there were with Gasworx. This won’t be the final vote on any of it. What it does mean though is that as long as all of the conditions are met, the lawyers can agree on contracts and the approved funding request doesn’t change, the votes going forward shouldn’t be controversial. Not to suggest this one is controversial but it’s not every day $35 million for one project gets approved in this city. Yet.

The Gator Building – East Tampa Community Opportunity Center

When I first started watching Tampa City Council and the CRA Board again in 2020, the “Gator Building” at 22nd and Lake was a hot topic of discussion. Council member Orlando Gudes led the effort with a lot of support from the community which resulted in the CRA purchasing the property. Aside from a few public comments, nothing has really moved on it. This month a request for a $300,000 feasibility study for a “Community Opportunity Center”.

The concept being explored for the site is a community-centered, multi-purpose facility
that may include a combination of food access, entrepreneurship, workforce development, and neighborhood activation components. Potential elements may include a community food co-op market, commercial kitchen and food business incubator, community café and gathering space, entrepreneurship training and coworking space, maker and light production space, and other small business support infrastructure intended to expand economic mobility within the district.

In addition, the FY26 reprogramming moves $8,092,710.11 to this project’s line item in the budget. In total $10,727,710.11 is requested to be moved with the bulk of the difference being $2,125,000 to cover the already approved Ashley East Land Acquisition initiative.

West Tampa

There are two funding requests from the West Tampa district this month.

First, an additional $1 million is being requested for streetscape improvements to the already approved $3.9 million for Rey Park. From the memo “The proposed streetscape improvements entail adding on-street parking spaces, new sidewalks, landscaping and trees, an irrigation system, street lighting, and brick pavement along Howard Avenue; W. Palmetto Street; Twitt Street; and W. Cherry Street.”

Second, a $1,192,418 request for the Dr. Walter L Smith Library & Museum Renovations. Staff recommended $800,000 — half the total project cost. The CAC unanimously approved the full $1.2 million request.

Evening land use hearings

Item 1 on the evening agenda is a bundle of changes to the land development code that were originally part of the “July 2025 cycle” — meaning they’ve been discussed and re-worked and discussed and delayed for a year. Vetted to not conflict with any changes to state law and to address any concerns raised during the process.

With that said, first reading has been set for May 21st and final reading for June 4th for the first set of major changes to the land development code (LDC) as part of the full rewrite. The changes relate to Zoning Districts, Definitions, and Uses. Details of the proposed changes are available on the city website and there are 4 community meetings scheduled to discuss the changes. Times and locations in early June are also on that page.

There’s a lot of talk about the next mayor these days, or who will be on council, but the changes proposed in the LDC will have as much an impact on future decisions as it relates to land use as who sits in the seats voting. These changes are meant to reflect the implementation side of the proposed changes to the comprehensive plan and where future growth is being directed. Yes code can be amended, but this is part of a multi-million dollar code rewrite. Not to count the cost in city staff time. The goal should be to get it right the first time. Measure twice, cut once.

Save for several combined alley vacating requests for a project in southeast Ybor and one application to change from Residential Office to Commercial General, the remaining items on the evening agenda are all requests for a “PD”. One of the goals of the new LDC is to minimize the need for as many planned development applications. Particularly for small scale residential. There will always be a place for a truly planned development. It just should be used as a way to do small lot development to bypass bad code.

Speaking of bad code

I discovered the city had been running a different kind of bad code last week after exploring the TPD traffic-stop dashboard. The data suggested TPD were stopping twice as many hispanic drivers as they were a year ago while issuing fewer citations. Instead, TPD acknowledged the dashboard shipped in 2022 with bad code that resulted in roughly 12% of the stops mis-attributed to White drivers skewing any data presented. The bug was found in November of 2025 however the underlying data in the transparency dashboard still hasn’t been fixed. Read more – “When a transparency dashboard isn’t transparent.”

Finally, council will return next week for the final regular meeting in May with a morning workshop and alcohol use hearings the following week to close out the month.