St. Petersburg, FL — Mayor Kenneth T. Welch will hold a series of community engagement opportunities over the coming weeks to gather public input on priorities for Historic Gas Plant District Redevelopment.

The first Community Conversations meeting will be held Tuesday, July 12 from 5:30-7:30 pm at the Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete located in the Lakeview Shopping Center at 2333 34th St. South.  

Members of the public are invited to participate in subject matter expert-led conversations addressing common themes about redevelopment priorities including but not limited to equitable economic opportunities, affordable and workforce housing, economic impact, jobs, sustainability, equity and community impact. 

Each session will begin with opening remarks from Mayor Welch. 

The community input will be used to inform our administration’s decisions as we craft the new Request for Proposals for site redevelopment to be released in August.  

“Equitable redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District must respond to current economic conditions, challenges and questions facing our St. Petersburg community. Public engagement is a key component in ensuring we are responding to residents’ needs. I look forward to the opportunity to hear from you about this generational project,” said St. Petersburg Mayor Kenneth T. Welch. 

Additional community engagement sessions will be held July 19 at the St. Petersburg College-Gibbs campus and July 28 at USF St Pete. Additional details on those meetings and additional virtual engagement opportunities will be announced soon. 

The meetings will utilize the same public engagement model from Mayor Welch’s original Community Conversations, held in late 2021 prior to his inauguration. 

Background: On June 29, 2022, Mayor Welch announced he was launching a new RFP process to identify prospective developers for the 86-acre Gas Plant District site, now home to Tropicana Field.  

More information on that announcement can be found here: https://www.stpete.org/residents/current_projects/tropicana_field_site.php 

Please RSVP to a Community Conversation here: http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=ian4x9bab&oeidk=a07ej9v86gdd2eb49d9

If you are unable to attend a Community Conversation in person, you may provide input virtually here: https://form.jotform.com/210254356325045