The biggest decision St. Pete will make in 100 years.

The plan, in full

Five reasons to start with the park.

1. 01

   Start with a 30-acre, community-designed park

   Think Boston Common, or New York's Central Park: great public spaces that belong to everyone. St. Pete Commons would be roughly three times the size of Vinoy Park and five times North Straub Park, and its features would come from residents, not a boardroom: playgrounds, splash pads, amphitheater, fountains, gardens, live music, farmers markets, sidewalk cafés, a walk-up coffee kiosk, and welcoming gathering spaces. Free to enjoy, whatever your budget, because our green space is what makes St. Pete special. The St. Pete Commons will benefit and attract people from throughout our city, north, south, east and west.

2. 02

   Reconnect the street grid

   For decades this land has been a sea of parking, walled off from the neighborhoods around it. Reopening the old street grid means you can walk, bike, or drive straight into the district from every direction, and it becomes a seamless, living part of downtown again.

3. 03

   Save room for the community's own places

   After the park is created and the road grid is put in place there remains roughly 46 acres of land divided into an estimated 20 parcels. Before a single parcel is sold, the city and community decide upon and set aside parcels for places that belong to all of us: museums, arts and cultural spaces, performance venues, parking, or others. That's how this plan keeps trust with the community: the public park and other community assets come first.

4. 04

   Sell the remaining parcels at fair market value

   Once the park, streets, and community spaces are established, the city, which keeps ownership and control of the land, sells the remaining parcels to multiple developers, not one master developer, at fair market value. That's a fair deal for taxpayers, and it opens the door to new homes, hotels, offices, and ground-floor shops, restaurants, and sidewalk cafés, built well. This is pro-park and pro-progress: density done right downtown, balanced by green space that belongs to everyone.

5. 05

   Put the proceeds to work for the whole city

   Every dollar from those land sales goes back to the community: paying for the park, streets and infrastructure, funding a long-term trust that maintains the park forever, and supporting priorities identified by the community, with benefits that reach far beyond the site itself. A park that pays its own way, and land that keeps giving back for generations.