Code amendment paves way for office development in Safety Harbor
By 
The Safety Harbor City Commission approved a text amendment on Monday that makes “office” a primary use on industrial land in town, paving the way for a large office development to be built in the city.
The decision removed a major hurdle for a proposed project by local health care giant BayCare Health System.
Earlier this year, officials for BayCare approached the city with plans to construct an office park similar to the one it recently built on Drew Street on the old Firmenich property, a project that could bring roughly 300 jobs to the city.
While the decision continued to reverse what had been a countywide push to preserve industrial land in Pinellas County, commissioners were tasked with making a decision that could bring jobs to the city now rather than holding out hope for industrial development in the future.
“The county has finally stopped fighting so much the conversion of industrial lands to office, retail, et cetera,” Mayor Andy Steingold said when the agenda item came up on Monday night. “They’ve been fighting it for years, but they’ve lost so much industry in Pinellas County.”
“But the market’s what’s driving it, and it drove it kind of almost out of Pinellas County into Hillsborough and Pasco,” he added. “So again, it’s market driven.”
None of the other four commissioners disagreed with the mayor’s point.
But Commissioner Cliff Merz, who cast the lone “nay” vote on the item, argued that by switching the land use designation, it could lead to unintended consequences down the road.
“I’m just concerned that what might happen here might accelerate…the loss of (industrial) jobs and benefits and full-time employment,” Merz said.
Mayor Steingold countered that not making the change could prevent industrial companies from selling their property for lack of buyers, and Vice Mayor Andy Zodrow added an analogy about how the market often changes, and cities have to change with it.
“Just to play devil’s advocate, there’s a reason why we’re not growing citrus in Pinellas County anymore,” he said, adding, “That’s just an extreme example.”
While the measure ultimately passed by a vote of 4-1, city officials were quick to point out that amending the code doesn’t prevent industrial development on the city’s 78 designated acres, nor does it guarantee the BayCare project will be built.
After the meeting, Merz clarified his feelings about the decision.
“My main concern is properties have a certain value, and office might be valued more than industrial,” he told Safety Harbor Connect. “So now the value of the property can be higher, so maybe light industrial companies can’t afford it.”
“I think we need those types of skilled jobs in the county, and I want to make sure we have enough places to accommodate them.”
Related content:
- Office Complex Could Be Coming to Firmenich Property
- City to Seek Input on Firmenich Property Development
- County Board Denies Firmenich Proposal Again
Tom, I agree with you and will post here, the same comments that I posted on Facebook. The commission really screwed up on this one. Why? Baycare is a nonprofit and pays NO property taxes. The commission just took the last large swath of land to be developed and assured that there is no property tax revenue generated! Unbelievable. I sat in the mayor’s ‘town hall’ meeting 6 months ago. There was a recurring theme throughout the night: we have too many competing priorities in town, all worthy projects (waterfront park, expansion of the Community (rec) center, library expansion and more) and not enough tax revenue to fund them all. He said it over and over. And here we give away hundreds of thousands of dollars in future property taxes had any other business built there. So taxpayers can be assured of future millage increases since we are not *broadening* the tax base. In terms of “creating jobs”, we don’t have a city wage tax so no revenue benefit there. And I don’t think jobs are being “created” as much as just being moved from existing Baycare offices within a 5 mile vicinity! Just a dumb move. Hey commission: wake up!
You do realize that property tax revenue is a very small part of the big picture right?
If these 300 jobs average $50,000 a year, then that is $15,000,000 of salaries. These people have to eat lunch, they need to live somewhere.
Eric,
New jobs are not being created. They are simply being moved from existing BayCare facilities within a several mile radius.
This is not a great deal for the city. By contrast, the apartment complex that was previously planned for the same site would have generated, going off memory, $1 million in up-front impact fees and $500,000 in annual recurring property taxes.
Why do we want Bay Care to build a tax exempt office in Safety Harbor? It will just delute our tax base.
Did I miss something in this story, Tom Tracy? How would BayCare build a ‘tax exempt” office?
William, BayCare is a non-profit and as such, is exempt from paying property taxes. As such, the city will get no recurring revenue from this land use.