North Greenwood Redevelopment Plan

Project Overview

In January of 2023, City Council approved the North Greenwood Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) Plan followed by Pinellas County approval in May of 2023. Included in this plan are recommendations to encourage redevelopment and infill development and provide a variety of housing opportunities while working to prevent displacement.

Prior to the final approval of the CRA Plan, the city was awarded a grant from Forward Pinellas to conduct a design charrette for the North Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue corridor within the North Greenwood community. This design charrette allowed staff to continue to build on work the CRA Plan started with a focus on the historic center of the community and what can be done to revitalize this historically important area. The charrette resulted in recommendations to create form-based code regulations in the city’s Community Development Code (CDC) specific to the North Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue corridor.

This project will build on past efforts to initiate amendments to the CDC to implement the recommendations from the CRA Plan and the design charrette. City staff will work alongside consultant Benesch and their team of subconsultants to amend the CDC to provide opportunities for incremental, small-scale redevelopment and infill development that will allow residents and business owners to build generational wealth within the neighborhood.

Community Engagement

Development and adoption of the Greenwood Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) Community Development Code (CDC) amendments is contingent on a meaningful community outreach effort. Goals of a successful community engagement process include conveying the purpose and use of the CDC amendment(s), understanding the community’s desires and wished-for outcomes, identifying priorities for the CDC amendment(s), and ensuring the community feels involved in development and implementation of the CDC amendment(s).

A kickoff meeting was held on July 8, 2024, to provide an overview of the project and upcoming meetings, a recap of previous planning efforts, an overview of the comprehensive plan and CDC amendment process, and an interactive discussion about the community’s history, cultural heritage, and how this information can play a role in anti-gentrification and displacement strategies within the CDC amendment process. A video of the presentation from this meeting can be found at:

The next engagement opportunity will be the Game of Zones, which will be help on Tuesday September 3, 2024, starting at 6:30pm at the North Greenwood Recreation Center. The Game of Zones is an exercise for the community to select desired “missing middle” housing and commercial buildings that fit in with the neighborhood context that can later translate into code amendments. Graphics will be provided that illustrate what is permitted currently in each zoning district within the study area. Game boards of several existing blocks within the study area will be provided along with 3-D scaled models including ADU’s, duplexes, quadplexes, and small-scale commercial buildings. The purpose of this exercise is to identify desired building types that can fit in with the existing context and lot sizes. The outcome of these meetings will be decisions on building types and their corresponding densities, building heights, setbacks, parking, etc. that will inform the code amendments.

Code Amendments

Upon the conclusion of the community engagement, city staff and the consultant team will begin work to draft CDC amendments that respond to the feedback received during the engagement sessions. The amendments will address topics including permitted/prohibited uses, building types, building height, density/intensity, setbacks, open space, buffering, parking, non-conformities, vehicular access, and lot aggregation. The proposed CDC amendments will be shared with the community at a future public meeting.

A final draft of the CDC amendments will be prepared and presented to the city’s Community Development Board (CDB) in early 2025 for their review and recommendation to City Council. City Council will then review and take action on the proposed amendments.