ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Resilient St. Pete Resident Task Force will tour its final three neighborhoods on Saturday, where engineers will hear directly from residents about their flooding concerns and possible mitigation solutions.

What You Need To Know

  • The Resilient St. Pete Resident Task Force will tour its final three neighborhoods on Saturday
  • Those neighborhoods include Childs Park, Kingston Street and Old Pasadena 

  • Old Pasadena residents are concerned about storm drain maintenance and overdevelopment  

  • A public workshop for all neighborhoods is scheduled for Aug. 9 at the Coliseum

“There were a handful of houses on the street that flooded,” said Shannery Barnes, Old Pasadena Neighborhood Association President. “They haven’t experienced that before.”

The task force will tour the Childs Park and the Kingston Street neighborhoods in the morning. According to city data, 5% of the homes in Childs Park flooded and in Kingston Street it was 20%.

In the afternoon, the task force will tour the Old Pasadena neighborhood where 8% of the homes flooded. Barnes said thankfully the neighborhood has not been prone to flooding.

“The handful of houses that did flood in (Hurricane) Helene are on the water,” said Barnes. “We don’t flood chronically. It’s literally just these big storms that come in and maybe we get some water over the seawall.”

Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley said every neighborhood has different flooding concerns. For the past few weeks, the task force has been touring neighborhoods across the city, from Shore Acres to Bonita Bayou.

Barnes said in Old Pasadena, residents have been worried about overdevelopment.

“The concern in our neighborhood is rapid development,” she said. “Irresponsible development that rapidly eliminates green space and permeable surface.”

Last year, a few large grassy lots were re-zoned to allow for the development of townhomes and single-family homes, according to Barnes.

“That brings up concerns about where all of the rainwater will go once this is all developed?” she asked. “When we have those abnormally heavy rains, there’s nowhere for the rainwater to go if it’s all concrete.”

Resident Mary Beth Singh said developers want to build at least 20 homes on what’s currently a couple of soccer fields and she worries about potential flooding in the future.

“We lucked out on this last storm,” she said. “There wasn’t too much in our neighborhood, but we had a lot of surface here where it can drain. That’s all going to be gone.” 

Barnes said residents also want to tell engineers about their storm drain maintenance concerns. Especially, at Sunset Dr. S. and First Ave. S. near Sunset Park.

“It seems that this intersection does hold water,” she said. ”They’re concerned that the storm drains are not adequate enough and they’re not doing their job properly.”

Barnes said there’s also a retention pond that overflows during heavy rains but otherwise residents feel lucky to live in Old Pasadena.

“It’s not a problem flooder,” she said. “They are concerned that future heavy rains will inundate the storm drains.”

In June, the task force, which is part of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, will hold workshops with the 9 neighborhoods they toured to go over their findings. A public workshop for all neighborhoods is scheduled for Aug. 9 at the Coliseum.