A four story, 55 ft. high, 296-unit residential complex, plus a large commercial and retail development is simply too large a project for Safety Harbor. Having a 400-car parking lot plus school buses picking up and dropping off students will make this area a traffic nightmare. All of the Richman Group of Florida's other apartment complexes in the area are no more than three stories, but last night they claimed that they needed to have four stories here in order to put in an elevator. This makes no sense. There are elevators in two story buildings here. If this large scale 55 ft. tall apartment building with a large commercial and retail development were proposed to be located behind one of the Planning and Zoning Board members houses, I'm sure that it would have been rejected.

Fact: Land to develop in Safety Harbor is rare. Why can't the city re-zone part of it for single family use, and offer the current property owner money for the wetlands so that we can save this space or perhaps create an organic farm or farmer co-op on part of the land? Then lets market the rare residential property to a single family developer that fits more in line with our city's comprehensive plan. A bank and a Walgreens won't stop people from moving in, especially since, near by trailer parks, railroads, air traffic, don't stop them now from coming to our city now.
Fact: 3 new homes are being built on 13th street, 1 lot has a contract pending on harbor hill drive and 590 for a single family home, and the town homes that are being developed on main street near McMullen are sold out.
Fact: Adding almost 600 renters and an additional strip mall to Safety harbor will change and re-develop our city's population and character. We need more people shopping on main street, not strip malls off McMullen, we need space for permanent single family housing, not temporary, we want to attract new people that want to move here to live here for 30+ years, not just temporarily squat, use our resources (schools, parks, programs) and then move to another community were there are single family lots for new homes to be built.
Fact: McMullen booth road is listed as a scenic corridor, this complex that is set to be developed over the next 10 years will drastically change that.

Also, another point for ALL our residents in Safety Harbor to consider, there are 4 main roads that allow us to access our city from McMullen Booth .. 1. SR 590, 2. Main Street, 3. Enterprise and of course SR 580 for our residents near the northern border. We all need to be very much concerned for the impact this will have on people cutting through Main Street, 590 and even Enterprise due to all the congestion that more cars, more school buses, more shoppers and delivery drivers- for the 2 story retail strip mall, more construction workers for 10 years, etc..will cause to our city. People cut through main street today to pass through our city to get to Largo or Oldsmar or Westchase, or the Courtney Campbell! Having newer shops with more parking on McMullen Booth will just encourage more spending off of our precious main street. You can bet we will have to put up street lights too. All the traffic from 590 will travel down to 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th, main street, 2nd street etc...Everyone in these areas should be concerned and let the city know that they care too and don't want this high density, unprecedented complex changing who we are as a city. We need to re-develop this rare property site, but we need to stay true to our city's comprehensive plan. Research shows Richman Group is not that. They developed in Pinealls Park & Riverview which is out of control with development, there is hardly any character & congestion is horrible. This is why we moved to Safety Harbor!!

All I see is concrete.
Shame on the commision if it lets something of this size go through.
All they see is tax revenue all I see is ugly
Barbara Nelson

Excellent points are being made on both sides. I appreciate all the comments, ideas and thoughts, and the fact that Safety Harbor residents and SHPatch readers keep things civilized despite the emotional nature of the issue. Much appreciated!

Jeffrey, I attended the Zoning board hearing and heard overwhelming opposition from the SH residents to this proposed 296 unit apartment complex and concerns about turning Safety Harbor into a "NYC Bronx." I am disappointed with the board's decision to move forward - a huge mistake to allow this developer to "shoe horn" such a large apartment complex into the Firmenich Complex! I understand the City's quest for tax generating revenue, but other options may include single family homes, townhomes, or small condominium complex like Los Prados would be more in keeping with the charm and character of Safety Harbor. So what recourse do we have? I strongly urge residents of Harbor Hills; especially those who spoke out against the project at the hearing, as well as the neighborhood HOA presidents to contact "Channel 8 News on your Side" for help to draw media attention to this issue. You can go online, www2.tbo.com, find link, "Problem Solver" and submit a request to Stacie Schaible asking help on this issue. Their recent story on "KB Homes" effecively exposed their shoddy construction of the Clearwater Waterford Complex after residents banded together to lodge a complaint. Land is a precious commodity in Pinellas County and once its gone, we'll never get it back. A large apmt complex will change the face of Safety Harbor forever and it will no longer be the quaint, tranquil little town on the bay that we all fell in love with when we first moved here in the first place!!

E-mails to the mayor & city commissioners may be the answer! We were told that only facts, not public sentiments, could be considered regarding the request. Some speakers specifically challenged parts of the request quoting from the City’s development plan. Others spoke of traffic, the intrusion on homes in the area, the impact on city infrastructure, etc. All of the latter are viewed as sentiments, not facts. The “facts” about those thing are supposed to be addressed in future detailed studies. This whole process is just beginning and will have to go through County Commission approval (where they will look at facts, not sentiments) before coming back to our City Commission. Provoked by this talk of the exclusion of “public sentiment” I asked the Board if there was going to be any point in this whole process where it might have some import. The Chair turned to the city attorney to give an answer and I still don’t know if there will be a time for that to occur. While most of the people at the meeting were from Harbor Hill and Old Harbor Place, I think it’s important for the powers-that-be to know the issue is important to a lot of “townies” as well. Some of Board members referred to getting emails from constituents, so our best bet in the interim may be to send emails to the mayor and city commissioners expressing our “public sentiments” about it. If there’s no room for those sentiments at meetings, we can still make sure they’re heard.

I am personally concerned that the "project" has gone as far as it has without the adequate traffic, crime and other studies necessary for a development like this in Safety Harbor. I recently moved to Safety Harbor this year, and the approval of this proposal contradicts all of the reasons I chose this area.

We in Florida have heard this development story before. An out of town developer comes into a Florida town and wants to build a highly profitable large scale residential project. Unfortunately here it's a 4-story apartment building that will be the tallest building in the city. The developers then build their projects and leave most of the financial and social costs of the development to the local residents. Problems include increased population, more traffic, air pollution, installation of street lights, requirements to educate and bus children to schools, potential crime problems, extra demands on city resources, etc. Unfortunately for the quaint town of Safety Harbor, this project will also begin changing our small town character atmosphere into a larger city feel. This large scale project is totally wrong for quaint Safety Harbor. City Officials should wait and seek out other commercial opportunities that will not burden our city in the way that this enormous residential and commercial project will.

We found a patch of Paradise and it is in the Wilder Oaks Sub division. I am not happy with 600 people moving in a small area. This land has many other desirabale projects. Town homes like on main street being built. They are not 4 stories.Who Says that this is the only usse for this land. Are you listening council people you will be seeking re-election soon. Judy L