PALM HARBOR, Fla. -- Pinellas County Commissioners will decide Thursday whether to rezone the five acres of land between Alt U.S. 19 and the Pinellas Trail in Palm Harbor for industrial use, which would pave the way for a 120,000 square foot, three level storage building.
- Residents oppose mega storage facility in Palm Harbor
- County to vote on rezoning for industrial use
- 5 acres in between Alt 19 and Pinellas Trail
However, the mega storage facility is getting push back from homeowners and environmental groups. They say they are fighting what will be a major change to not just their neighborhood, but North Pinellas County.
The five acres is right in the middle of a residential and small business pocket of Palm Harbor. Homeowners argue the project could increase flooding in surrounding neighborhoods and that a zoning change will open the door to future industrial, and perhaps, mixed use zoning that will more drastically impact a currently quaint and quite part of Palm Harbor.
The Suncoast Sierra Club, an environmental organization, has even joined the fight with homeowners, protecting what it says are a dwindling number of undeveloped areas of Pinellas.
"They mitigate flooding, they clean the water, they prevent toxic algae blooms in the surrounding water ways, they clean the water. They provide habitat for birds and fish, so for all those reasons we think it is important to have more of these. Certainly keep the ones that we have," Liz Drayer with Suncoast Sierra Club said.
The Sierra Club also pointed out that the five acres is located right next to the Pinellas Trail. They are proposing that the county buys the land and builds a park, instead of a mega storage facility.
That plan would cost the county money though, as opposed to tax revenue that would be generated from a business.