Disability-focused housing in Seminole approved, despite neighbors’ anger

In a split vote that followed more than an hour of contentious public comments, Pinellas County commissioners on Tuesday cleared the way for a small affordable housing complex for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities to be built in Seminole.

The commission’s two approvals — which change the land use and zoning for a 2.79-acre lot at 13000 Park Blvd. — came despite organized opposition from nearby homeowners, who said they believe additional density at the neighborhood’s edge would damage the estate-style community, where single-family homes sit on large, verdant lots.

Commissioners voted 4-3 in favor of both changes. The commission’s Democratic contingent — chairperson Janet Long, Charlie Justice and Rene Flowers — was joined by Republican Chris Latvala in approval. Its other three Republicans — Kathleen Peters, Dave Eggers and Brian Scott — voted against the measures.

“Pinellas County is a county for all,” Latvala said. “That means it’s a county that includes our developmentally disabled population, and they deserve to have a place to live as well. I believe this gives them that place.”

The development is a project of Community Assisted & Supported Living, a Sarasota-based housing nonprofit focused on mental health, disabilities and homelessness. The nonprofit, which owns and operates more than 100 properties in nine Florida counties, bought a single-family home at 12948 Park Blvd. in 2019 and turned it into Independence House, a facility for adults with disabilities requiring round-the-clock aid. It bought 13000 Park in 2021 and later announced plans to turn it into Independence Place, where a clutch of duplexes and triplexes would house adults with developmental disabilities who can live independently with support services during the day. It would keep the single-family home on the property as a clubhouse.

Neighbors opposed the plan from the beginning, and when it came to the County Commission for approval in January, commissioners let it fail for lack of a vote and told the nonprofit to work with neighbors to find a better solution. It returned with a plan that reduced the proposed occupancy to 24 residents across 20 units, widened setbacks and moved some of its seven buildings farther away from neighbors’ property lines. The county’s Local Planning Agency, which recommended denial of the previous proposal, recommended approval this time.

But neighbors still adamantly opposed it. More than 300 signed a petition asking the County Commission to deny the nonprofit’s requests. During Tuesday’s meeting, many said they feared the creep of intensified density into their neighborhood, where they’d chosen to buy because of the ample space.

“I’ve lived there 22 years now and it’s been the same way,” said Donna Chisholm, who lives in the home closest to 13000 Park. “I can’t imagine it any other way.”

Some worried about their property values declining, they said. The market values of the residential properties closest to the site range from about $800,000 to more than $2 million, according to the Pinellas County Property Appraiser’s Office.

And a few suggested that the nonprofit has nefarious plans. Though county staff said the land-use designation will only allow the housing to serve adults with developmental disabilities, some neighbors said they believe the purchase is the beginning of a widespread land-grab, or that the new facility will allow dangerous elements into the neighborhood.

“Why make this change if it poses even the smallest increase of risk to these loved children?” said Jonathan Jones, who owns a martial arts school in a commercial area next to a doctor’s office that borders 13000 Park.

Commissioner Kathleen Peters said she sympathized with residents who don’t want to see the neighborhood’s character change. She asked that the county look for ways to protect the rare areas that have such low-density zoning.

“I’ve watched south Pinellas County shrink, shrink, shrink,” she said. “This is the one area I can think of in south county where we have an area that is designated one unit per acre.”

But the commissioners who approved the changes said the nonprofit had done enough to make its vision fit with the neighborhood, and that the development would fill an important niche.

“I appreciate the neighbors, and the few that really are right near the property that would see a change,” Commissioner Charlie Justice said. “It’s just a need we can’t ignore.”