SEMINOLE — Habitat for Humanity wants to tear down the aging Lake Seminole Presbyterian Church and replace it with a smaller house of worship and 18 affordable cottages for residents 55 and older.
The City Council gave unanimous consensus April 14 to authorize City Manager Ann Toney-Deal to negotiate a development agreement for the project at 11250 86th Ave., a 3.82-acre site at the corner of 86th Avenue and 113th Street on the city’s western border.
The arrangement is essentially a land swap. Habitat for Humanity Tampa Bay Gulfside would demolish the church’s two existing buildings, constructed in 1964 and 1965, and build a new 4,600-square-foot church on a 1.4-acre lot. In exchange, the church would deed the remaining 2.4 acres to Habitat for construction of the cottages.
It is the first time Habitat has structured a project this way, said Mike Sutton, the organization’s president and CEO, calling it “a unique partnership that we hope to replicate.”
“This is about probably three years in the making of building a relationship with our friends at Lake Seminole Presbyterian,” Sutton said. “We really feel like we can help them accomplish their goal of a new worship center and also be able to provide some affordable homeownership opportunities for 55-plus residents here in the city of Seminole.”
The cottages would be spread across seven buildings — four triplexes and three duplexes — with two-bedroom units of roughly 1,050 square feet each. Buyers would own their units under a zero-percent interest Habitat mortgage with no down payment. Under the organization’s model, a $300,000 home would cost a family about $850 a month plus taxes and insurance, Sutton said.
He declined to provide a projected purchase price for the Seminole units, saying those details would be worked out during negotiations with the city. A homeowners association would handle common areas and exterior maintenance.
The project is currently funded through private donations and Habitat’s business model, in which completed mortgage notes are sold to partner banks to finance the next round of construction. Sutton said the organization may pursue government subsidies later, but none are involved at this stage.
The property is zoned public/semi-public, which permits residential development as a conditional use at up to 12.5 units per acre. At 7.5 units per acre, the proposal is well below that ceiling and significantly less dense than the neighboring Seminole Garden Apartments, a large 55-and-older co-op complex immediately to the east.
Community Development Director Wesley Wright told council the development agreement is needed because the church is requesting 80 parking spaces — 19 more than the 61 required by code. The residential component could have proceeded through a standard conditional use permit on its own, he said, but the combination of requests makes the development agreement the appropriate path.
Florida’s “Yes in God’s Backyard” law, passed last year as part of Senate Bill 1730, gives cities the option to fast-track affordable housing on church-owned land regardless of zoning, but Seminole has not adopted the provision. Sutton said the project would not qualify regardless because Habitat’s homeownership model requires conveying individual lots to buyers, which is incompatible with the church retaining land ownership as the law envisions.
Kody Glazer, chief legal and policy director at the Florida Housing Coalition, said the statute could have applied if the deal had been structured differently — through a ground lease, for example — but noted that only three local governments in Florida have adopted the optional provision so far.
The Rev. Stephanie Maddox-Hill, who became the church’s part-time pastor three years ago, said the congregation closed the main sanctuary two years ago and moved services into the original fellowship hall. Average Sunday attendance runs about 55, up from 30 when she arrived.
“Anybody who has driven past the church knows that that church is rough,” Maddox-Hill said. “It came down to, do we spend a whole bunch of money on this building, or do we use our money to continue doing the mission of the church.”
The church is financially secure and plans to maintain the new building for the long term, she said. The congregation looked at several options before settling on the Habitat partnership.
“They started thinking, how can we use this land in a way that fits in with the ministry and the mission of this congregation,” she said.
Beyond Sunday services, the building houses Meals on Wheels, a theater group, two homeless ministries and Girl Scout troops. Maddox-Hill said she hopes the congregation can remain in the current fellowship hall while the new church goes up.
Habitat hopes to begin construction on the church by Jan. 1, 2027, with the timeline dependent on completing the development agreement, Sutton said. He declined to release estimated construction costs for the project.
Habitat would conduct targeted recruitment within the church congregation and the city of Seminole before opening applications more broadly across Pinellas County, he said. Buyers must earn between 30 and 80% of the area median income — up to about $84,000 a year for a family of four.
The organization operates on a roughly $40 million budget with more than 70 staff members and built 91 homes last year. It has completed more than 1,050 homes across its service area covering Pinellas, western Pasco and Hernando counties, with seven foreclosures in its history and just one in the last 15 years.
“The misconception is that Habitat builds homes, gives them away, and the folks that are receiving the homes are unemployed or not contributing to the tax base,” Sutton said. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
About half the families currently in the pipeline work in health care, he said, and the organization is also serving about 15 school teachers and a number of public service employees.
Vice Mayor Chris Burke pressed Sutton on how the 55-and-older restriction would be enforced, noting the council had been “burned before when people promised us only veterans would live somewhere and then poof, it wasn’t only veterans anymore.”
Sutton said the property would carry a deed restriction and buyers would be required to homestead the unit. He acknowledged Habitat would not serve as a landlord and that day-to-day enforcement would fall to the HOA. The organization would maintain a nonvoting seat on the HOA board for the first five years to provide guidance, he said.
Toney-Deal said she would ask the city attorney’s office to examine whether additional enforcement provisions could be written into the development agreement.
Councilor Al Shields asked whether Habitat or the church had spoken with residents of Seminole Garden Apartments about the project. Sutton said they had not.
“It would probably be a good idea,” Shields said. “Good neighbor kind of thing. Take care of the objections before it comes.”
Sutton said his team would be reaching out to the complex soon.
Two public hearings will follow, scheduled roughly 30 days apart after negotiations are concluded, Wright said. All property owners within 300 feet will receive mailed notice as required by the land development code.
About 40% of the units in Seminole Garden Apartments are homesteaded, he noted, meaning many of the complex’s actual residents are tenants who would not receive formal notice. As of mid-April, the city had not received any public comment or inquiries about the project since the workshop.
Toney-Deal said she was not concerned about word getting out.
“Trust me, everybody will know,” she said. “They have a wonderful community newsletter.”
Commercial contractors would build the new church. Habitat would build the cottages using its standard model of volunteers and homeowner participation.
Tampa-based High Point Engineering designed the project, with principal engineer Braulio Grajales leading the work. Dark Moss of Tampa prepared the landscape plan, which calls for heavy native plantings including live oaks, slash pines, bald cypress and silver buttonwood.
A 25-foot wetland buffer runs along the southern boundary, and two stormwater detention ponds would be shared by both lots. Situated in FEMA flood zone X, the property carries no special flood hazard designation. Wright said a tree assessment of the approximately 71 trees on the heavily wooded site would be required, with potential mitigation costs depending on how many are removed.