The Oldsmar City Council voted unanimously June 16 to advance two major commercial developments at its latest meeting, approving the baseline rules for a downtown town center and changing an old zoning rule to allow a new commercial plaza on Tampa Road.
The first item finalized 31 essential terms for a proposed development agreement between the city and Stanbery Development Group LLC.
The project covers eight acres of city-owned property in the Community Redevelopment Agency district, located between Tampa Road, State Street and Washington Avenue.
Stanbery has agreed to pay $2 million for the property.
To protect city taxpayers, the rules require the developer to provide an infrastructure completion bond equal to 110% of estimated costs, plus an 18-month maintenance bond equal to 20% of those costs. If the developer fails to finish the project within 60 months, it must pay the city liquidated damages of $350,000 annually, broken down to $29,167 per month, to replace lost property taxes.
“The ad valorem taxes that the city will receive are really critical going forward,” said Mayor Katie Gannon, emphasizing the financial realities of the agreement. “Woven through here is the mutual respect and the feeling of trust, but verify, so that both sides know what they’re getting.”
To prevent the project from becoming just another apartment complex, the commercial and residential construction timelines are tied together. Developers cannot let residents move into the apartments until the commercial buildings are finished and the public open spaces are fully developed. Furthermore, all apartments must be rented at market rate, making the project ineligible for local tax breaks.
The council is strictly regulating what kinds of businesses can open in the commercial spaces. At least 30% of the initial tenants must be food retailers. To ensure variety, individual business types cannot be duplicated during the initial lease-up period, meaning only one nail salon, bank, or sandwich shop is allowed. General retail stores like clothing, gift, and home furnishing shops are exempt from this rule and can be duplicated.
Vice Mayor Steve Graber noted that the community was highly vocal about these rules during the years-long planning process.
“Prohibiting medical uses was also something that we discussed quite heavily during this entire process,” Graber said. “It just helped shape the development, at least in my mind.”
The agreement completely bans medical uses like hospitals, emergency rooms, urgent care centers, and primary care offices. Other prohibited uses include adult businesses, theaters, places of worship, banquet halls, massage parlors, check-cashing stores, flea markets, pawn shops, and pool halls. Outdoor live entertainment must stop at 10 p.m., while background music must end by 11 p.m.
The developer will pay all impact fees and cover the cost of moving city utilities. The layout features an integrated public plaza for city events, like the annual holiday tree lighting, for up to 10 days per year, and a mandatory public art sculpture worth at least $50,000.
A non-refundable deposit of $200,000 is due when the final contract is signed, using $100,000 already held in escrow.
Before the contract is finalized, Oldsmar will host three public open houses:
• Thursday, July 9, 10 to 11 a.m. at Gull Zaire Village Clubhouse
• Saturday, July 11, 9 to 10 a.m. at the Cypress Forest Recreation Center
• Tuesday, July 14, from 6 to 7 p.m. at the State Street Center.
“Please, please, please come to the open houses. Please tell us what you love about this, what you hate about it. It makes our jobs easier,” urged Commissioner Valerie Tatarzewski. “If you can’t make one of the meetings, email the city. They’ll get the information to us.”
New commercial plaza
In a second public hearing, the council approved an ordinance modifying a restrictive covenant on a 3.5-acre site on Stephanie Drive, a private road off Tampa Road. Rezoned to Commercial General (C2) in 2001, the land previously carried a restriction banning “shopping centers”, defined as three or more businesses under a unified plan. This old rule capped the property at a maximum of two tenants.
Tatiana Childress, Oldsmar’s Planning and Redevelopment director, presented the request to allow a multitenant commercial plaza. The proposed 40,000-square-foot project will be anchored by United Coffee Club, a local business currently on Douglas Road, which plans to open a coffee shop, sell specialized coffee machines, and lease out one remaining commercial unit.
“It’s important to me that we still have that restrictive covenant in place save for this little, tiny acceptable change,” stressed Gannon. Childress confirmed that other banned uses, including car washes, remain prohibited under the covenant’s 75-year clause.
Regarding neighborhood impact, the planning director added that while one resident raised traffic concerns during a 500-foot outreach meeting, a formal traffic and mobility study will be required during the final site plan review.
The council widely praised the conceptual design, which utilizes a two-story building to shrink the footprint and save ground space for a larger stormwater retention pond.
Both items passed without opposition.