To some, it seemed like a race: the creation of a Mirror Lake historic district with guidelines for future development, or watching its historic structures get demolished. For the past few years, demolition has been comfortably in the lead. Following a unanimous vote of the Community Planning and Preservation Commission and the 4-3 passage of a "first reading" at City Council, a yearslong effort to recognize Mirror Lake as a local historic district is reaching the finish line.
Although John Nolen, one of the country’s preeminent 1920s urban planners, viewed Mirror Lake as the city’s natural "civic center," in more recent decades the neighborhood was largely ignored and left to languish. In the 1970s and 1980s, zoning allowing for intense development was pasted rather indiscriminately across the city’s land use and zoning maps for the greater downtown, including Mirror Lake.
Even as downtown was awakening with high rise towers taking shape, Mirror Lake retained its low intensity Florida feel while providing downtown affordable housing opportunities thanks to a dense mix of older multi-family units, duplexes, bungalow courts and converted rooming houses. City leaders, recognizing the sensitivity of the waterfront, enacted rules requiring building heights to taper away from the city's waterfront parks, but did not do so for the Mirror Lake waterfront.
With St. Petersburg finally booming and with zoning rules allowing for high rise development, developers have begun to turn their attention to Mirror Lake. The political environment has also changed, with claims of "property rights" often outweighing the rights of neighbors to determine what type of neighborhood they would prefer to live in. Having city council agree to create historic districts that highlight the community and neighborhood common good are no longer a simple task, despite studies demonstrating the many benefits of historic districts, including a 2024 study unique to St. Petersburg, "Keeping the Vibe Alive: The Impact of Historic Preservation in St. Petersburg."
PTB, then known as St. Petersburg Preservation, worked to create a downtown National Register historic district that came to fruition in 2003. While the designation would not prevent building demolition nor proscribe compatible infill development, it was hoped that the tax credit incentives associated with the National Register district would result in historic building renovation and reuse. Unfortunately, this did not prove to be the case. St. Petersburg lags behind almost every other mid-sized city in the use of the federal historic tax credit.
In 2019, a proposal to demolish several historic rooming houses being used for affordable downtown housing near the Mirror Lake library ignited PTB’s call for designation of a local Mirror Lake historic district. The local rather than the national designation would be significant because local district designation would include demolition review and additional new construction guidelines to encourage neighborhood-compatible development.
In 2020, city council by a split vote approved the high-rise proposal followed in 2024 by the demolition of the historic buildings. With more and more Mirror Lake residents having a keen affinity for their neighborhood while others experienced the neighborhood with the Shuffleboard Club’s renaissance, Councilmember Driscoll in 2021 brought to city council for discussion the initiation of a Mirror Lake local historic district. However, with loud voices objecting and suggestions that district designation could lead the State of Florida to nix the city’s long-sought goal of having the district court of appeal locate to Petersburg (on the shores of Mirror Lake) the discussion of a local historic district was unceremoniously dropped.
By 2023, Mirror Lake residents watching new high-rise construction creep ever closer to their neighborhood decided if a district designation did not occur the neighborhood they loved would see a canyon of high rises surrounding the lake. The residents approached PTB and a final effort began to designate the Mirror Lake historic district and to make public review and community participation a component of every new development.
At their meeting reviewing the Mirror Lake historic district designation, CPPC member and historian Will Michaels talked about the extraordinary historic significance of Mirror Lake to the city’s growth, noting the neighborhood’s churches, schools, governmental buildings and the shuffleboard courts and Coliseum that were a part of the city’s social hub. Today, Mirror Lake retains most of those buildings and has downtown’s largest concentration of historic buildings. Michaels raised the question, "if Mirror Lake does not deserve historic district designation then what neighborhood in St. Petersburg does?"
As to the winner of the "race", city council is scheduled December 12 to take the final vote on whether or not to designate the Mirror Lake as a local historic district. Public support submitted to the city has been overwhelmingly supportive of the designation. But, the race is still exceedingly close. Will neighborhood-compatible development win the day? Stay tuned! - P.B.
You can show your support by submitting a letter of support to City Council. Simply follow this link to submit a pre-drafted email to Council or, use the form to craft your own message.
