Residents Oppose a 121,920 s.f. Storage Building on a 5-Acre Parcel in Palm Harbor, Florida The Florida Suncoast Sierra Club has officially joined forces with Palm Harbor residents to oppose the re-zoning of nearly 5-acres of residentially-zoned natural land. Developers want to put a 121,920 s. f., 40-foot tall storage building on two residentially-zoned lots bordering the Pinellas Trail and Alt 19. Once the residents in the community found out about the plan, they had less than a week to oppose the rezoning. But as fate would have it, four out of the seven Local Planning Agency Board members were absent and the meeting was postponed to July 12th, 2018. Now, the community has more time to organize and get the word out. They are doing it with paper notices, social media and an online petition on the website, Change.org: www.bit.ly/NOstoragebuilding. It was through social media that members of the Florida Suncoast Sierra Club found out about the plan to pave paradise and reached out to residents to see if they could help. The mission of the club is “to explore, enjoy and protect the planet. To practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources; to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out those objectives.” The Suncoast Sierra Club supports the solution to encourage Pinellas County buy the 5-acres and turn it into a passive park since, according to Courtney Murphy, North Pinellas Conservation Team Lead, “Pinellas County is the densest county in Florida and with 100,000 people expected to move to Tampa Bay by the end of 2018, the focus needs to be on protecting the remaining pieces of natural habitats that we have left.” The cancelled Zoning meeting is rescheduled for Thursday, July 12th at 9 am on the 5th floor of 315 Court Street, Clearwater. People who want to support this cause can sign the petition online at www.bit.ly/NOstoragebuilding or email Linda at 2labock@gmail.com to sign a hard copy petition and get on the group’s email list. They are also encouraged to send an email to ZONING@PINELLASCOUNTY.ORG referencing Case # Z/LU-12-06-18.