About Tierra Verde NEXT
Our Mission:
Tierra Verde Next's Mission is to speak for residents, homeowners, and island friends to protect and preserve Tierra Verde. We want to help islanders envision the future and achieve their goals. In this effort, we will promote island-wide communication, the exchange of ideas, group coordination, and new volunteer opportunities. Tierra Verde Next is all of us.
Steering Committee
Paul Lee, Political Action, Communications
Geoff Comrie, Land Use and Legal Action
Rajan Kaul, Land Use and Legal Action
Roslyn Feierstein, Environmental Stewardship
Vicki McCash Brennan, Communications
Evelyn Bless, Communications, Fundraising
Melanie Coleman Simon, Communications, Fundraising
Kathryn Challenger, Fundraising, Community Outreach
Raphael Perrino, Fundraising, Community Outreach
Colleene Parodi, Community Outreach
Tierra Verde Next, LLC, is an all-volunteer community organization representing residents, homeowners and stakeholders of Tierra Verde. No member of the Steering Committee or volunteer is ever compensated for work they do for the organization. Funds received are used strictly to pay for legal, consulting, and fundraising expenses.
Members of the Tierra Verde Next leadership team, all longtime residents, have advanced degrees and backgrounds in business, real estate, entrepreneurship, accounting, psychology, environmental science, and journalism. Together they bring a wide variety of expertise and experience to accomplish our goals.
Tierra Verde history related to marinas
~1982: Tierra Verde Hi and Dry Boat Storage is built. At that time, its height is limited to 42 feet. This limitation remains in effect.
2008: One developer owns both of Tierra Verde’s marinas: The Resort Marina (now Port 32) and Tierra Verde Hi and Dry, then the only dry storage on the island. The developer at the time plans a hotel and pool on the north side and requests a height variance from TVCA, whose charter includes deed restrictions.
When TVCA denies the variance, the developer seeks a workaround that includes kicking out the voters who live on boats in the marina. The developer then asks the City of St. Petersburg, with more lenient zoning restrictions, to annex the entire marina area.
St. Petersburg, led by then-Mayor Rick Baker, supports the annexation with its promised increased tax revenues. The city bases its bid to annex on the premise that St. Petersburg and Tierra Verde are connected by “contiguous submerged lands”— which include a portion of the federal Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).
Tierra Verde residents vigorously protest, noting that the land is NOT contiguous, and initiate lawsuits. The lawsuits fail.
March 8, 2008: The Pinellas County Board of Commissioners approves the Tierra Verde Overlay to be incorporated into the County Comprehensive Plan with a 50-foot height restriction on commercial property. This restriction was in place when Greenleaf bought this property in 2011.
November 2008: More than 28 acres of Tierra Verde are formally annexed by the City of St Petersburg, against the will of the people of Tierra Verde.
2009: Pinellas County and Tierra Verde file suit against the City of St Petersburg to prevent the city from allowing intensive commercial development. The decision is in their favor, preventing the development and leaving the County zoning code and land use in place for all of Tierra Verde. The concerns expressed at the time were the same as they are now: The community does not want development that is too dense, poses potential hurricane dangers, or does not fit within the character and height standards of the surrounding community. The case is closed in 2010.
2010: The developer of the annexed parcels goes bankrupt and the properties are sold. On the south side of Madonna, a marina improvement and hotel (the current Marriott Residence Inn) are planned along with a new dry storage facility.
That project proceeds as residents successfully lobby to reduce the hotel’s original proposed height and alter the appearance of the boat storage and retail buildings. The new dry-rack building has an attractive and modest footprint with approximatly 340 dry slips. The building is fully enclosed building with a 54-foot maximum height that the developer negotiated with the community.
2011: The parcel on the north side of Madonna Boulevard is sold to Greenleaf Capital.
2018: The Resort Marina on the south side of Madonna Boulevard is resold and rebranded PORT 32.
March 2025: Greenleaf presents a redevelopment plan for the first time during a TVCA meeting. The proposal includes four 90-foot open-rack storage towers, an expanded marina, and a private restaurant and pool. The 711-slip proposed dry boat storage would be the second-largest high and dry in the USA. (The largest is the 780-rack Legendary Marina in Destin, situated NOT in a small residential neighborhood, but among retail buildings, a seaplane airport, a school’s outdoor field and track grounds, and a golf course.)
The plan alarms and concerns many Tierra Verde residents. The TVCA and individual home and condo owners in Tierra Verde, Isla Del Sol, along the Bayway, in St. Petersburg Beach, and in south St. Petersburg, all voice strong objections to Greenleaf and to officials at the City and County levels.
Former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman is the paid spokesman for these expansion efforts, which continue despite widespread local resident opposition and without any effort to consult or negotiate with residents. Greenleaf does not engage with residents regarding height limits or design mitigation.
Summer 2025: Although the plan is not yet approved, Greenleaf terminates leases for all retail businesses on the site. The final lease, a Shell gas station, expires at the end of October 2025. The removal of leases is not formally included in Greenleaf’s proposal.
September 2025: The TVCA hires a land-use specialist to support the residents’ opposition.
October 2025: TVCA loses a lawsuit that removes all property already represented by an HoA from its membership, thereby reducing TVCA membership by about two-thirds. TVCA then determines that fighting a commercial development is not part of its charter as an HOA.
Oct. 18, 2025: To fill the need for organized opposition, Tierra Verde NEXT (TVN) holds an open house to establish this organization as the voice of Tierra Verde residents, organizing petitions and the opposition campaign.
Nov. 21, 2025: Greenleaf withdraws its proposal. A scheduled hearing at the St Petersburg DRC (Development Review Commission) is canceled.
March 9, 2026: After rejecting many requests since November 2025 to meet with Tierra Verde NEXT, Greenleaf submits a second proposal to the DRC. The new proposal is similar to their first proposal’s Phase 1, but scaled back from 90 feet to 72 feet. It would now become the third largest high and dry in the USA.
March 23, 2026: Tierra Verde Next leadership finally meets with Greenleaf. The developer refuses to budge on our primary issues—the unsafe type of open rack boat storage and the unacceptable increase in height over the 50-foot maximum provided for in the Tierra Verde Overlay of the Pinellas County Land Use Plan.
In complaints to the City and DRC, Tierra Verde citizens and members of Tierra Verde Next note that for 15 years, Greenleaf has made no substantial improvements to its property. It has created a dismal, decaying marina area and removed essential services from the island in violation of the Tierra Verde Overlay. This history is a strong indicator that Greenleaf’s newly proposed development will also be neglected.
May 6, 2026: Greenleaf’s new proposal goes before the St. Petersburg DRC for formal review. Tierra Verde residents show up in large numbers to oppose the development based on height, safety, environmental concerns, boat traffic, parking, and automobile traffic. Despite the large public outcry, the DRC approves the project 4-3, granting unearned parking credits for bicycles using the Pinellas Bayway and boats using wet slips at the marina.
June 9, 2026: Tierra Verde Next files a writ of certiorari in the Sixth Judicial Circuit asking the court to quash the city's approval of this major expansion based on improper application of the zoning standards in place for the property. The lawsuit is ongoing.
July 2026: Tierra Verde Next challenges environmental permits based on the project's scope and potential damage to the environment. Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and Southwest Florida Water Management District file letters seriously questioning the development.
August 2026: The Florida Department of Environmental Protection finds Tierra Verde Marina in violation of its submerged land lease.
September 2026: Tierra Verde Next asks the City of St. Petersburg to reopen and rescind its approval of the project based on parking credits given for wet slips that cannot be used under the submerged land lease. The City responds by joining Greenleaf's request for dismissal of the Circuit Court case, claiming Tierra Verde does not have standing to sue.
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