At its Monday night meeting, the Safety Harbor City Commission unanimously gave final approval to give one acre of city-controlled land on Elm Street to Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco Counties, which will pay off the remaining $200,000 balance the city owes the Pinellas County School Board and build six single-family homes on the land.
City Commission had previously approved the structure of the deal, which will leave vacant for now five acres previously used by the Pinellas County Secondary School, which closed and was demolished in 2009. Monday night, the vote was to approve the actual agreement with Habitat.
Vice Mayor Andy Steingold wanted language added to the agreement stating that Safety Harbor residents or employees would be guaranteed first dibs on the six homes, if they met Habitat qualifications. However, City Attorney Isabella Sobel, City Manager Matthew Spoor and Habitat president & CEO Mike Sutton all cautioned Commission that such language would likely run afoul of federal Fair Housing Act regulations. Sutton went on to say his organization plans to start its marketing efforts to find the six new homeowners in Safety Harbor and is confident based on prior demand that it should not be difficult to find six qualified Safety Harbor applicants. Ultimately, Commission agrred to add language to the agreement stating that Habitat should focus its marketing efforts on finding qualifying Safety Harbor residents or people who work in Safety Harbor.