Clearwater discusses closing part of downtown street to sell to Church of Scientology

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FOX 13's Kailey Tracy dives into the Clearwater City Council debating whether to sell a stretch of a downtown street to the Church of Scientology.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The ownership of a stretch of street in downtown Clearwater may soon change.

"They don't have any obligation to buy the street, and we don't have any obligation to sell it to them, but if they want to buy the street, the land, then I would hope that they would make some accommodations to us, some agreements on how the building is going to look," Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector said. "Because whatever they build there is going to affect the growth of downtown and other parts of the downtown area."

PREVIOUS: More Clearwater properties sold to Scientology-affiliated owners

Dig deeper:

The Clearwater City Council voted Monday night to approve the first reading on whether to close South Garden Avenue between Court Street and Franklin Street if city leaders agree to sell the strip of land to the Church of Scientology.

It means that it will come back around to the council for a second reading on April 3. Council members said they wanted to hear and see more information from the church and also want more public input.

Rector said he thinks Monday’s vote was premature.

Map of the street the Church of Scientology is aiming to buy from the City of Clearwater.

"I'm not comfortable with that. I think we should wait until we have an agreement to, with them, to purchase," Rector said.

The Church of Scientology.

Rector said the Church of Scientology indicated about a year ago they wanted the city to close the street to build an auditorium next to the land that the city owns.

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Right now, the street generates more than $30,000 a year in public parking fees for the city.

"They don't need to close the street for the auditorium, but if they want us to do that, then there's got to be something in it for the city," Rector said. "We just need to make sure that it's fair to the citizens and the taxpayers, whatever that something is."

"As we all know, they've purchased a lot of property downtown. So, for me, the appearance of the building that they want to build there is very important. It sits on Court Street, the gateway to our beaches," Rector said. "I think that that's some of the concern you're hearing from the community, too. Is this just a small piece of land really in between their two properties, but how does this transaction, if we go forward with it, how does it affect the overall plan for growth for downtown Clearwater?"

Rector said he hadn’t seen a proposed agreement with an exact dollar amount for the property's price.

What's next:

He said he wants to negotiate more before there’s a final vote, and wants to work with the Church of Scientology to make sure the entirety of the city's downtown succeeds.

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"We're going to make sure that whatever agreement we reach, if we even reach an agreement, is fair to the citizens of Clearwater," Rector said. "We're going to work toward making all of downtown prosper, and make sure that we're helping property owners that are not part of Scientology. Helping them, you know, be successful on their properties and in their space, regardless of whatever their neighbor is doing."

An area of the street that the Church of Scientology is aiming to buy.

"They've been here a long time, and I think most folks in Clearwater recognize they're going to be here, and they're not going anywhere." They'll have their place; I just want to make sure that their place just fits within the entire fabric of the entire successful, prospering downtown Clearwater," Rector said

The other side:

Fox 13 reached out to the Church of Scientology and hasn’t yet heard back.

The Source: FOX 13's Kailey Tracy collected the information in this story.

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