The St. Petersburg City Council gave the green light Feb. 19 to buy a 0.86-mile spur of railroad tracks to create a recreational trail connecting the Historic Gas Plant District, home to Tropicana Field, to Fifth Avenue North.
The council voted unanimously to support buying the line from CSX Transportation Inc. for $7 million with help from the track’s neighbors, Ferg’s Sports Bar & Grill and Ellison Development. The city will pay $1.2 million toward the purchase and costs related to the sale.
The council’s vote marks a big step in a yearslong process fraught with litigation to create a recreational trail that would connect to the Pinellas Trail. The city imagined taking over the tracks as far back as 2003…