ST. CLOUD, Fla. — St. Cloud is growing at a very rapid rate, and with that comes the need for more space.
- St. Cloud needs more space for police, fire, building departments
- City Manager says St. Cloud one of fastest growing cities in Central Fla.
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City Manager Bill Sturgeon said St. Cloud is one of the fastest growing cities in Central Florida. In fact, the police, fire, and building department are all running out of space.
The city was contemplating buying an old Irish pub on 918 New York Avenue, close to city hall, for more than $1 million and transforming it into a new building department.
The idea generated negative comments by some on social media, but the city has since backed away from the idea. They are now looking into creating a study to try and figure out where and what needs to be expanded.
“We want a master plan for the city hall campus, and that will take about a year to do. And then we will know where we need to do buildings and upgrades,” Sturgeon said. “Because we don’t want to just start putting buildings on our property here without any planning.”
Kenneth Whittle, born and raised in St. Cloud, said he’s always looked forward to the rapid growth and hopes the city can keep up in a smart way.
“Unfortunately we’re running out of space because of our growth, and I feel we need to start looking at these other opportunities,” Whittle said.
The St. Cloud Community Redevelopment Agency recently made an offer to buy the old Irish pub for $350,000 to renovate and later lease out. Due to the growth, the CRA wants to attract more businesses to the downtown area. However, the CRA is waiting to hear back from the seller.