Council votes to vacate Sunset Park right-of-way despite sustained neighborhood opposition

Tampa City Council voted to vacate a portion of a platted right-of-way in the Sunset Park neighborhood after a lengthy, emotionally charged public hearing in which neighbors urged the council to preserve the land as public access and applicants asserted title.

Neighbors repeatedly told council the narrow parcel functions as a neighborhood green and historic waterfront access and that the city previously rejected similar requests. “Please do not hand it over to them on a whim,” resident Michael Rich said in rebuttal to ownership claims.

Applicants and their counsel presented three national title insurance commitments, a survey and a letter from a Florida-licensed surveyor asserting the right-of-way does not extend to the water and that title supports returning the right-of-way to adjacent owners. Counsel said the city was preserving a stormwater easement as part of the vacation.

Legal staff and the city attorney clarified the councildecision concerned the vacating of the street/right-of-way reservation — not a final determination of fee ownership of submerged or accreted upland — and explained that the council retains a recorded stormwater easement as a condition of the vacation.

After rebuttal and questions about gates, ports, and whether the land had been used as a neighborhood park, the council voted to approve the vacation ordinance. Council guidance emphasized the action removes the potential for a public street extension while preserving stormwater access and recording covenants.

Next steps: The resolution memorializes the vacation; parties retaining legal concerns may have an appeal period noted by the city attorney, and the city recorded the resolution with retroactive provisions as advised by the council attorney.