‘That was our comfort zone’

SAFETY HARBOR — To some longtime residents, the low-slung, faded turquoise-and-white building at Elm and Spruce streets is more than an old restaurant waiting to be torn down.

It is a reminder of a time when blacks had few places in Safety Harbor where they could comfortably gather, eat and socialize.

“At the time, that was the only outing we had,” Barbara Bronson, a lifelong resident who lives on Elm Street, told the city's Planning and Zoning Board last month. “It provided meals. It had a little entertainment there. Because during that time, we could not come downtown.”

Now the property is headed for a new chapter.

The City Commission gave unanimous initial approval Sept. 9 to land-use and zoning changes that would clear the way for three single-family homes on the site. No one spoke during the commission's public hearing.

The land-use change still must go through the Pinellas County countywide planning review process before returning to Safety Harbor for a second and final vote.

A neighborhood gathering place

The 0.46-acre property at 603 Elm St. is owned by Bujar Shala and consists of three platted lots. Shala wants to split the parcel along the existing lot lines and build one house on each.

The commercial building has been vacant since the last business there closed in 2022.

City planner Cecilia Chen told the Planning and Zoning Board on Aug. 12 that the property had operated as a family restaurant for several decades.

After its longtime owner died, other businesses moved in, including food-related establishments and beauty salons.

The property has long been a kind of zoning oddity — the only parcel in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood with a commercial designation, surrounded by homes and churches. City-owned property to the west is planned for recreational open space.

In the 1960s, Elm Street was the retail hub of Safety Harbor's black community and the center of Lincoln Heights, one of the first neighborhoods in Pinellas County where black residents could own homes.

Businesses once lined the street. Today, the 1,260-square-foot concrete-block building, built in 1967, is the only remaining evidence of the area's commercial roots.

The city's staff report says no historic structures are located on the property.

But that finding doesn't capture what the site meant to some who frequented it when racial divisions still shaped where black residents felt they could go, even after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Willie Fort, a longtime resident who said he had known the restaurant since childhood, identified it as C&C.

“That was our comfort zone when we was kids,” Fort said. “We couldn't come up here. We had to stay down there. And that place there was for us.

“I know y'all got a hard job to do, too," he told Planning and Zoning Board members. "But that's all we had, that place there. C&C.”

Bronson recalled a similar history.

“During that time, we could not come downtown,” she said. “So that's all we had.”

Despite those memories, Bronson said she supports redeveloping the property.

“Now the times have changed and I'm all for improvement,” she said. “I'm okay for it being changed to residential.”

Phequitta McNeal also supported the change, but said demolishing the building would mean losing a tangible reminder of the city's black history.

“To tear that building down, sure, people are going to be upset about it. Because that's what they knew,” she said. “But also, we have to change. We have to do different things. So I am for residential as well. I think it would make the neighborhood look better. You know, the flip side of it is history is gone.”

‘Losing history’

Board members wrestled with the same issue.

“I mean, it’s a tough call, losing history,” Vice Chairman Colin Young said.

He noted that changing the property to residential would be "essentially a one-way conversion, that it becomes residential and it could never go back to commercial there. I like having that mixed use."

Despite his personal feelings about the site's history, Young said the board's job was to determine whether the proposed changes were consistent with city code, and he saw nothing that made them inconsistent.

“It’s like a heartstring story,” board member Kristina Novisk said. “I'd love to see something replace this that has the same character and feel and can provide that space again for the community. I just don't think that the support for it is still there.”

Board member Heather Norton suggested finding a way to commemorate the site's history, perhaps with a marker.

Board Chairman Chris Logan had his own memories of the restaurant. He recalled eating lunch there years ago while learning about serving on the board.

“It’s an interesting restaurant,” he said. “It’s got a little special story of my life.”

Board member Sylvia Marakas said she recognized the property after seeing material submitted by residents and remembered visiting when it operated as the Lincoln Heights Bistro.

“It really is a residential area,” she said. “But it is sad because it does have that history.”

City staff noted that Safety Harbor doesn't have a historic preservation board and that historical markers downtown are placed by a local organization, not the city.

“We have one historical property in the whole city,” said Chen, referring to the Tucker Mansion, a private home built in 1923.

In the end, the board voted unanimously to recommend the land-use and zoning changes needed for the three-home redevelopment.

“The building, when it's torn down, you know, it's going to be some people crying,” McNeal said. “Because that's what they knew growing up.

“That was the spot.”