Tarpon Springs, FL Mosque Rezoning Challenged Citing Failed Public Notice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Petition for writ of certiorari asks the circuit court to set aside the 2577 Keystone Road approvals, so the County must re-notice the case, allow public participation, and reconsider the request only after the required steps are followed

Editor's note: Tidings Media and its editors are not an affected party in this matter and did not participate in drafting or filing the petition or any other challenge to the approvals.  Tidings Media cites community activist group Pinellas Watchdogs with a significant role in facilitating this appeal.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — November 11, 2026 — An affected resident has filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Pinellas County, asking the court to review and set aside the County's approval of a zoning and land use change for the parcel at 2577 Keystone Road, which converts the property from residential to commercial use. The petition was filed within the deadline for seeking review. It contends that the approvals rest on a hearing process the public was never properly told about, and that the decisions cannot stand until the County corrects those failures. Several other affected residents have also taken their objections directly to the County Commission and County Administration, but the petition now puts the question before a judge.

At the Board of County Commissioners meeting on October 13, 2026, Commissioners Brian Scott, Kathleen Peters and Dave Eggers voted with Commissioner Rene Flowers to approve the countywide plan amendment on a 4-3 vote, clearing the way for the change from residential to commercial zoning.

Notice Deficiencies Cited in the Petition

Florida law and the County's own procedures require that neighbors receive fair warning before a parcel near their homes is rezoned, through a sign posted on the property, mailed letters to nearby owners and published advertisement of the hearing. The petition identifies failures in each of those areas.

On posting, residents canvassed the area and found no hearing sign on Keystone Road. The County's own response to a public records request later confirmed that no sign was ever posted on Keystone Road for any hearing in the case for the October 13, 2026 meeting. The only sign the County has produced evidence of stood on a side street roughly 150 feet from Keystone Road earlier in the year, even though every notice identified the property by its Keystone Road address. A sign placed where drivers and neighbors on Keystone Road would never see it does not tell the affected public that their neighborhood is about to change.  The ordinance requires signage on the frontages, not a singular side street frontage.  This word was changed during a presentation to the county commissioners after their vote, but the ordinance itself reads frontages.

On mailed notice and advertising, residents state that the October 13 meeting at which CW 26-12 was approved was not advertised, had no signs posted, and was preceded by no letters to affected property owners. Residents living near the parcel received nothing that would have allowed them to attend, speak or submit comments before the vote.  The resident who filed the writ of certiorari has property that touches the parcel in question, and has direct standing.

What the Petition Asks

Certiorari review asks the court to decide whether the County gave the public due process and followed the essential requirements of law, not whether the zoning request is a good idea. If the court quashes the approvals, the Board of County Commissioners would be left to take the legal steps it skipped: issue proper notice through posting on Keystone Road, mailed letters and published advertisement; give the community a genuine opportunity to review and comment on the proposal; and then hold a new hearing on the request after, and only after, those steps are complete. Residents have also asked that no permits or development approvals issue on the parcel while the matter is pending, and the County Attorney's office has been formally placed on notice of the defects. Voters have since elected a new commissioner to one of the seats on the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners, so the board that would hear the matter again will not be the same one that approved it 4-3 on October 13.

Residents who live near 2577 Keystone Road and believe they were denied notice of the hearings are encouraged to come forward, contact the county commission, and attend upcoming meetings.

For updates, subscribe to our free newsletter!

###

This press release was originally published at Tidings.Town.News. All rights reserved. Reprints of all or part of this release are pre-approved only with attribution to Tidings Media, https://tidings.town.news