During Hurricane Milton in October, a construction crane toppled onto a downtown St. Petersburg office building.
While no one was injured, city council member Gina Driscoll said residents were scared.
“I had to look them in the eye and say, ‘Right now, there is nothing we can do to protect you,’ ” Driscoll said at a council meeting last week.
Now, they’re calling for the state to create safety guidelines and require more notice for residents in harm's way.
Neither the state nor local government has authority over contractor cranes, even during hurricane preparations.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis might not be on board. When he visited St. Petersburg in the wake of Milton, he said it should be "common sense."
"I think the question is, should there be more regulation or should there just be more common sense,” he said. “I mean, do we have to regulate everything? I think most people take the cranes down, right?"
In the case of the St. Petersburg crane, contractors said they would have needed a week’s notice to disassemble the structure, something they didn’t have ahead of Milton.
Four cranes, including the one at a construction site for the nearly 50-story 400 Central condo, were left standing before the storm.
That crane collapsed, striking an office building on First Avenue South that was home to a number of businesses, including the Tampa Bay Times, a law firm and a defense contractor.
A pair of St. Petersburg Democratic lawmakers, Sen. Darryl Rouson and Rep. Lindsay Cross, have drafted a pair of bills (SB 346 and HB 6009), which call for the Legislature to repeal a law that prevents local governments from regulating construction cranes, among other “hoisting equipment.”
But the council wants more — it will vote Thursday about whether it will draft a formal letter requesting a bill that creates statewide crane regulations.
In the meantime, Driscoll is calling for residents to be better notified of the dangers of living near a construction zone – particularly when a tropical cyclone is approaching.
"At the end of the day, there's only so much that we can control,” Driscoll said. “So, my conversations have been more about what can we do."
Council member Don Tyre wants contractors to tell the city what cranes they will be using before construction even starts. This will allow the city to notify nearby residents of what wind speeds the crane can withstand ahead of a hurricane or tropical storm.
