TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa City Council voted Thursday to direct city staff to explore purchasing the property adjacent to MartiColon Cemetery in West Tampa, after the city attorney told council members the city has little legal authority to stop development on the site.
The council voted to have staff return with a written report by July 16 on the cost and steps required to purchase the property, as well as the possibility of a land swap with the current owner.
WATCH: Tampa City Council votes to explore buying Marti Colon Cemetery property as community demands answers
The discussion was added to the agenda after council members said they had been flooded with emails and calls from residents concerned about the cemetery's future.
"If you look at the June 4 motion, the councilman specifically says, because of all of the emails and calls we have received, this is why I'm doing that," said Aileen Henderson, founder of the Cemetery Society, who has spent years advocating for the preservation of Marti Colon Cemetery.
A Cemetery at Risk
Marti Colon Cemetery sits in West Tampa and has been at the center of a years-long fight between community advocates and various developers. The land owner currently wants to build houses on a portion of the property that is unmarked, but where advocates say more than 1,000 people are buried.
Researcher Ray Reed has documented 1,050 burials at Marti Colon Cemetery. Only 7 grave removals have been identified, leaving the fate of the remaining burials unknown.
Henderson has been at the forefront of the effort to preserve the site for years. She said the core of the problem is that the city has treated the property inconsistently.
"It was treated as a cemetery in 2021, but in 2025 it was treated as land that could be developed," Henderson said.
A development application for the property was denied by the city in 2021 due to concerns about cemetery burials. That same property, with the same history and the same documented concerns, received a building permit earlier in 2026. Community members and council members alike have demanded to know what changed.
Missy Martin, whose family is buried at Marti Colon Cemetery, said her connection to the fight is deeply personal.
"My family's buried at Marti Colon, so my involvement has been there from the time I was a small child visiting, but in 2018 the major insult of seeing the cemetery for sale on Craigslist was when I decided enough is enough,"Martin said.
Martin said the 2018 purchase of the property was made with the intent to develop it, and the city denied that request. She said she no longer has faith that the current situation will be resolved in the community's favor.
"We're making the same mistakes, and 20 years from now we're going to be raising a statue at Marti Colon saying we're sorry," Martin said.
What the City Attorney Said
On Thursday, multiple residents stood before the council on behalf of those they say are buried in unmarked graves on the property. Council members then brought City Attorney Scott Steady before them to explain the city's legal position.
Steady said the city's land development code does not address how to handle potential human remains on private property, and that once a permit is issued, the city's options are severely limited.
"Our code really doesn't address how we would deal with potential remains of bodies on property," Steady said.
Steady said state law does require construction to immediately stop if human remains are discovered during any site work, and that the city included that requirement as a condition of the permit.
"The applicant is required to notify the City of Tampa building official and is subject to compliance with Section 870.205, which requires immediate cessation of any and all activity on the property," Steady said.
Beyond that requirement, Steady said the city has no authority to compel the property owner to conduct ground-penetrating radar surveys or take any other investigative steps before construction begins.
"There's just nothing there to ask them or demand them to do anything other than to follow the law that's on the books," Steady said.
Steady also acknowledged that the property owner is seeking more than $1 million for the site and that eminent domain is not a viable path forward. He said state law also restricts what local governments can do prospectively, citing Senate Bill 180 as a current limitation.
Steady noted that a strip of land between the development site and the existing cemetery, where there is clear evidence of buried remains, is being purchased by the city's Parks Department.
"What's identified with remains, there's a strip of land that's being purchased by the city," Steady said.
Council Members Push Back
Council members made clear they were not satisfied with the legal briefing as the final word on the matter.
Councilman Luis Viera, who made the original June 4 motion directing staff to brief the council, said he wanted the community to hear directly from the city attorney about what options exist. He suggested the council could send a letter to the property owner's attorney requesting voluntary ground-penetrating radar work and regular construction updates, and proposed a potential joint letter with the Hillsborough County Commission.
Councilman Bill Carlson said he made a motion years ago directing city staff to explore setting up a fund for ground-penetrating radar work and potential property purchases, but said the mayor's office did not follow through.
"I'm disappointed that the mayor decided to reject it, because I think finding whether there are people buried in certain places is an important thing," Carlson said.
Carlson called on the mayor's administration to engage with the property owner directly and take the issue seriously.
"I think the basic fair thing to do would be to buy the property from the person at market value, and I think we ought to engage in that right away," Carlson said.
Carlson also suggested a land swap as a creative alternative if the owner is unwilling to sell outright, and said the city should not limit itself to conventional negotiating approaches.
Councilwoman Naya Young said it was disheartening to feel so constrained.
"It just feels kind of upsetting that we just literally can't do anything," Young said.
Hurtak's motion to direct staff to explore a purchase or land swap passed with council support. Staff are expected to return with a written report on July 16.
"What I Saw Today Was Not Neutral Legal Guidance"
Following the discussion, Henderson issued a statement to Tampa Bay 28 reporter Jada Williams, drawing a sharp distinction between her appreciation for the council's action and her deep concerns about the legal presentation the council received.
"I want to be very clear: my issue is not with City Council. I am grateful that Council made a motion and that this matter is coming back to the table. My issue is with the legal presentation Council and the public were given by Scott Steady," Henderson said.
Henderson said Steady openly acknowledged during the meeting that he is a personal friend of the attorney representing the property owner, and said that the relationship should have prompted him to step aside.
"In my opinion, that alone should have caused him to recuse himself from advising Council on this matter, because the appearance of bias is obvious. This issue has felt biased from day one, and today's presentation only reinforced that concern," Henderson said.
Henderson said Steady had access to a significant body of documentation before Thursday's meeting, including the 2021 denial, correspondence from the Florida Division of Historical Resources, tax records, and cemetery history, and that his presentation did not reflect the full weight of that record.
"So for him to suggest that this was just the public not believing the GPR, or to present himself as unfamiliar with the prior denial, was not just incomplete. In my opinion, it was misleading and false," Henderson said.
Henderson pushed back specifically on any characterization of the community's concerns as purely emotional or speculative.
"The Division of Historical Resources is not 'the public.' Those are professionals. The community did not invent these concerns. We brought forward records, expert correspondence, and the City's prior 2021 decision. Mr. Steady had those materials," Henderson said.
Henderson said what she witnessed Thursday did not reflect the neutral legal guidance the council and the public deserve.
"What I saw today was not neutral legal guidance. It appeared to me that the public record was being minimized in a way that benefited the property owner, not the taxpayers who rely on the City Attorney's Office for full and accurate information," Henderson said.
Henderson closed by reiterating her support for the council's motion while making clear she believes the process has been compromised.
"Council cannot make informed decisions if the legal guidance they receive leaves out or downplays critical facts already provided to the attorney advising them," Henderson said.
A Pattern the Community Knows Too Well
For many in the community, the fight over Marti Colon Cemetery is not an isolated incident. It is the latest chapter in a long history of Tampa building over or neglecting its historic burial sites.
Speakers at Thursday's meeting repeatedly invoked Zion Cemetery, a Black burial ground that was built over by previous Tampa administrations and has since become a symbol of the city's failure to protect its most vulnerable communities' history. The city has since spent money on memorials, plaques, and other efforts to acknowledge what happened at Zion.
Adrianne Rodriguez, who spoke during public comment, said the parallel is impossible to ignore.
"The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do it for them," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez added that with more than 1,000 burials documented and only 7 removals on record, the question of where the rest of the people are buried remains unanswered.
"If more than 1,000 burials have been documented, and only seven removals can be accounted for, then where are the people?" Rodriguez said.
Henderson said the community's presence at Thursday's meeting is just a sample of a much larger network of people who have been pushing behind the scenes for years, many of whom cannot take time off work to appear in person.
"While you may just see me here physically, I'm not just representing the community — there's also the people you can't see that are no longer with us," Henderson said.
City staff is expected to return on July 16 with a written report on the cost and feasibility of purchasing the property or pursuing a land swap.
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