Live in Disston Heights

Disston Heights is named for Hamilton Disston, who contracted in 1881 to buy four million acres of Florida and whose Disston City became Gulfport. The name now covers far more than the neighborhood most people mean: this guide follows the area the Disston Heights Civic Association serves as the City maps it, a line the association filed rather than one the City drew, 2,688 acres from 34th to 66th Street North. The 2020 census counted 21,888 residents in 10,084 homes inside it, more than any other St. Petersburg guide on this site, split between Council Districts 8 and 1. Wikipedia's undated 18,776 is not used. Kenneth City, a separate town, and unincorporated Lealman touch the line; their residents are not counted.

Inside are Gladden Park and its recreation center, nine City park parcels, most of them small lakes, four public elementary schools, Publix's Disston Plaza store and, at 5169 10th Avenue North, the house the City designates a landmark as the Jack Kerouac House; Kerouac died in St. Petersburg in 1969. No local historic district or redevelopment area touches the line, so outside that house no exterior project needs a certificate of appropriateness.

The deciding fact is water, and here it came from the sky. Helene's record surge on 26 September 2024 stopped short of this inland ground: the City assessed three parcels afterward and recorded water in none. Milton, on 9 and 10 October, dropped 18.31 inches of rain on the city in 24 hours, and the City's assessments recorded water inside 187 parcels here, of 370 assessed, 122 with major damage and 3 destroyed. Those are assessment points, one per parcel and nearly all single-family houses, not a count of homes. Most of the water was in the west: 133 of the 187 lie west of 58th Street, between 30th and 40th Avenues North.

FEMA's map does not tell that story. It puts 7.7% of the area in its 1% annual chance zone, 1,560 residents, and the reference point in zone X on a 2003 panel. The County puts the point and 16,860 residents outside every evacuation zone. A homeowners policy covers neither surge nor rain; flood is a separate policy, and from 1 January 2027 Citizens requires it on most homeowners policies with wind cover, whatever the zone. Inside FEMA's zone the City's 49% rule applies: repairs whose cumulative cost reaches 49% of the structure's value bring the whole building under current flood rules, with no look-back period stated.

No price index follows the line. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 33710, home to 10,702 of the residents, was $379,341 in August 2026, up 0.5%, but the ZIP also holds Jungle Terrace and Jungle Prada; 33713 was $361,180. The city's figure was $355,759 in June 2026. Every parcel pays the same 2025 stack, 19.9197 mills. A homestead at the 33710 figure owes about $6,718 a year, with $25,000 off every levy and a second, inflation-adjusted slice off all but the school levy; a landlord, about $7,556. Save Our Homes caps a homestead's assessed value at 3% a year and resets after a sale, so the seller's bill understates yours; portability can carry part of an earlier Florida homestead's benefit. The stormwater charge, $12.67 to $59.08 a month, comes on the utility bill. The arithmetic is on the St. Petersburg page.