Live in Riviera Bay
Streets and canals on the west side of Riviera Bay where FEMA's effective map puts all of the ground in the 1% annual chance flood zone, and where the City's own assessments after Helene found water inside 1,092 of the 1,101 parcels it checked.
Riviera Bay takes its name from a developer's pitch: in 1923 Eugene M. Elliott bought Weedon Island across the water, called it the Riviera of Florida, and had a dragline deepen the bay and pile the fill into a road around it, in Pinellas County's history of the island; the boom broke in 1926 and the bank took his land. This guide is the area the Riviera Bay Civic Association serves on the City's map, 417 acres between 4th Street North and the bay's western canals, where the 2020 census counted 2,559 residents in 1,206 housing units, and the sources read for it do not say when most of the houses were built. All of it is in FEMA's 1% annual chance flood zone and all but 290 residents are in the County's evacuation zone A, and on 26 September 2024 Hurricane Helene's surge put water inside nearly every house the City later assessed. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 33702, $309,095 in August 2026, covers about 30,000 people, Meadowlawn and unincorporated Lealman among them, and is not a Riviera Bay price.
A bay named for a developer's pitch, and a neighborhood the bay came into
The area the Riviera Bay Civic Association (number 65) serves, as the City of St. Petersburg's Neighborhood Associations layer maps it (last edited 28 September 2026), clipped to the City's current limits: an association's filed area, not a line the City drew. Traced against the Census Bureau's road file, it is bounded by 4th Street North on the west, 78th Avenue North and Northeast on the south, a line just north of 98th Avenue North on the north, short of Gandy Boulevard, and on the east by Macoma Drive, Orient Way and Patica Road Northeast, short of the open water of Riviera Bay itself; the canals and the Sunlit Cove boat ramp are inside. A separate, smaller Riviera Bay Home Owners Association draws its own area beside this one, and none of its 273 residents is counted here. All of it is in Pinellas County, Pinellas County Schools, ZIP code 33702 and one City Council district.
The name is a sales line. In 1923 the developer Eugene M. Elliott bought Weedon Island across the water and called it the Riviera of Florida; a dragline deepened the bay to build a road around it. The Gandy Bridge opened to Tampa in 1924, the boom broke in 1926, and the island became a state preserve in 1974. This guide is the area the Riviera Bay Civic Association serves on the City's map of neighborhood associations, an area the association filed rather than a line the City drew: 417 acres between 4th Street North and the canals west of the open bay, from 78th Avenue North to just past 98th. The 2020 census counted 2,559 residents in 1,206 homes. The sources read here do not say when most of the houses were built.
The deciding fact is the water. FEMA's effective map of 2021 puts all of the area in its 1% annual chance flood zone, zone AE with a base flood elevation of 9 feet at the reference point, and 2,269 residents are in the County's evacuation zone A, the first called. On 26 September 2024 Hurricane Helene passed far offshore and still pushed St. Petersburg's gauge to about 6.3 feet, the highest there in a long time. The City later assessed 1,101 parcels here and recorded water inside 1,092, a foot or more in 1,017; among the neighborhoods on this site, only Shore Acres had more. In April 2025 the civic association's president told Spectrum News that all 1,250 homes flooded, some only in the garage. Milton brought 94 more assessments and one house destroyed. The City's layers count parcels, not homes, and carry no description.
That makes the 49% rule part of every purchase. Every building in FEMA's flood zone is under the City's substantial damage rule: when repairs or improvements add up to 49% of the structure's pre-damage market value, the whole house has to meet current flood rules, which can mean raising it or rebuilding. The cost is cumulative, counts the owner's own labor, and the City's pages state no look-back period, so what a seller spent after Helene bears on what you may spend next. A federally backed mortgage here requires flood insurance, which a homeowners policy does not include, and from 1 January 2027 every Citizens policy with wind cover must carry flood too.
No price index follows the line. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 33702 was $309,095 in August 2026, down 1.7%, but the ZIP held 29,996 people in 2020, Meadowlawn and unincorporated Lealman among them; for the whole city the figure was $355,759 in June 2026. Every address pays 19.9197 mills for 2025. Florida takes $25,000 off the value for every levy and a second slice, $25,000 before its yearly inflation adjustment, off all but the school board's, so a homestead at the ZIP figure owes about $5,318 a year and a landlord about $6,157. Save Our Homes caps a homestead's assessed value at 3% a year and ends with the sale, so the seller's bill understates yours. The City's stormwater fee, $12.67 to $59.08 a month from 1 October 2026, comes on the utility bill. The arithmetic is on the St. Petersburg page.
Day to day the neighborhood faces 4th Street North, where PSTA's Route 4 averages a bus every 8 minutes at midday, 0.7 km from the reference point. PSTA's schedule changes on 4 October 2026, and the new one has no weekday trips on Route 100 to downtown Tampa. Downtown St. Petersburg is about 9 km south.
- Ask the seller what water the house took in Helene, what was repaired since, under which permits, and at what cost
- Get the elevation certificate and a flood insurance quote before you offer
- Ask the City whether a substantial damage determination was made for the address
- Look up the parcel's evacuation zone with Pinellas County; nearly every resident here is in zone A
- File for the homestead exemption with the property appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy
How Riviera Bay got here
- 1923Dr. Leslie Weedon sells Weedon Island to the developer Eugene M. Elliott, who calls it the Riviera of Florida, which is how Riviera Bay got its name; a dragline deepens the bay and the fill builds up the road around it.
- 1924The Gandy Bridge opens on 20 November, cutting 33 miles off the drive from St. Petersburg to Tampa; Elliott had promoted the bonds that paid for it.
- 1926Elliott's San Remo Club opens on Weedon Island on 12 February; when the housing market breaks later that year the bank forecloses on his land, ending the plan.
- 1956The original Gandy drawbridge is replaced, in Pinellas County's history of the island.
- 1974In February the State of Florida buys Weedon Island across the bay for $6 million from its Endangered Lands Program; Weedon Island State Preserve opens to the public on 28 December 1980.
- 1990Bankers Insurance Group buys a 47-acre tract on the north side of Riviera Bay for an office building; after public opposition Pinellas County buys the tract with its Endangered Lands money instead.
- 2020The census counts 2,559 residents and 1,206 housing units on the association's 59 blocks.
- 2021FEMA's countywide flood map revision takes effect on 24 August; it puts the whole area in the 1% annual chance zone.
- 2024Hurricane Helene's surge on 26 September puts water inside 1,092 of the 1,101 parcels the City assesses here afterward. Milton makes landfall near Siesta Key on the evening of 9 October; the City assesses 94 parcels here after it, one recorded as destroyed and none with water inside.
- 2025In April the civic association's president tells Spectrum News that all 1,250 homes in the neighborhood flooded, some only in the garage, and that the City's plan to raise a low seawall along a canal was put on hold after Helene.
- 2026PSTA's schedule from 4 October carries no weekday trips on Route 100, the route between downtown St. Petersburg and downtown Tampa that stops on 4th Street North here.
A preserve across the bay that was meant to be the Riviera
The open space that matters is the land Elliott failed to sell. Weedon Island Preserve, about 3,000 acres of Pinellas County land across Riviera Bay, has more than 4.7 miles of boardwalks and trails, a fishing pier, a paddling trail and the Cultural and Natural History Center. Inside the line the City keeps George Hedke Park, Rio Vista Park, a neighborhood playground and the Sunlit Cove boat ramp, a few steps from the reference point.
What the map does not show: the canals that give the boat ramp its water are the same ones that carried Helene's surge into the streets, and the civic association has asked for them to be dredged.
Elsewhere in St. Petersburg, not Riviera Bay
19 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 19 places, nearest first.
Method: straight lines from OpenStreetMap's Riviera Bay node, near 88th Avenue Northeast, times a road factor, with a tiered speed model for the drive: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
The nearest public facilities are the City's at Fossil Park, southwest across 4th Street: the Willis S. Johns Recreation Center and a summer pool. For laps in winter the year-round pool is the North Shore Aquatic Complex near downtown.
- Willis S. Johns Recreation Center: about 3 km, at Fossil Park
- Fossil Park Pool: about 3 km, open for the summer
- North Shore Aquatic Complex: about 10.5 km, a 50-meter pool, year-round
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Willis S. Johns Recreation Center open | The City's nearest recreation center, at Fossil Park, 6635 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street North. Its programs and hours were not read for this guide. | 5–8 min |
| Fossil Park Pool open | The nearest City pool, beside the recreation center at Fossil Park: one of the City's six seasonal pools, open for the summer. | 5–8 min |
| Shore Acres Pool open | A seasonal City pool at 4230 Shore Acres Boulevard Northeast, as the City's seasonal post gives it, near the Shore Acres Recreation Center. | 10–15 min |
| North Shore Aquatic Complex open | The nearest year-round City pool, at 901 North Shore Drive Northeast: a 50-meter main pool, a 25-meter warm-up pool and a play pool; $5 an adult and $4.50 a child. | 12–18 min |
| Weedon Island Preserve open | The free option: more than 4.7 miles of the County's boardwalks and trails across the bay, and a paddling trail. | 6–10 min |
The free option is Weedon Island Preserve's boardwalks and trails, a short drive across the bay.
Zoned schools by address, and a neighborhood split at the elementary level
Every address is in Pinellas County Schools, which zones each one to an elementary, a middle and a high school. The point is zoned for Sawgrass Lake Elementary, graded A for 2026 and 2025; Meadowlawn Middle, C for all three years read; and Northeast High, A for 2026. No change is proposed for the point's address for 2027-28. Magnet applications open 5 January 2027.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Sawgrass Lake Elementary School | Pinellas County Schools | 1815 77th Avenue North. The point is zoned for it in 2026-27 (the locator was read at 138 88th Avenue Northeast, 18 m from the point), and no change is proposed for 2027-28. The guide is split: on the district's elementary zoning map 1,873 residents are in Sawgrass Lake's zone and 686 in Shore Acres Elementary's. Sawgrass Lake was graded A for 2026 and 2025 and B for 2024; Shore Acres, A in all three years. |
| Meadowlawn Middle School | Pinellas County Schools | 6050 16th Street North, the zoned middle school at the point's address in 2026-27, with no change proposed for 2027-28. Graded C for 2026, 2025 and 2024. |
| Northeast High School | Pinellas County Schools | 5500 16th Street North, the zoned high school at the point's address in 2026-27, with no change proposed. Graded A for 2026 and B for 2025 and 2024. Magnet and fundamental programs take applications from 5 to 15 January 2027 for 2027-28, and the locator lists 77 programs open to the point's address; applying does not change the zoned school. |
Run your own address. On the district's map 686 residents are zoned to Shore Acres Elementary, graded A in all three years, rather than Sawgrass Lake; the School Zone Locator gives the answer for each house.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Highs near 20.6 °C and lows near 12.9 °C on the 1991 to 2020 normal at Albert Whitted Airport on the downtown waterfront, about 10 km south; NOAA flags the station's normals as representative, with missing months filled from nearby stations
- About 64 mm of rain in the dry season
- If you bought last year, the homestead exemption is due with the Pinellas County Property Appraiser by 1 March
- Highs near 22.2 °C and about 51 mm of rain
- A move from another Florida homestead: the portability form goes in with the homestead application, also by 1 March
- The dry season: on the normal, about three days in the month bring 2.5 mm of rain or more
- 1 March is the deadline for the homestead exemption and portability
- The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg runs on downtown streets and Albert Whitted's runway from 5 to 7 March 2027
- Highs near 24.4 °C and about 66 mm of rain
- Highs near 27.2 °C and about 49 mm of rain, one of the two driest months
- The Saturday Morning Market is still at Al Lang Stadium downtown every Saturday morning
- Highs near 30.2 °C, with about five days reaching 32 °C
- The Saturday Morning Market's season at Al Lang Stadium ends in May
- A good month to ask a seller for the elevation certificate and the 2024 repair permits, before the season opens
- The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November
- About 172 mm of rain, most of it in afternoon thunderstorms
- Fossil Park Pool and Shore Acres Pool open for the summer
- Highs near 32.0 °C and lows near 25.6 °C, with about 17 days reaching 32 °C
- About 190 mm of rain
- The property appraiser mails the TRIM notice of proposed taxes, usually in mid-August, and a petition to the Value Adjustment Board is due within 25 days of the mailing
- The wettest month on the normal, about 213 mm, with highs near 32.1 °C
- The Atlantic season peaks around 10 September
- On 26 September 2024 Helene's surge put water inside 1,092 of the 1,101 parcels the City later assessed here
- About 169 mm of rain
- Milton made landfall near Siesta Key on the evening of 9 October 2024; the City assessed 94 parcels here after it
- PSTA's new schedule starts on 4 October 2026, with no weekday Route 100 trips to Tampa
- The Saturday Morning Market returns to Al Lang Stadium on 3 October 2026
- Highs near 28.5 °C and about 55 mm of rain as the dry season starts
- Highs near 24.9 °C and lows near 18.1 °C
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November
- The driest month on the normal, about 37 mm
- Highs near 21.9 °C and about 61 mm of rain
- If you closed this year, the bill in hand is the seller's: Save Our Homes reassesses the house at market value on the following 1 January
1 more photograph of St. Petersburg and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed St. Petersburg photo library, not photographs of Riviera Bay itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–1 of 1 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images from the site's shared St. Petersburg library, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. None of them is presented as a photograph of Riviera Bay.