TAMPA - The city is expected to take its case over a controversial Bayshore Boulevard condominium tower to Florida Supreme Court.

City Attorney David Smith said the city plans to file a notice to invoke Supreme Court discretionary jurisdiction before Monday's deadline.

The court has no obligation to grant jurisdiction. If it doesn't, the case is over, Smith said.

He said the city is going to the higher court because of conflicting opinions from the 2nd and 3rd District Courts of Appeal.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled in August that it would not rehear the city's arguments as to why it denied Citivest Construction to build a condo tower at Bayshore and DeSoto Avenue.

The appeal court sided with Hillsborough Circuit Judge William Levens, who also said the council and city Architectural Review Commission were wrong in denying to issue a Certificate of Appropriateness for the tower.

Citivest has said it plans to build its 346-foot-tall tower on the 1 1/2 -acre lot on the southern end of the Hyde Park Historic District.

Michael H. Samuels