The gallery at a Nov. 1 hearing on a future development on Bradenton Beach’s Bridge Street overflowed city chambers into the parking lot.
The city planning and zoning board convened the hearing on a rezone of 1.61 acres on Bridge Street for a 106-room resort proposed by Shawn Kaleta, City Commissioner Jake Spooner and partners. Kaleta is a developer with multiple holdings and Spooner is a city commissioner and business owner.
The proposed project promises to transform the city’s commercial district and attendance at the first public hearing on the resort demonstrated civic interest and exposed opposition.
The commission chambers exceeded capacity, leading West Manatee Fire Rescue Fire Marshal Rodney Kwiatkowski to enforce a 51-person maximum occupancy. People were moved outdoors to the city hall parking lot, where they listened for several hours to the meeting on a speaker and waited their turn to address the P&Z.
The project involves properties with Bridge Street, Third Street South and Gulf Drive addresses leased or owned by Kaleta and Najmy Thompson PL, as well as properties on Third Street South and Bridge Street registered to Spooner, Bridge Street Bazaar and the Fish Hole Miniature Golf. Spooner also owns the building that houses the Daiquiri Deck.
The plans show two floors of hotel rooms, a ground floor entrance and retail spaces, including a lobby and lounge, offices, a coffee bar, putt-putt golf and gym. The rooftop would accommodate a rooftop swimming pool and outdoor deck.
Fourteen people made comments during the nearly five-hour meeting and 15 letters to the city were read into the record, a majority from people opposing the development.
Before the P&Z is the developers’ request that the project be considered as a planned unit development, meaning the existing city zoning and codes would not apply.
The city commission will ultimately vote on the PUD but the P&Z is reviewing and making a recommendation to the commission.
City planner Louis Serna said staff recommended approval of the developers’ request with stipulations dealing with traffic, parking and public safety to be met before the application can move forward.
Robert Lincoln, attorney for the P&Z, said any points of contention need to be considered as if the PUD was already in place.
“There’s an implicit condition on the major development plan across the board that the PUD be approved,” Lincoln said. “It is appropriate to identify all the places where relief is being requested from standards that would apply if the development was not a PUD.”
P&Z member John Burns asked how many parking spaces would be required for a 106-room hotel.
Serna said 133 spaces were required but the development plans call for 99.
Burns said some parking spaces along Third Street North included in the resort design are owned by the city. So to meet its parking requirement, the development would need the city to turn over ownership of public parking for private development.
P&Z member Fred Bartizal also said some Bridge Street parking that’s used now by the public is depicted in the design as hotel parking.
During the hearing, attorney David Blum spoke on behalf of two critics — Hunter Jensen, a college student who launched a Change.org petition against the resort, and Christine Johnson, who worked with Jensen to found the Save Bridge Street Community page on Facebook.
As of Nov. 2, the online Change.org petition had 4,853 signatures.
Blum said, “The applicant in this situation is seeking rezoning of a PUD district but the staff has not advertised or analyzed rezoning, which is a quasi-judicial matter. The staff report indicates the applicant is adding the PUD overlay administratively. It does not appear that the PUD overall can be a purely administrative task and, as such, the report appears not to meet with the statute.”
Blum also noted a public records request that was not answered by the city.
He said it relates to his procedural question stemming from a comment on the Island Ratz Unite Facebook page in favor of the development that was liked by city attorney Ricinda Perry from her personal Facebook account.
“The comments made by the city attorney (are) improper for a quasi-judicial hearing because we shouldn’t have these conversations outside of the hearing,” Blum said.
Certified planner Misty Servia, a former county commissioner, represented island business owner Bob Bolas at the hearing.
Bolas, who owns multiple real estate investments in Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach, is involved in a lawsuit with Kaleta. According to Manatee County Clerk of Court records, Kaleta filed suit against Bolus over a contract to purchase the defunct Bank of America property in Holmes Beach.
Servia said Bradenton Beach’s comprehensive plan states that hotel/motel transient lodging units are limited to 18 units per gross acre.
“The comp plan cannot be modified with a PUD zoning and the comp plan limits the density to 18 hotel units per acre and a maximum building height of 29 feet above the flood elevation,” she said.
She said the proposal — which calls for 66 units per acre — is “clearly inconsistent.”
Servia also said reducing parking would impact businesses on Bridge Street, as 38 spaces for the resort are partially located in city rights of way.
The developers’ team included attorney Steven Thompson of Najmy Thompson PL, traffic consultant Nathan Poole, architect Shaun Luttrell of Luttrell Architecture and planner Susan Swift.
“This may be the most important decision the city may make concerning Bridge Street,” Thompson said. “I think the city has been planning for this type of development for many years.”
He added, “We agree with the staff report. We would recommend approval with the stipulations that have been recommended,”
Due to the length of the hearing and public interest, the P&Z continued the meeting to 10 a.m., Monday, Nov. 13, at city hall, 107 Gulf Drive N.
For the record
Bradenton Beach’s planning and zoning board conducted a hearing Nov. 1 on a proposed Bridge Street resort.
The following are comments from the record:
“Gulf of Mexico Drive and the Bridge Street turnaround area to the Cortez Bridge is a very important evacuation route for those of us in north Longboat. If we can never get to the Cortez Bridge, especially during evacuation, I think that the consideration of this particular project would have a lot to do with that.” — Laurel Phillips of Longboat Key
“I’m in total favor of you pushing forward to let this project continue. I am basing this on the fantastic job the city has done in cooperation with the CRA. Look at what Bridge Street is today compared to what it was before.” — Jim Hassett of Bradenton Beach
“The current design reflects significant density and height increases, parking decreases, Third Street incompatibility, reduced or no building setbacks, open space reductions and increased traffic concerns.” — Steve Steinbicker, architect at Architect at Architecture West LLC
“The staff report indicated the applicant will provide blackout drapes in the hotel rooms. This is not a satisfactory way to ensure the lighting is controlled from the hotel. These standards should be stipulated to provide proper protection per the state guidelines for our sea turtles.” — Brad Ritschel of Bradenton Beach
“What my mother loved about this place is being eroded.” — Lisa Kelly of Bradenton Beach
“I am in favor of some progress out here. The details matter in this conversation. So anything we can do to make a good decision and support and build our community is important.” — Derek Williams, Bradenton Beach business owner
— Compiled by Robert Anderson
The hotel will bring additional traffic and congestion to an already overcrowded AMI. We have all seen the traffic from LBK to the Cortez bridge and the hotel will only make the problem worse. Find a way to tie zoning contingent to construction of a bridge from Conquistador Parkway to LBK. No bridge, no hotel. Reject an alternative to widen the Cortez bridge as that will do nothing to increase the traffic flow on Gulf Dr. Zoning becomes effective when the LBK bridge is complete.