- April 19, 2024
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Update (11:10 a.m. Wednesday): The Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Commission this morning voted to approve a long-controversial plan to redevelop the defunct Colony Beach & Tennis Resort.
By a vote of 5-2, the board approved Unicorp Developments Inc.'s proposal to build a 166-room St. Regis Hotel and Residences, with 78 adjoining condominiums. It also proposes multiple restaurants, a spa, bar and fitness center all open to the public.
The Town Commission is scheduled to hear the application for the first time on March 5.
The board on Wednesday morning, following an all-day meeting on Tuesday, approved:
One change to the original plan: The resort's main ballroom will be reduced from 10,000 square feet to 7,650 square feet. Residents for weeks had complained that the original ballroom plan would lead to traffic tie ups connected to special events at the resort.
(Story from Tuesday): After a full day of presentations, comments and more on Tuesday at Town Hall, the Planning and Zoning Board will return on Wednesday to discuss and decide its recommendations to the Town Commission on Unicorp National Development's 600-page application to redevelop the site of the former Colony Beach & Tennis Resort.
The proceedings get started at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. The vote would serve as a recommendation to the Town Commission, which could take up the matter as early as March 5. A final vote could take place March 16.
More than 50 people filled nearly every seat in the Town Hall chambers on Tuesday, with another 20 in the antechamber, to hear testimony from Orlando-based developer Unicorp National Developments about its proposed development at the 17.6-acre site at 1620 Gulf of Mexico Drive.
“We want this to be a place where the community goes,” Unicorp President Chuck Whittall said in his presentation.
Whittall has said his company has spent about $30 million in total, including preparation of an application for development, which includes:
One of the main points of opponents who spoke at Tuesday's meeting was Whittall's insistence on 17,000 feet of public spaces, in the form of meeting rooms, board rooms and a 10,000 square foot ballroom in support of a 166-room St. Regis Hotel and Residences, with 78 adjoining condominiums. It also proposes multiple restaurants, a spa, bar and fitness center all open to the public.
The town's planning staff recommended approval of eight departures from established town codes. With Whittall requesting nearly three times the public space as normally allowed (10% of space vs. 30%), the town staff balked that departure, recommending the Planning and Zoning Board deny it.
Whittall has suggested a limit of 425 off-site guests to events at the St. Regis as a way to minimize traffic effects, but that as drawn its own criticism.
Frank Rothschild, a representative of the grass-roots organization Preserve Longboat, said that would hard for the town to manage
"Our town will be in a continual defensive position to limiting the usage of this space," Rothschild said.
“Our presentation does not indicate that there are not ways to mitigate the impacts of special events,” said Planning, Zoning and Building Director Allen Parsons. “Our concern, again, has to do with impacts [of traffic] to adjacent property or the town as a whole.”
A traffic study completed by the developer suggests, with modifications including additional and extended turn lanes on Gulf of Mexico Drive, would not cause significant effects.
Among the other staff recommendations: limiting the number of total beds to 650 and demolishing all existing buildings seen as unfit or unsafe before this year’s hurricane season.
Blake Fleetwood, a unit owner and board member with the Colony Beach & Tennis condo association, said he's opposed to the whole plan — saying it is illegal for the developer to submit an application for developing the property as a partial owner. Unicorp does not yet have the necessary unit-by-unit approval of condo owners to move ahead with the project, though litigation has been filed with the 12th Circuit Court by Unicorp to disband the association.
"If we allow Unicorp to build this resort, we will be killing the economic goose that lays the golden egg," Fleetwood said.
Condo association counsel Jeff Warren said the claim of illegality is unfounded. The Association members voted 8-1 to approve Unicorp as a developer of the site and the pursuit of a court-reached solution to disband the condo association.
Association treasurer Bob Erazmus said Fleetwood's comments need to be taken with a grain of salt.
"Chuck Whittall has listened and he has compromised," Erazmus said.
