Longboat developer backs off on Colony density request

Developer Chuck Whittall, in an email to Longboat Key Town Commissioners on Wednesday afternoon, said he is no longer seeking an amendment to zoning rules in preparation for redevelopment of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort and will proceed with a project that fits existing regulations.

“We heard the community loud and clear,’’ he wrote in his email.

Residents over the past week have written dozens of emails to Town Hall, expressing opposition to the zoning plan. Whittall began answering some of those emails, stating the benefits of his plan personally to those expressing opposition.

"I think it was a wise move on his part," District 2 Commissioner George Spoll said of Whittall in an interview Wednesday night after hearing the news. "I believe the vote would have not carried it though."

Whittall’s Unicorp Developments Inc. sought a change in zoning that would have allowed six units per acre on the 17-acre site on Gulf of Mexico Drive. Under town regulations, 4.5 units per acre is allowed, if developed as Unicorp proposed as a Planned Unit Development. Developed as a PUD, the project would have enjoyed flexibility in factors such as height and site planning not available in a conventional proposal. Whittall's company was seeking the same density in a PUD as would be available under normal development circumstances. 

The new proposal, which is expected to be submitted on Friday, will consist of 78 condo units and 166 hotel rooms, a reduction of 24 units from 268 to 244. Parking accommodations will not change, resulting in more available spaces for special events. The footprint of the plan likewise will not change, though floorplans of individual units will change and increase in square footage. 

Mayor Terry Gans, who represents district 3, said he thinks it would have been difficult to get four commissioners to approve the zoning code change. This approach is more "realistic," Gans said. 

"We’ve been dealing with this for a long time, we have a responsibility to get something suitable for what’s currently a blighted property to be complimentary to everything that’s on Longboat Key," Gans said of the site of the former Colony. "I feel we’re closer now than we were in a long time."

At a Town Commission workshop on Monday, Whittall said the “penalty” in the town codes would not inhibit him from developing the site of the former Colony, but the loss of revenue would prohibit him from building a project of the caliber that he’s proposed.

Whittall and his company have submitted a new plan, which will be put before the town's Planning and Zoning Board, and ultimately the Town Commission. 

"We have now given the community everything they asked for and we pray that the plan will be approved at the Feb 22 PZ hearing and the March 5th Commission,'' Whittall wrote. 

"The developer is finally living in the real world," Gans said. "This is an opportunity for us to consider doing something that makes longboat better."

Staff writer Bret Hauff contributed to this report