Palm Avenue overlay district on hold

South Palm Avenue residents seeking to shut out time-share hotels from their neighborhood received a bit of a setback.

The city’s neighborhood and development services staff completed an analysis that deems that effort unnecessary.

The group of residents calling themselves the Coalition of Bayfront Citizens asked the city to institute an overlay district on their properties from Ringling Boulevard to Mound Street.

The overlay district would prohibit commercial development among the residential properties and create development requirements, such as height limitations and setback standards, and north and south ends of the neighborhood, where commercial already exists.

CBC members also hope that it would shut out the proposal for the Plaza Hotel, at South Palm Avenue and Alderman Street, or any similar commercial developments.

The 173-room hotel was proposed as more of a time-share property. But developer Al Hochstadt sold two of his six lots, so the hotel project was no longer viable.

The city cited that issue in its report and also made note that commissioners had already asked staff to clarify the zoning that would have allowed a time-share hotel.

The report states that, if approved, those clarifications should address the CBC’s concerns, which would alleviate the need for an overlay district.

Harry Chororos, CBC vice president, said his group is taking the city’s position seriously, but will submit its response within the next month.

“The process the city laid out was a good process,” he said.

Chororos previously said it doesn’t matter if the Plaza Hotel can still be built or not, because that project just opened the eyes of property owners on South Palm Avenue to the type of development that could occur in that neighborhood.

Contact Robin Roy at [email protected].