Barbetta questions restaurant's compliance

Just weeks after a reopening 12 years in the making, Bob’s Boathouse has sailed into a storm of noise complaints from a nearby neighborhood and renewed inquiries from county commissioners into the legal basis for the restaurant’s liquor license.

The original Bob’s Boathouse restaurant, which was located along the Intracoastal Waterway next to the Stickney Point Bridge, closed in 2001 and was replaced by a condominium complex. The popular restaurant’s much-anticipated comeback came Nov. 3, when owner Tom LeFevre opened the doors to its new location at the former Royal Oldsmobile site on Phillippi Creek — noise complaints from a nearby neighborhood immediately followed.

“Most surrounding residential homeowners had disagreed with your decision to allow this new business,” Jim McWhorter, president of the River Forest Civic Association, wrote in an Oct. 30 email to the County Commission. “The main concern has been its outdoor music and potential for high decibel noise levels infringing upon our previously serene environment.”

But, the rash of five noise complaints in two weeks with no violations from the River Forest subdivision, located 1,000 feet north of the restaurant, spurred County Commissioner Joe Barbetta to seek clarification from County Attorney Steven DeMarsh about a potential legal loophole the restaurant used to skirt a separation requirement from the nearby South Trail Church of Christ, which neighbors the Bob’s Boathouse property.

A county ordinance prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption on properties within 800 feet of an established school or church in the unincorporated area of Sarasota County, calling such practice “a threat to the health, safety, morals and general welfare of the public.”

Barbetta questioned whether Bob’s Boathouse owners purposefully built a sidewalk at the north end of the property to establish what technically qualifies as the shortest pedestrian route possible from the restaurant’s front door to the front door of the church, even though the actual straight-line distance is much shorter.

According to county records, Bob’s Boathouse’s liquor license was approved in February. Code Enforcement Officer James Holderby performed the measurement with a measuring wheel and set the distance from the restaurant to the church at 873 feet — exceeding the 800-foot threshold for code compliance.

Sarasota County Public Information Officer Curt Preisser said that the final measurement used to approve the liquor license was not based on a straight-line measurement from the restaurant to the church, but followed the sidewalk built in the Bob’s Boathouse parking lot up to and along U.S. 41 and then back to the church.

Barbetta said he first raised concerns about the legality of the separation measurement more than a year ago.

The county ordinance defining the shortest-distance rules states: “Such distance shall be measured by following the shortest route of ordinary pedestrian travel along the public thoroughfare from the main entrance of the vendor’s place of business to the main entrance of the nearest church.”

“Admittedly, it appears the applicant put a sidewalk in at the far northern corner of the parcel, which doesn’t appear to meet the definition of the ‘shortest route,’ and probably did so to establish the required distance,” Barbetta wrote in an email, referring to the pedestrian walkway built at the Bob’s Boathouse site.

In an email to Barbetta Wednesday afternoon, McWhorter, on behalf of River Forest Civic Association, asked the county to re-examine the measured distance:

“Even if a pedestrian were to walk out to the Tamiami Trail road right of way and then around, we scale that distance to be under 800 feet! Taking the shortest available distance, a pedestrian would likely walk through the unsecured fence section often left open during business hours between the church parking lot and the bar entrance, which is only a walk of 500 feet.

“We feel that Code Enforcement may have either inadvertently misapplied the spirit of the ordinance or miscalculated its 873-foot determination. As such, nearby homeowners are asking for a complete review of this distance determination.”

Bob’s Boathouse management could not immediately be reached for comment.

Contact Nolan Peterson at [email protected]