Will Shore seats shrink?

Peter Dailey, who is working with restaurateurs Tom Leonard and Paul Caragiulo to bring a new restaurant to the Longbeach Village, informed Planning, Zoning and Building Director Alaina Ray and her staff at a Development Review Committee meeting last week the group “is kicking it (the restaurant application’s) down to 185 seats."

But restaurant owner Tom Leonard, who purchased the former Moore's Stone Crab Restaurant in Longbeach Village, and staff quickly changed the subject at a meeting that centered around several application issues that must be addressed by Sept. 22 if the owners plan to have an application deemed complete before the Planning and Zoning Board meets in October.

After the meeting, Leonard told the Longboat Observer he’s not ready to confirm there will be a reduction in the number of seats requested.

“There’s going to be updates because we’re trying to do the right thing out here,” Leonard said. “We’re working closely with the town and have 20-some odd changes to make because we want to make the October meeting.”

Ray and her staff informed Leonard Aug. 26 that they expect major changes to a restaurant application that concerns them due to seating and parking requests.

Leonard and business partner Mark Caragiulo seek to build a new restaurant that’s similar to their Shore Diner on St. Armands Circle at the Village eatery site.

The application, Ray said, doesn’t provide “competent and substantial evidence” as required to justify why the restaurant needs the additional seats and doesn’t need to provide additional vehicle parking spaces.

The site currently has 49 parking spaces, and the application asks for parking waivers to nix the 75 parking spaces needed for a 299-seat restaurant.

Ray, though, insinuated the parking waivers would be difficult to approve, noting the restaurant can’t count Broadway as an on-street parking waiver because you can’t park on both sides of the road.

The application also needs to explain why the restaurant needs outdoor dining seats and why the restaurant and other allowable requests are “advantageous to the community and the surrounding neighborhood.” The former Moore’s restaurant never had designated outdoor dining seats.