BRADENTON BEACH – Commissioners are abandoning the city’s efforts to rezone 23 residentially-zoned properties north of Bridge Street and south of the Cortez Bridge.
Instead, to address inconsistencies between the city’s zoning and future land use maps, city officials may redirect their efforts to amending the future land use map designations for those properties instead.
The city commission rejected Building Official Steve Gilbert and City Planner Luis Serna’s recommendation on Oct. 20 to rezone those properties from their current Multiple Family Dwelling District (R-3) zoning designation to a Mixed-Use District (MXD) zoning designation.
The commission also rejected the Planning and Zoning Board’s contrary recommendation to rezone those properties to R-2 (two-family dwelling) and change the future land use map designation to Medium Density Residential.
A letter sent to the commission and signed by planning board Chairman Ken McDonough noted five potentially impacted property owners oppose any commercial use in that residentially zoned area. The letter suggests the city poll all 23 potentially impacted property owners to get their input on these matters.
Working in unison, the zoning and future land use maps designate which type of development is allowed on a property. More than a year ago, the city commission directed Gilbert and Serna to begin addressing long-stand- ing inconsistencies that have existed between the maps.
Gilbert, Serna and the planning board have repeatedly discussed and debated city staff’s recommendations to rezone several properties throughout the city. In most instances, the planning board disagreed with the staff’s proposed rezoning recommendations.
City staff’s proposed mixed-use rezoning of these specific properties would have made their zoning designations consistent with the existing Retail/Office/Residential (ROR) future land use map designation.
The mixed-use zoning would have allowed ground-level commercial activities in what has traditionally been a residential area. The proposed mixed-use zoning would have restricted residential use for new construction to no more than 50% of a property’s buildable space while allowing no more than 80% non-residential use of the buildable space.
City Attorney Ricinda Perry told the commission downzoning those properties from R-3 to R-2 as proposed by the planning board could be considered a taking of existing development rights, which could potentially diminish property values and expose the city legal action, including the filing of Bert Harris claims seeking compensation for the diminished property values and/or loss of future revenues. Perry also said the existing inconsistencies between the zoning map and the future land use map could expose the city to legal challenges.
The zoning and future land use map issue is further complicated by the plans of the Chiles Hospitality group that owns the BeachHouse restaurant. Chiles Hospitality owns the currently undeveloped property at 109 Third St. N. The perimeter of that vacant lot is currently used for unregulated parking. In September, Chiles Hospitality applied for a special use permit that would allow that property to be converted into a private parking lot to be used predominantly by their employees. The R-3 residential zoning designation prohibits standalone parking facilities.
Public input
When addressing the commission, Chiles Hospitality Facilities Director Brooks O’Hara said, “We strongly urge you to support this rezoning to mixed-use and support giving the property owners more freedom in decisions regarding their property, and not less. We reserve the right to protect our rights legally and could consider a more restrictive zoning as taking, so we would be concerned about that.”
Perry said “spot-zoning” the vacant Chiles Hospitality property with a different zoning designation might be a potential solution to that concern.
Evelyn Stob owns the single-family home at 105 Third St. that sits between the vacant Chiles Hospitality property and the Chiles Hospitality parking lot to the west that now provides paid public parking. Stob expressed her support for retaining the existing R-3 zoning designation for the residential properties in question.
At the conclusion of Thursday’s lengthy discussion, the commission rejected the proposed rezoning ordinance and directed staff to revisit these matters with the planning and zoning board and the potentially impacted property owners.
