BRADENTON BEACH – City building official Darin Cushing has given an extension of time to developer Shawn Kaleta to complete all city commission-required stipulations for temporary use permits for four paid parking lots.
The city has received and approved the site plans for the temporary use permits and has given Kaleta until Monday, Sept. 9 to complete the rest of the items stipulated by the commission, according to Cushing.
A professionally-designed site plan was a key component for the multiple conditions that had been put in place by the city commission before granting temporary use permits for the paid parking lots; 101 Bridge St. was approved on Feb. 15 and 206 Bay Drive N., 207 Church Ave. and 102 Third St. N. gained approval on March 21.
The extension of the deadline was granted in part due to a leaking artesian well at the Bridge Street site that is in the process of being capped.
“The well capping is still ongoing. I’m not sure how much more they have to do, but I do know the well turned out to be over 300 feet deep, and the entire length has to be filled with concrete, which cannot all be done in one day,” Cushing wrote The Sun. “We are monitoring the progress, as are SWFWMD and Manatee County.”
In an Aug. 1 letter to Kaleta, Cushing had written he intended to barricade the lots on Aug. 9 with a permanent closure deadline of Sept. 6 if all the stipulations had not been met.
“To date, very few, if any of these stipulations have been met, first and foremost, the presentation of professionally designed site plans in order to demonstrate that all of the other stipulations are being adhered to,” he wrote.
The parking lots were barricaded by the city on Aug. 9, but reopened the following day after intervention by Kaleta’s attorney, Louis Najmy.
The parking lot stipulations for commission approval at 101 Bridge St. include no entrance or exit from Bridge Street, installation of directional arrows, installation of landscaping less than 3 feet high, sidewalk installation north of Third Street South to hook into the corner sidewalk on Gulf Drive, installation of trolley benches and slab, installation of black and white signage and review of the site plan by the building official. The one-year temporary use permit runs through Feb. 15, 2025.
Some of the stipulations for 206 Bay Drive N., 102 Third St. N. and 207 Church Ave. included the building owner submitting a building permit application or land development approval request within eight months of the temporary use permit approval and limiting the parking of cars, with the number of parking spaces to be approved by the building official on a site plan.
