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Expanded Docks Proposed For Inlet

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 7, 2007

Updated: 11/05/2007 11:11 pm

RUSKIN - Some say a planned condominium complex with 29 boat slips on Ruskin Inlet will improve a neighborhood off Shell Point Road, but others say it will change the character of a waterway long flanked by single-family homes with backyard docks.

Clearwater-based Pittway Plaza Associates is seeking permission from the Tampa Port Authority to tear down two small wooden docks behind Glen Mar Apartments, a cluster of duplex units at the end of 13th Street Northwest. The old docks, measuring about 36 square feet each, would be replaced by 5,300 square feet in dock facilities along 600 feet of shoreline, according to Pittway's permit application.

The developer also is requesting permission to dredge nearly 1,000 cubic yards of material, repair about 400 feet of concrete seawall and install riprap, which is boulders and pieces of concrete rubble.

The permit will go to a public hearing at the Tampa Port Authority at 10 a.m. Thursday at the authority's office, 1101 Channelside Drive, Tampa. The port authority has jurisdiction over submerged lands in Hillsborough County.

The boat slips would be available to buyers in the condominium project, said Dan Grimmer, a spokesman for the developer. He said the project, dubbed The Landings and consisting of 51 three-story town homes, received rezoning approval a few weeks ago.

"The real estate market is being elusive right now," Grimmer said, adding that groundbreaking won't occur until market conditions improve. He described the planned units as "fairly upscale" and said they likely will sell for $400,000 to $600,000.

Each town home would be 2,200 to 2,600 square feet and include a two-car garage, he said.

The site, on the north bank of the inlet between 12th Place Northwest and 13th Street Northwest, encompasses several parcels, including a wooded tract, some homes, a former campground for recreational vehicles and the duplex apartments. Grimmer said the complex will offer "plenty of green space."

Orajean Elliott, who has lived next door to the property since 1966, said she welcomes the new neighbors.

"It should be a nice project and maybe even improve the neighborhood," she said.

Jack Eastep, who lives a few blocks from the site, sent the port authority a letter objecting to the project. He said last week that the size of the proposed docking facility is similar to that of a commercial marina, and he worries that it might become that one day, especially with the downturn in the housing market.

Such facilities are better placed near the mouth of the Little Manatee River, he said, not the relatively narrow Ruskin Inlet, which he described as better suited for single-family homes and docks.

"You're talking about a very congested area," Eastep said. "It's a very narrow area for them to put in all of those docks."

Grimmer said it has taken nearly three years to get through the permit application process for the requested docks, and he didn't think there was any chance of getting approval for a commercial facility.

"It would never happen," Grimmer said. "We could never get the zoning."

A consultant for Pittway wrote in a letter to the port authority that the site could have accommodated 12 to 13 single-family lots, which would be allowed two boat slips each, for a total of 24 to 26 slips.

Mariella Smith, a Ruskin member of the Tampa Bay Sierra Club, said she kayaks on the inlet and has seen boaters get stuck in the streambed in the shallow water there. She said they sometimes gun their motors to break loose, potentially damaging seagrass in the area.

Hillsborough's Environmental Protection Commission expressed concerns but recommended approval of the project if signs warning boaters about seagrass and manatees are installed.

For information about the hearing, call (813) 905-5031 or visit www.tampaport.com.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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