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Residents Oppose Zoning Bid

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By LIZ BLEAU, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 23, 2008

RUSKIN - Little Harbor's proposal to convert up to 450 residential units at its Bahia Beach condominium and hotel resort into daily rental units drew heavy fire from residents at a zoning hearing last week before a zoning hearing master.

The development is approved to build 1,500 residential units under vested property rights that went into place before the zoning code was adopted in the 1980s. Vested rights means the developer does not have to meet current code and traffic requirements.

Because of the current housing market, Little Harbor wants to allow some of its condominium and town homes to be rented out for less than a week. Under current zoning regulations, a residential unit cannot be rented for less than a week; any rental less than a week is considered a hotel under the county code.

The developer, Earthmark, already has 100 traditional hotel units on the site, that is, rooms with no cooking facilities. It wants the option of converting up to 250 of the approved residential units into hotel units and to convert up to 200 of the residential units into daily rentals, for a total of 550 daily rental units.

Only one resident, W. Thomas Grimm, who lives outside Little Harbor in the nearby Bahia del Sol condominiums, spoke in favor of the changes. Grimm is employed as a consultant to the developer.

"I want to see this as vibrant and full people," he said. "This proposal is best for Ruskin and for my neighbors."

County planning staff said the changes are in compliance with the county's comprehensive plan and both the planning staff and the developer's traffic consultant said the conversion to hotel units would not create additional traffic.
Ruskin resident Mariella Smith questioned the traffic data and called for an engineering study.

"How about a real study?" she asked. "These rental units will all need staff around-the-clock, plus trucks for all the linens and supplies. If the developer didn't think the hotel would bring more people they would not be here. They are doing this to have more people and more cars."

While the property was vested for the 1,500 residential units, it is not vested for a 550-unit hotel, she said.

"But I have property rights, too," Smith told the zoning hearing master, Laura Belflower, "and I am asking you to defend them."

Smith said the developer wants to turn the project into a convention and conference center and wondered where the market is for these rooms. If the hotel is a success, she said, there will be hundreds of transients "swinging through my neighborhood," and if it's not successful, it will be another abandoned eyesore.

"Either way my neighborhood is trashed," she said.

She said the developer has left the concrete shell of a building on the site for several years after the county building department ruled it did not meet code.

Several Bahia del Sol residents opposing the change to hotel units cited the road conditions along Shell Point Road that leads to the development and to the narrow roads that wind through Little Harbor and dead end at the condominiums.

Belflower's recommendation will be issued by Feb. 5 and the county commission will hold a final public hearing and vote on the planned changes at its meeting Feb. 26.

Reporter Liz Bleau can be reached at (813) 865-1557 or lbleau@tampatrib.com.

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