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Don't worry, Port Richey City Manager Vince Lupo says. The fishing village-style commercial plan is only a draft.
By MATTHEW WAITE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 19, 2002
PORT RICHEY -- Port Richey residents and City Council members got their first chance to talk about a proposed waterfront plan Thursday night, and parking, hotels and expanding the area covered were some of the early concerns.
The waterfront district overlay plan discussed at a council workshop restricts how and what can be built on the waterfront, guiding development toward the city's goal of a fishing village-style commercial district.
City Manager Vince Lupo said the plan is only a draft, giving the council a framework to work with while deciding what it will eventually look like. And the plan will be open for public comment at several more meetings.
"It's impossible for everybody to be ecstatic over the game plan," he said.
Council member Phyllis Grae questioned rules limiting businesses to closing at midnight, when current businesses are open later. Council member Bill Bennett said his concern was adequate parking spaces for customers, employees and the handicapped. Mayor Eloise Taylor said rules that limit buildings to 25,000 square feet might preclude the city from allowing a hotel to be built on the waterfront.
Mollie Kolokithas, owner of the Paradise of Port Richey gambling boat and one of the largest land owners on the waterfront, said she didn't believe the fishing village idea would work.
"What does this mean to the people who are there?" she asked. "How does this make money in our pockets?"
The council had ordered the overlay district a year ago as a means to develop the commercial area around the Pithlachascotee River west of U.S. 19, widely considered the most valuable real estate in the city. Some residents said they believed the city should expand the overlay district to include the waterfront area east of U.S. 19.
Leslie Sykes, the city's contract planner from Tampa Bay Engineering, told the council and the nearly 30 people at the meeting that the proposed overlay district "tailored" regulations for the waterfront to guide development.
For instance, buildings are set back from property lines differently and landscaping requirements vary from what is typical in the city.
The overlay also limits what kinds of commercial development can occur, specifically limiting specialty retail shops to businesses like boating, diving and fishing shops. Restaurants, under the overlay, won't be allowed to have drive-through windows.
Not included in the overlay plan is the city's efforts to build a parking garage. Sykes said the garage won't be put into the plan until a feasibility study is done, telling the city whether the facility should be built. The city has $3.5-million in grant money to build a garage in the waterfront area.