 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Back
|
Feds refuse to allow a restaurant in beach park
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer
MADEIRA BEACH -- The city's plan for a 150-seat restaurant on a rare undeveloped swath of Pinellas beachfront was thwarted Friday when federal officials ruled it an inappropriate use of a public park. The decision puts Madeira Beach in a difficult position because the city was counting on $60,000 a year in rent from one of Tampa Bay's most successful restaurateurs, plus more income from nearby parking meters. In addition, Frank Chivas already has spent more than $100,000 leasing and fixing up a city building he hopes to operate as his newest restaurant. It was slated to open by Easter. The federal government questioned why the city wanted to turn the Snack Shack concession stand, located on land donated for recreational services, into a full-fledged waterfront restaurant. "What is the purpose?" Bill Huie, manager of the Federal Lands to Parks program, asked the city in a letter Friday. City Manager Jim Madden said he spoke to Huie on Friday after receiving the decision. Madden learned only this week that the National Park Service was reviewing the city's plans. "They've said there are certain things that we need to do," Madden said, "and we're working through them." The county joined the federal government in delivering bad news. Building inspectors on Thursday stopped Chivas' remodeling work on the old Snack Shack, run for years by the Disabled American Veterans as a concession stand. Chivas was doing more work than county permits authorized, assistant building director Jack Tipton said Friday. Before he can resume work, Tipton said, Chivas must document that his renovations do not violate Federal Emergency Management Agency rules. The county and federal governments took a closer look at the city's plans for the Snack Shack after descendants of the men who donated Archibald Memorial Park to the federal government began raising questions: Does the restaurant violate deed restrictions that prevent commercial activity on the donated land? Is the restaurant owner putting more money into the building than FEMA rules allow? Considering the poor condition of the Snack Shack, what happened to parking meter money collected since the 1970s that should have gone toward maintaining the park? In making its decision, the National Park Service cited several problems with the city's lease agreement with Chivas. It questioned why the city was devoting 60 of its 200 public parking spaces to the exclusive use of restaurant patrons, and why the old concession stand was being remodeled to seat 150. Restaurant patrons, like beachgoers, still would have to feed the parking meters $1 an hour to park at Archibald. "The primary persons utilizing this restaurant will not be people who are partaking in public use or public recreation," Huie wrote. "Rather, the patrons will be people who desire to go to the restaurant for a good meal." The 500 feet of beachfront was donated to the federal government in 1933 by Albert Archibald and David Welch, two early developers and large landholders on Treasure Island and Madeira Beach. The land was part of an incentive package to persuade the federal government to build Bay Pines Veterans Hospital in Pinellas County. The federal government declared the land surplus in 1972 and gave it to the city, despite objections from Archibald and Welch descendants, who said the land should revert to them if the government no longer wanted it. The 1933 deed granting the land to the federal government included specific instructions that it was "not to be used for commercial purposes." The deed conveying the land to the city, however, included less strict language. It said the city could not lease the property except to another government agency, but that the city was allowed to provide "related recreational facilities." The Property Appraiser's Office now values the land at $4.13-million. In making its decision, the National Park Service distinguished between the Snack Shack, a conventional beach concession stand, and what Chivas plans to do with the restaurant he would call Archibald's Grill. Friday evening, Chivas said he plans to continue paying rent to the city and still hopes to bring his restaurant to the park. "I'm bringing people to enjoy that park," he said Friday. "This will slow up the whole process and everything, but that's fine. I was trying to keep the legacy going."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
Headlines From the Times local news desks |
