CLEARWATER - A second Cracker Barrel restaurant is coming to Pinellas County.
But instead of being built along an interstate, the popular roadside restaurant will go up on county-owned land directly south of St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.
It will come at a cost to taxpayers: more than $334,000, spent so the Tennessee-based company can make the property more conducive for business.
And it poses a serious threat to safety, say three Pinellas County commissioners who objected to the lease.
The commission approved the deal Tuesday by a 4-3 vote, despite concerns about safety and cost.
The restaurant will pay the county $85,000 a year in rent, and the Florida Department of Transportation is planning to conduct a traffic study after the restaurant opens off Ulmerton Road and 40th Street.
The approval came just half an hour into the first public discussion on the lease, but with a promise that county staff members would be invited to sit down with Cracker Barrel representatives and transportation officials as they consider traffic options.
County and airport staff members have been quietly negotiating with Cracker Barrel for almost two years.
"Right now, this property is bringing us no revenue," Commission Chairwoman Susan Latvala said before the meeting. "To put something there long term, it will pay for itself."
Latvala said the payoff comes over the lease's 15-year lifetime. The rent will be adjusted for inflation every two years, and the lease has an option to renew for another 15 years. County officials estimate a total payoff of up to $3.6-million over 30 years.
The money would go into the airport's budget.
Cracker Barrel, which operates a restaurant at Interstate 275 and 54th Ave. N in St. Petersburg, will pay for the traffic signal, sidewalks and other improvements and be reimbursed with rent credits for almost four years.
In the 48th month of the lease, Cracker Barrel will begin making rent payments.
"Normally, the property owner would be making infrastructure improvements to make it accessible," County Administrator Steve Spratt said. "Well, we are the property owner."
The restaurant will occupy less than 3 acres owned by the county, part of a 44-acre parcel south of the airport. Airport officials hope to lease the rest to other businesses in the months to come. The next likely tenant is Chick-fil-A, which is negotiating with airport staff.
Commissioner John Morroni, who lives in neighboring Feather Sound, said he was concerned about eastbound traffic coming from the Bayside Bridge and Largo along Roosevelt Boulevard.
That traffic merges into Ulmerton just before the turning lane for the proposed Cracker Barrel, and he worries that people trying to get onto Ulmerton will collide with those trying to make the left onto 40th Street. The restaurant will not be directly accessible from Ulmerton.
"I'm happy to see my colleagues are concerned about traffic piling up in that area," said Morroni, who voted against the project. "But I'm extremely concerned with the traffic piling up in that area. . . . I think it's going to be very dangerous."
Morroni was joined by Commissioners Karen Seel and Barbara Sheen Todd in opposing the project.
Seel questioned the company's traffic study.
Christopher Hatton, a traffic engineer hired by Cracker Barrel, said his study anticipates 65 cars entering the restaurant every hour, with more than half coming in the other direction.
The restaurant parking lot will accommodate 170 cars.
"There's obviously a lot of traffic out there," Hatton said. But he reasoned that because Cracker Barrel is a sit-down restaurant, and not fast food, people will make it a destination and "won't make a drastic weave."
Hatton said that if FDOT determines the intersection is unsafe, it will close the left-turn lane and make eastbound traffic make a U-turn at 38th Street. But he said transportation officials cannot make that determination until after the restaurant opens because the traffic is uncertain.
Any future improvements based on the transportation study would be paid for by Cracker Barrel, Hatton and Keith Zayac, a civil engineer hired by Cracker Barrel, assured commissioners.
But that arrangement didn't please Todd or Commissioner Bob Stewart.
"What you are telling us is, "Go ahead, open up the restaurant, and if there is some amorphous condition, we will correct it,' " Todd said. "That is not comfortable."
Stewart wondered why they are spending more than $300,000 for traffic improvements that they may not use in a few months.
"Are we going to spend that money, put that in, and in three months have FDOT come back and say, "close that lane?' " Stewart asked.
But Stewart ultimately voted for the project, along with Latvala, Calvin Harris and Ken Welch.
"I think the project and development is something that has to occur," Stewart said after the meeting. "Perhaps it is going to cost us more than $334,000. But if it does cost more money, it will come out of Cracker Barrel's pocket."
