The business heeds neighbors' protests and county officials' objections - for now.
By RICHARD DANIELSON
Published April 2, 2004
TARPON SPRINGS - Less than a month after county officials stripped it of its ability to sell alcohol, the Marker 25 Marina came back Thursday with a development plan that envisioned a bait shop where boaters could buy beer and wine to go.
But the business dropped the idea, for now, after neighbors protested during a public hearing and county officials said the sales wouldn't be allowed unless the county changed its zoning code.
"That's for a later date, and we're not asking for that at this time," said Tarpon Springs attorney Herb Elliott, who represented the marina during a three-hour hearing Thursday.
The marina, 1155 Anclote Road just south of the Pinellas-Pasco county line, is owned by Michael S. Tsalickis, 47, who runs Paul's Shrimp House near the Sponge Docks.
Neighbors, some from the upscale Meyer's Cove subdivision, have said for two years that Tsalickis has demonstrated poor stewardship as the marina's owner. After Tsalickis got a county variance in 1998 to sell beer and wine, they said, the marina was transformed into a raucous bar with blasting rock music, roaring motorcycles and unruly customers.
On Thursday, they said allowing the marina to sell any alcohol could lead the neighborhood back into the same sort of problems.
Meyer's Cove resident Jon Wilson said the marina's bar created "utter chaos." Last month, in response to complaints, the county Board of Adjustment rescinded the variance that allowed the business to serve beer and wine.
"From what I've heard so far, it sounds like we're going to have more of the same," Wilson said.
Paul Cassel, the county's director of development review services, said the kind of zoning that Tsalickis has requested would not allow alcohol sales anyway. Cassel said he thinks that particular zoning, commercial recreational, should allow alcohol sales, but the county would have to change the zoning code for that to happen.
Meanwhile, neighbors urged county officials to force Tsalickis to change his plans.
"Mr. Tsalickis has a very valuable piece of property there," Wilson said. "I'm not trying to deny him use of his property. If he wants to build four $1-million homes there, I'll be the first to write him a letter of endorsement."
Instead, Tsalickis has proposed keeping the marina, adding about 10 wet slips and turning the rest of the property into a fish camp with as many as 16 rental units. The residences would consist of single-family bungalows, two-family units and one four-family building.
Elliott said there would be no loudspeakers or high-and-dry boat storage.
But a land-use attorney hired by two neighbors pointed out Thursday that the county's comprehensive plan would not allow for the marina and the number of rentals that Tsalickis wants to build on one portion of the property. She urged county officials to be careful in what they allowed Tsalickis to do next.
"He does have the right to operate his marina there," Jacksonville attorney Brenna Durden said. "We're asking you, don't let him expand it."
Elliott told county officials that he would work on putting the issues discussed Thursday into a development agreement that would go with the proposed zoning and land-use changes.
County planning and development officials will make a recommendation this month on the proposal to county commissioners, who are scheduled to consider it in May.
