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Mixed-use project developer wants residents to chime in

AG Armstrong looks to construct three stories, including a Publix, in Indian Rocks Beach.

By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published February 13, 2005

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH - Residents got a sneak preview Thursday of a design for a three-story, mixed-use project taking up two to three city blocks.

Robert McGarrity of AG Armstrong pitched his company as a sensitive developer, willing to work with residents. The company is seeking a variance from city codes to apply as a Planned Unit Development.

The building he wants to put along Gulf Boulevard between 26th and 28th avenues would house a Publix grocery on the first floor, retail on the second and 23 condominiums priced at $400,000 and up on the third floor.

Friday's presentation at City Hall covered the company's ability to transform a shopping center design in Alpharetta, Ga., in the face of strong neighborhood opposition to the original plan. McGarrity said he is just as eager to work with residents of Indian Rocks Beach.

The developer has already revised plans from a five-story building to four, then to three. McGarrity touted the company's efforts to form "citizens committees" to get input about projects.

"It works. It's a partnership with the community," he said.

Planned Unit Developments give more control to cities over the details of a project and more leeway to the developer than codes allow. The project AG Armstrong has in mind falls outside of the normal criteria for PUDs.

It does not involve two or more buildings, as codes specify, but one large building. And the zoning falls outside of the type of residential or commercial tourist meant for PUDs.

If commissioners grant the variance, the developer may proceed with the application, collecting documents for review by the planning and zoning board, then the City Commission. City ordinances place strictures on the arrangement of buildings, landscaping, open space and traffic, among other qualities.

In return, they grant the developer flexibility from strict adherence to zoning norms, so long as the city approves plans. That license could help AG Armstrong land its project on the 2600 block of Gulf Boulevard, where the rear side of the building abutting First Street is zoned residential. The plan calls for a 29,000-square-foot Publix with a pharmacy and taking up most of the block.

"One path we could be doing rather than doing this Planned Unit Development is we could just request a rezoning for the back half of this property to commercial," McGarrity said. "And if we would get that, the city of Indian Rocks Beach really has zero control over what we do."

AG Armstrong did submit a request for zoning change but withdrew it before it got to the planning and zoning board.

AG Armstrong has a contract to buy properties to the north of the proposed project, now occupied by an empty gas station and two houses. McGarrity said the area could become a strip shopping area if the company gets approval for a parking garage. Otherwise, it turns into a parking lot.

The city has two other properties with which it has worked out PUD agreements - the Holiday Inn Harbourside and West Winds, a cluster of condominiums on the east side of Gulf Boulevard at the northern city limits.

The developer had fliers on a table resembling neighborhood announcements, calling for a meeting Friday between AG Armstrong and residents. Under the section, "What YOU Can Do . . . NOW!" the flier advises residents to show up at the commission meeting Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and "Tell the City Commissioners to approve this project as a Planned Unit Development."

Tom Smoot has an 11-year-old daughter and lives in the cross-hairs on the proposed project on Bay Boulevard at 26th Street. Smoot, 56, said he is concerned about truck traffic in and out of the complex.

But he gave grudging admiration to the developer for appealing to neighbors on the front end of the project.

"They are dinosaurs, but they are learning fast," Smoot said.

[Last modified February 13, 2005, 01:07:16]