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Bid seeks to rezone mayor's property

A mobile home park owned by Redington Shores Mayor J.J. Beyrouti could be transformed into condos or townhomes.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published August 31, 2005

SEMINOLE - Less than a week after saying he had no redevelopment intentions, Redington Shores Mayor J.J. Beyrouti has asked the county to change the zoning on a mobile home park he owns on the edge of Seminole.

If granted, the zoning change would clear the way for townhomes or condominiums to be built on the 9.8-acre Lakeview Mobile Home Park at 118 Linda Drive, according to Pinellas County records.

Beyrouti repeated Tuesday that he still has no intention of changing the zoning on the park although his wife, Linda Nichols, filed the request for a zoning change with the county on Friday.

The proposed change, Beyrouti said, is at the request of Richard A. Robertson, who has a conditional contract to buy the property.

Beyrouti said many people had approached him about buying the park.

"It's a very hot market," Beyrouti said. "We realized that it's a good thing to get out of it. . . . That's why we sold it."

He declined to reveal the purchase price, saying the contract and its details are confidential.

Beyrouti said that Robertson owns the site of the former Women's Hospital, 9575 Seminole Blvd., which is adjacent to the Lakeview property. County records list the owner as a company called Enterprise II of FL LLC. State corporate records show Robertson as the registered agent.

The Women's Hospital property is within the Seminole city limits, and the City Council recently granted a zoning change that would allow up to 65 townhomes or condominiums on the approximately 13.21 acres making up the hospital site.

Robertson could not be reached for comment.

Beyrouti, 53, has not long owned Lakeview.

According to county records, the park was sold in April to Monicarla Ltd. for $2.2-million. Monicarla's partners are Beyrouti and Linda Nichols Beyrouti.

About two months later, on June 22, the two signed a warranty deed transferring the land from Monicarla to Lakeview Park Land Trust for $10. "Linda Nichols" is listed as the trustee for Lakeview Land Trust.

As trustee, she filed the request for a zoning change. Part of the request, which was unavailable at press time Tuesday, was a relocation plan for the park's residents.

The request for a zoning change comes at a time when affordable land and housing are becoming increasingly scarce in Pinellas County. As the large tracts of land become more rare, developers are turning to mobile home parks.

That has brought protests from park residents, especially those who own their mobile homes but not the land underneath them. If their homes cannot be moved, those owners face possible financial ruin and hard times finding new housing.

In Seminole, for example, residents of the Harbor Lights Mobile Home Park have appeared at each council meeting in recent months to plead their case even though no zoning change has been officially proposed.

Golden Lantern, in unincorporated Pinellas on the edge of Pinellas Park, successfully fought off one proposed zoning change, but the developer resubmitted an alternate plan. Residents there vow to continue fighting to save their homes.

[Last modified August 31, 2005, 01:22:13]