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Condos won't do? Maybe hotel will

A developer wanting to build condos in Port Richey has a backup plan for a hotel, restaurant and marina complex.

By PHIL DAVIS
Published October 7, 2005

PORT RICHEY - The high-priced waterfront homes proposed for Rocky Creek Estates are stalled in court. But that isn't stopping its developer from submitting plans for a new, adjoining project that would drastically change the look of the city's coastline.

One of three sets of plans for the adjoining project that were submitted to the city building department by developer Altamonte G&M Inc. calls for an eight-story hotel and restaurant complex that would tower 85 feet over the Mangrove-lined estuaries of Cotee Point. Forty boat slips would provide access to the Gulf of Mexico. Other plans call for condominiums and townhomes or just condos.

"The preference would be to build the condominiums, but if that can't be worked out, then the hotel would be built," said Tim Johnson, an attorney and spokesman for Altamonte G&M.

Port Richey Building Official Ed Winch said the hotel and restaurant is "the most likely to fit on the site without problems."

The development would be built to the north of Rocky Creek Estates, a proposed collection of $1-million homes that ignited controversy in the city last year.

Altamonte G&M sued after the City Council voted 3-2 last October to scale back the number of homes from 43 to 13, or one per buildable acre.

Zoning on the 40-acre property allows for six homes per buildable acre, and the city's staff approved the 43-home development. But council members cited traffic and environmental concerns in their decision to shrink the project.

The lawsuit challenges the "quasijudicial" nature of the Oct. 26, 2004, council meeting, saying discussion went beyond the scope of a normal hearing and that the council unfairly applied standards to the project not required of other developments.

"It is not normal for a city to mistreat a developer like this," Johnson said.

Both sides are still filing legal briefs in Circuit Judge Lowell Bray's court.

Only council member Phyllis Grae voted in favor of the 43 homes. Council member Fred Miller did not want any homes built on the environmentally sensitive property, which Altamonte bought in 2002.

Winch said the hotel project is still in very preliminary stages.

Winch said current zoning allows hotels or condos on the property, but he and his staff have written up a list of concerns that need to be addressed before the project can come before the city's Planning and Zoning Board for review. A key concern on both Rocky Creek projects is traffic on Limestone Drive, the only route to the isolated point.

The hotel and restaurant, six stories above two levels of parking, would need a variance, since it extends 13 feet above the city's current height restriction of 75 feet.

Said Johnson: "We would anticipate the city will treat us fairly and within the law."

[Last modified October 7, 2005, 01:50:23]