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Letter to the editor

Council calls third strike on hotel plan

But the developer will go to court to salvage the Old Northeast project.

By PAUL SWIDER, Times Staff Writer
Published October 5, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Handout] This view from the north of a proposed Westin Hotel and condominium building at First Street and Fifth Avenue N shows how developer Fuel Group International has reduced the size of the building from its original 33-story configuration to this 22-story version.

ST. PETERSBURG - The City Council unanimously denied a developer's appeal and gave neighbors a victory Thursday against a planned 23-story hotel on the edge of downtown, but the battle may now go to court.

After Fuel Group International was denied twice this year by the Environmental Development Commission on the hotel and condominium project at First Street and Fifth Avenue N, the developer took its case to the City Council. Members praised the building but denied the project as bringing too much intensity in the wrong place.

Fuel Group's attorney, Ron Weaver, said he plans to now take the case to circuit court. Like a similar Tampa case where a developer won, Fuel Group's project meets zoning rules but was denied on more subjective criteria.

Fuel Group first brought plans for a 32-story building on the property, but the EDC shot that down in May, saying it would bring too much traffic, noise and activity to the Old Northeast neighborhood it borders. The developer came back in August with the 23-story plan, but neighbors' complaints again convinced the EDC the project did not belong.

"The law, the city staff, the EDC, all have told you this project is not in harmony," said Nicole Durkin, attorney for the neighborhood.

Staff had originally approved both versions of the hotel. But, Durkin said, only after the EDC heard from the public could it judge neighborhood compatibility.

Weaver has said a denial would parallel the Tampa case where Citivest was denied permission to build on Bayshore Boulevard because of complaints its building was too tall. Courts ruled twice that Citivest met the zoning rules and an architectural review board's dislike of the height could not trump that.

Fuel Group planned to make the 257-foot building a Westin hotel with 154 rooms and 60 condos. A restaurant, cafe and meeting space rounded out the plan that also had more than twice the required parking spaces included in a sail-shaped structure.

But the building would have been nearly the tallest and certainly the densest development along Fifth Avenue N, an area neighbors said should transition down in intensity from an active downtown core.

[Last modified October 5, 2007, 00:05:02]