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Today's Letters: Condo residents foresee problems

Re: Biltmore owner listens, tweaks, moves forward, story, Dec. 30

This article regarding the renovation of the Belleview Biltmore hotel included a rendering of the spa, which the developer plans to build on the site presently occupied by the hotel's tennis courts. Although there is much in the developer's plans for the hotel's renovation that meets the residents' approval, there is great concern regarding the spa.

The rendering shows a view from Belleview Boulevard of a one-story building with a dormer roof. The view the surrounding condominium buildings have is of an 80-car garage with the spa on top. Belleview Boulevard is on a ridge, and the ground to the west of the boulevard slopes sharply down to the water.

The rendering gives a false impression, in that it does not show measurements, elevations of the surrounding terrain, or indicate the other existing buildings at the site. The old hotel is immediately across Belleview Boulevard from the spa. South Garden VIII, an eight-story condominium with 62 units, is less than 100 feet south of the garage/spa just on the other side of a service road. The units on the north side of building VIII will be looking into the garage, the side of the spa or down on the roof of a large building, rather than on the present tennis courts surrounded by trees and flowering bushes.

Of particular concern is the developer's plan to locate the entrance and exit to the garage onto the service road. The headlights of cars exiting the garage at night will shine directly into the units across the service road, and the exhaust fumes and noise will be equally objectionable.

The service road is a major exit from VIII's garage and an emergency exit for South Garden VI. It is also used by trucks, moving vans, city trash vehicles, etc. The road terminates at a marina and the hotel's docks.

There is a sharp drop in elevation from the corner of Belleview Boulevard to the proposed entrance-exit of the garage less than 100 feet away. This presents a real danger to cars exiting the garage from cars coming down the hill.

The developer plans to put a restaurant in the hotel immediately across the boulevard from the spa, using the 80-car garage for patron parking. One can envision a line of cars extending down the hill from Belleview Boulevard to the garage entrance. Building VIII has owners' cars parked on the south side of the service road, and this will leave just one car width to handle traffic on the service road.

These concerns of our residents, together with a petition and photographs, have been presented to Belleair commissioners and copies given to the hotel. It is the hope of the residents that the developer will make the changes in the plans that we feel are needed.

Ralph J. Hoey,president, South Garden VIII

Re: Biltmore owner listens, tweaks, moves forward, story, Dec. 30

Guardhouse plan needs a tweak

The present location of the Biltmore guardhouse accomplishes little in providing full security to the private residents of the complex, since the public must access the Belleview Biltmore Hotel and the Belleair Country Club via the same entry point. Providing appropriate security measures for Biltmore Estates is impossible with the public and private access flowing through this singular control point.

If the Biltmore Estates are to enjoy the full security they seek, the guardhouse must be located on Belleview Boulevard at a point before the first condominium (Bayshore II) and beyond the entrance road to the hotel and country club. Such a location would render the Estates a totally private and fully secure site, while allowing unencumbered access to the public areas of the complex.

With the additional traffic that can be anticipated after the hotel renovations, there is no reason to have a security checkpoint in the current location when most of the visitors are accessing the public facilities. There are a few private homes along Belleview Boulevard that would be outside the secured area, but truth be known, they have never had full security. No resident of the Estates enjoys full security and won't until the guard shack is relocated to the aforementioned location.

In your article, you mention that project architect Richard J. Heisenbottle plans to move the guard shack slightly west to allow up to five cars to line up without obstructing access to nearby homes. With all due respect to Mr. Heisenbottle, a busy day at the resort often results in cars lined up all the way across the bridge and beyond. The guard shack has always been a bottleneck to public access in the current location and it wouldn't be if relocated.

To provide security for parking at the resort and country club would simply require the installation of a guard shack at some point on the entrance road to those facilities.

M. Van Natten, Largo

Re: Traffic calming was the city's goal, letter, Jan. 4

Third option for Cleveland Street

In her letter, in which she vehemently defends Clearwater's Cleveland Street obstacle course, reader Elizabeth France sarcastically suggests that a driver "uncomfortable about driving in a pedestrian-friendly area should think about giving up his driver's license."

Does not Ms. France realize that other than drivers plodding through Cleveland Street or giving up their licenses, there is a far more attractive third option?

Drivers (including me) will simply not drive through the Cleveland Street labyrinth.

I predict that the city's Cleveland Street "improvement" will prove to be counter-productive to local businesses and as popular as the infamous beach roundabout.

Anthony J. Wickel,Clearwater

Re: Electronic newspaper is worth a try one day,Jan Glidewell column, Jan. 2

Paper is easier on readers' eyes

Until the screens on computer monitors become as identically legible as a piece of paper, people are still going to want this stuff printed on a sheet of paper.

I'm a computer technician. I read things on an LCD monitor all day long, and I can tell you from experience that a piece of paper is much easier on your eyes than a computer monitor. If I want to read an article or something off of the computer that is more than a page or so long, I will likely just print the article out, because it's so much easier to read on a simple piece of paper.

It might make more sense to give people an electronic version that allows them to skim through the paper and find the articles they want to read, like they normally do. Then they can print out what they specifically want to read using their own newspaper printing device.

Actually, all of this wouldn't be that big of a deal if people would simply take responsibility for themselves and recycle their paper. Maybe a deposit on paper would help clean some of this up, because that both encourages people to recycle their papers and gets them to go out and clean up what others didn't bother to recycle.

Jeff McElveen, Safety Harbor

Camp so cool, kids didn't mind the cold story and photos, Jan. 6

Kids learn to enjoy the simple things

Thank you for the coverage of the county's best kept secret, Heritage Village. My granddaughter has gone to the Heritage Village summer camp for two years. The day camp runs four weeks. You can enroll for all four or pick a week to fit your vacation schedule. Last year she attended the after-Christmas camp.

Yes, this is a place for our electronically charged kids. Believe me, the key to the future is still knowledge of the past.

She is so proud of the things she learned: how to make a sun shelter, plant veggies, make turn-of-the-century games, do crafts, identify foliage and other "stuff." Each child is safe and cared for. I was so impressed.

For those of you who are fed up with trash cartoons that aren't funny and programs not suited for humans, let alone kids, check this out. The men and women who will be working with your children have a cleared background and actually enjoy being with children.

I volunteer at the gardens and people ask us about a ton of things. Always they ask, "Why are so many children over there?" We explain, and most say they have nothing like that back home.

Before your kids get too old to enjoy the simple things in life, expose them to the heritage of Pinellas County. Give them a peek of what it was before it became what it is. Your child will become a well of information on her county. Children will actually carry on an animated conversation with you about things you won't learn anywhere else.

Who would have thought?

Marie F. Hoke-Singer, Largo

Bright House Networks' decision to move all local government channels from basic cable to the digital tier

Channel switchis a money maker

I feel Bright House is using the excuse that they are aligning the channels within their service area for the convenience of their customers as a ruse. No one I know had a problem finding their channel of interest. Bright House also provides a channel guide channel to assist those who don't know where a certain channel is located.

I truly believe the real reason is a money grab. By bumping all the government and public access channels to the digital tier (600 range), they have now freed up four to five channels on the basic tier that they weren't realizing advertising revenue on.

And if you figure at least 10 minutes of advertising an hour for 24 hours, that would translate to 240 minutes, which could be used to run 480 30-second spots per day. If you multiply that out by 365 days, that would give you 175,200 30-second spots per year per channel.

If you multiply that by even just a minimal charge of $5 per 30-second spot (I'm sure they're charging more than $5 for a 30-second spot), that would generate $876,000 per year per channel of advertising revenue. Multiply that by five channels (the county government channel, city government channel, public school channel, public access channel and college channel) it would generate $4.38-million per year in advertising revenue. This doesn't include charges they would earn on production fees they would charge clients to produce their commercials for them. And it also doesn't include the $12 a year per resident who must now lease a cable box to get access to the digital tier.

So as you can see, it is all about the money and not really about providing their customers with information and access to their local governments and school systems.

Peter Dalacos,Tarpon Springs city commissioner

Your voice counts

You may submit a letter to the editor for possible publication through our Web site at www.tampabay.com/letters, or by faxing it to (727) 445-4119, or by mailing it to Letters, 710 Court St., Clearwater, FL 33756. You must include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity, taste and length.

[Last modified January 8, 2008, 21:33:45]