Marriott resort survives protest

By CHRISTINA HEADRICK

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 21, 2001

CLEARWATER -- Infighting among beach business owners spilled into a city planning board meeting Tuesday, as an attorney representing Days Inn owner Tony Markopoulos attempted to block a next-door neighbor's proposal to build a 250-room Marriott resort.

But after more than three hours of arguments over how the resort would hurt Markopoulos' own plans to develop a resort, the city's Community Development Board unanimously approved the proposed site plan for the Marriott, which is being developed by a team of local developers led by attorney Bill Kimpton.

The board also voted to support a complicated development agreement that outlines the obligations of the city and a company called Clearwater Seashell Resort Inc. to bring the new resort with a 800-car garage inside it to fruition. That part of the deal goes before the City Commission for a vote next week.

In making its approvals, the board okayed requests from the Seashell's developers to:

Waive height limits of about 35 feet to allow structures of up to 150 feet in height.

Allow 250 rooms to be created on land now limited to 65.

Waive setbacks requiring that the building be at least 10 feet from sidewalks around it, allowing the building to come up to the lot lines.

Give the developers -- subject to the commission's approval -- portions of Third Street and S Gulfview Boulevard so they will have enough land to develop their resort. The plan for the resort includes a total reconfiguration of south beach roadways.

City planners justified the exceptions by saying the Seashell resort proposal would spur a renaissance of rundown, 1950s beach tourist facilities.

"We feel like it meets the design guidelines and it will add value to the beach," Planning Director Ralph Stone said.

But Gordon Schiff, an attorney for Markopoulos, argued that the resort would dwarf Markopoulos' properties just to the north, cutting off light and views and curtailing their potential for redevelopment.

Schiff also complained that waivers of city rules for the Seashell were "extreme," and the resort's developers were trying to cram too much building on too little space.

"What we have here is what I would term a tower play," Schiff said. "It's simply cramming too big a development on too small a property."

He also objected that the agreement appears to obligate the city to take future actions like amending the city's overall comprehensive plan for growth and vacating the roadways. And he protested that Markopoulos had yet to be given a final draft of the agreement to review.

On the other side, Richard Gehring, a planner representing the Seashell, tried to imply that the objections were sour grapes. Markopoulos hasn't been able to get approval for an even more massive project next door from the city, Gehring said, and now he's trying to get back at the city through the Seashell project.

"There is another agenda," Gehring told board members Tuesday. "And it relates to an unsuccessful proposal on a northern parcel."

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