SIESTA KEY – The days of Siesta Key’s
reputation as a quaint yet quirky island community might
soon be over.
Three developers have lined up to pore over paperwork with
Sarasota County planners, pitching what might become, if
approved by elected officials, a beach hotel renaissance on
Siesta that opponents fear would fundamentally change the
character life along the Gulf of Mexico.
Two of the three are asking the county to throw out current
density and height requirements to make room for seven-story
beach resorts. The proposals also include changes to the
zoning regulations could allow for much higher development
densities.
“This opens the floodgates for other intense development on
the key,” said Mark Spiegel, a representative of the Beach
Villa at the Oasis.
Spiegel is part of a growing consortium of homeowners
associations, condominium councils and other organizations
that have joined to oppose the projects.
Here’s a glimpse of the proposals; they are all within
blocks of each other and are still in the county’s
development review process:
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Mike Holderness wants to expand his Siesta Key Resort on Ocean Boulevard from 55 to 170 rooms.
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Robert Anderson wants a second Village hotel with its entrance on Calle Miramar. The 170-room, seven-story hotel would replace existing single-story buildings. It also calls for a 223- space parking garage, a restaurant and a rooftop pool and bar. Traffic is proposed to come and go along Calle Miramar.
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Gary Kompathecras wants to build a seven-story, 120-room hotel at Siesta Key’s south entry on Old Stickney Point and Peacock Roads. The proposed structure would sit on a little over one acre.
Siesta Key’s charm has long been
protected by a set of policies, restrictions and building
codes.
Those regulations affect hotel accommodations, limit
building heights, control building density and setbacks. The
proposed changes, if approved by elected officials, could
impact protections of other county barrier islands.
It would set a “dangerous precedent,” Spiegel said.
While Anderson’s and Kompathecras’ hotels would exceed the
35-foot height restriction on Siesta Key, all three
developers want special exceptions to raise the permitted
height to 83 to 85 feet.
Developers are also asking for another important change:
Hotels on the barrier islands are limited to 13 rooms an
acre or 26 an acre without a kitchen. More than 100 rooms
per acre are proposed for each of the three hotels.
To do that, the county would need to change zoning
regulations and eliminate any restriction or allow much
higher densities.
So far, no public hearings have been scheduled on any of the
proposals.
Opposing the projects is a group calling itself the Siesta
Key Coalition. The group has grown to include
representatives of a dozen homeowners associations, the
leadership of the Siesta Key Condominium Council and the
Siesta Key Association. Collectively, the group represents
about 8,500 households on Siesta Key.
The coalition says it does not oppose development on Siesta
Key, as long as it is consistent with the existing zoning
regulations. Opponents worry that owners of the 40 acres of
similarly commercially-zoned land on Siesta Key could
request similar height, density and use exceptions.
“Even if amendments are limited to this one site, it will
set the stage for other developers to sue the county due to
precedent,” Spiegel said.
Opponents also contend that the influx of hundreds more
visitors to an already busy entrance to the Siesta Key
Village, and to Beach Access 5 threatens bicycle and
pedestrian safety, reduces public accessibility to Siesta
Key’s sugar sand shoreline.