Six-month building moratorium adopted for Marina District

CLEARWATER BEACH – In hopes of making the Beach by Design master plan for Clearwater Beach work the way its drafters envisioned when it was adopted in 2001, the City Council last week imposed a six-month moratorium on most new construction in the Marina Residential District. City planners will use the stand-down to revise BBD to attract large redevelopment projects to the 14-acre Marina District.“It’s the one area of the beach that has not experienced redevelopment, compared to other areas of the beach,” Gina Clayton, the city’s assistant planning director, told the council.In fact, only two of the 70 site plans for Clearwater Beach redevelopment that have been submitted since BBD was adopted have been in the district, which is bounded by Clearwater Harbor on the east, Poinsettia Avenue on the west, Pier 60 Drive on the south and the northern property line of Belle Harbor on the north. The only project currently pending in the district is a condominium duplex on East Shore Drive.Ideally, the city would like to see a single developer buy up the entire Marina District and present a coordinated plan for redeveloping it. Barring that, 5-acre redevelopment projects would be the second choice, and 2.5-acre projects would rank third.But the district’s hodgepodge of shallow, individually-owned lots makes large-scale redevelopment projects difficult to assemble. As an incentive, BBD waives certain height restrictions for large redevelopment projects.The city has an ulterior motive for wanting large redevelopment projects. BBD requires developments of 2.5 acres or more to give the city an easement for a public Bayside Boardwalk along the western shore of Clearwater Harbor, and the planning staff fears the boardwalk will never come to fruition unless BBD can be rewritten in a way that is more attractive to developers than the current version.“No consolidated development has occurred since the adoption of Beach by Design and there is great concern about the lost potential for redevelopment that incorporates major public amenities,” said a planning staff memo to the council. “A six-month moratorium is to be considered for the Marina Residential District so that amendments to Beach by Design can be prepared and adopted that will better balance development incentives at lower thresholds with provisions for public benefits and amenities.”The goals of the proposed amendments include developing greater flexibility with regard to the location of the various uses within the district and allowing overnight accommodations throughout the district. It is hoped that the amendments will preserve and ensure public access to the waterfront and provide redevelopment opportunities that are more in line with public expectations.“Normally we would be opposed to a moratorium because of property rights,” Clearwater Beach Association spokesman Jay Keyes told the council. “But in this case, we support it.”“I think this one, personally, is a no-brainer,” Mayor Frank Hibbard agreed. “I think it’s a win-win for everyone.”The moratorium, which will end on Jan. 30, 2007, passed 4-0, with Councilman John Doran recusing himself. It applies to all new construction less than 2.5 acres, although repairs and renovations are exempt.