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City hearings set for turtle, setback codes
By DAVE SHELTON
Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008 |
BELLEAIR BEACH – Public hearings are scheduled for September on new laws intended to protect sea turtles and to ban steps too close to the curb. Both codes were introduced at an Aug. 4 City Council meeting that ended before its usual 6:30 p.m. starting time.
The meeting began early, after a special workshop meeting held to review the city’s proposed 2009 budget. It ended before 6 p.m., a half-hour before the council usually convenes.
Wording on both ordinances had stalled their introduction in July as Mayor Lynn Rives balked at the turtle protection ordinance and county building inspectors said that as proposed, the setback code wouldn’t ban steps in a home’s setback zone 25 feet from property lines.
City Attorney Paul Marino first proposed the turtle protection law after learning Belleair Beach was the only Pinellas coastal community without such legislation. The proposal sets penalties for lights that cast shadows on the beach after 9 p.m. during nesting season.
Rives was concerned that property owners weren’t aware of the proposal, many of them beachfront condominium owners being only part-time residents who are out-of-state now.
The ordinance was approved on first reading unanimously as was a resolution urging residents to dim their lights immediately. Penalties in the code won’t take affect until after it is approved after a public hearing at its Sept. 4 meeting.
The council unanimously approved a building code amendment that is intended to stop builders from putting steps to a house’s front door within the 25-foot setback zone inside property lines. This has arisen as builders design access to front doors built 10-feet or more above potential water levels according to federal requirements in flood zones.
Council members said homes are being erected up to the 25-foot line then stairs are built. Such designs have been approved by county building inspectors who noted stairs were barred but that fewer than four steps did not fit the definition of stairs.
Marino said he has redefined steps in rewriting the code and received assurances from the county Planning Department that any steps would be barred by the new wording.
Council members Richard Crowl and Kathy Mortensen noted the new code will not halt a rising path without any steps.
This code also will face a public hearing before a final vote on its adoption during the Sept. 4 meeting that will start at 4 p.m. with a special meeting for considering the 2009 budget and proposed tax rate.
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Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008
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