BELLEAIR – Following passage last May of Florida Senate Bill 360, the so-called “Community Renewal Act” alternatively dubbed “sprawl legislation” by opponents, which allows for sweeping changes to the state’s growth management laws, the owners of the Belleview Biltmore applied for an extension to the time they’re allowed to file for a building permit.
The time period was set to expire this May.
Town Attorney David Ottinger advised the Town Commission March 16 that the law allows for automatic filing extensions for existing approved projects like the Biltmore restoration.
Last year town officials granted their own extended time period for filing a building permit application after two residential groups, one in Belleair and the other in Sand Key, filed suits challenging variances granted for the Biltmore renovation project by Clearwater and Belleair officials. Those suits have now cleared the courts, but the result has been nearly a year of delays to the start of the restoration project.
The Biltmore owners, Latitude Management Real Estate Investors, had previously announced a planned reopening of the hotel/spa complex in 2012. The Biltmore was officially closed May of 2009.
LMREI now has a two-year extension to the permit application window; in other words LMREI has until May 2012 to apply for a building permit.
After Tuesday’s commission meeting Ottinger explained that even as challenges to SB 360 are in the offing the new rules governing, “the two-year extension would likely be preserved and still apply.”
Tuesday commissioners heard two opinions on yet another issue linked to home rule, a potential restriction on the residential use of phosphorous-rich fertilizers.
A proposed county ordinance encourages local governments to enforce a limited restriction of the use of fertilizers containing phosphorous during Florida’s rainy season May through September.
The county has determined that excess runoff from residential sources is a major contributor to algae blooms similar to the one this past summer that stretched 14 miles long and persisted for four months.
Cathy Harrelson of the Suncoast Sierra Club and board chair of that group’s Coastal Task Force spoke to the commissioners, urging them to adopt the county’s regulations approved this past January.
Those recommendations which are not binding on local governments are, according to Harrelson, the substitute use of a 50 percent slow-release fertilizer that may be used twice a year before and after the rainy season.
“The regulations call for a one-year phase-in so that retailers have an opportunity to stock up on the slow release product,” Harrelson said.
Harrelson explained that during the rainy season or summer when most homeowners apply fertilizer products, natural nitrogen from condensed forms in the atmosphere provide plant nutrients through normal rainfall. Excess fertilization during the rainy season ends up as runoff which in turn stimulates coastal algae blooms.
Andy Neiswender, golf course superintendent at Belleair Country Club, told the board, “I believe we should take some action, but I’m just opposed to a total four-month ban.”
Neiswender said he was concerned that a residential ban now might pave the way for a ban on commercial use in another four to five years.
“That would be catastrophic for our industry,” he said.
Neiswender suggested a course that included training and licensing for professional use of fertilization might be a preferable alternative.
Under the current county guidelines playing fields and golf courses would be exempt from the proposed seasonal ban.
