BELLEAIR – The Town Commission Tuesday evening moved back its schedule for the vote expected to approve two variances to the city’s code requested by the owners of the Belleview Biltmore Resort.
Legg Mason Real Estate Investors LLC and the town had hammered out a compromise to the variances, which the owners said they needed in order to make the restoration of the hotel economically viable.
The requested variances would, among other things, allow the owners to exceed the town’s current height limit for new construction and add a spa to the project that would be outside the traditional boundaries of the historic property.
Opponents, claiming that financial gain was not a legal ground for granting such variances to city building code, had sought to limit the project to just restoration and preservation and not allow for expansion.
Reached at his office Wednesday morning, Town Attorney David Ottinger said, “The vote, which was simply to memorialize the agreement reached between the parties during the public hearings, was put back in order to have enough time to ensure that the ordinances language accurately reflected the details of the agreement.”
