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What's in dispute in St. Pete Beach

 
Published Nov. 19, 2014

What's in dispute in St. Pete Beach

Just what do opponents of the city's comprehensive plan really want?

One clear issue is how high the city will allow hotels to build.

Another is a fear that more intensive hotel development will clog streets with tourists and stress the city's infrastructure.

The city's new attorney, Andrew Dickman, recently published a four-page analysis of the latest objections included in a state administrative challenge to the comprehensive plan.

Here are just a few of the specific plan objections he found:

•The city's failure to prove that water supplies, public services and facilities and sewer and stormwater systems are adequate to handle growth;

• A significant increase in temporary lodging units in the large resort district exceeding a proper ratio of hotel to residential units;

• Inadequate "analysis of the environmental, socioeconomic and fiscal impact" of development;

•Lack of "meaningful guidelines" for development regulations;

• Inadequate evacuation planning;

• Excessive impervious surface ratios (pavement versus grass) in the hotel district.

Sheila Estrada, Times correspondent