Evening Session — January 15, 2026 FINAL
Chapters
Alan Clendenin
5:06:25PM Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Tampa City Council evening session. I would like to call this meeting to order. Roll call, please.
Charlie Miranda
5:06:31PM Here.
Guido Maniscalco
5:06:32PM Here.
Lynn Hurtak
5:06:32PM Here.
Naya Young
5:06:35PM Here.
Luis Viera
5:06:35PM Here.
Bill Carlson
5:06:36PM Here.
Alan Clendenin
5:06:37PM Here.
The Clerk
5:06:38PM You have a physical quorum.
Alan Clendenin
5:06:39PM Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Mr. Daniels. Mr. Daniels, I find that -- sir. Mr. Shelby, go ahead.
Martin Shelby
5:06:53PM Council, if I can, Martin Shelby, City Council attorney. Ive been asked to read rule 5 from councils rules of procedure, which is entitled public participation and rules of decorum. So I would like to read sections f, g, h, and I. IT reads as follows: speakers shall refrain from disruptive behavior including making vulgar or threatening remarks and shall refrain from making personal attacks and comments shall be directed to the Council as a body and not to individual Council members. No one present during a Council meeting shall engage in disruptive behavior, including intentionally making or causing to be made any disruptive sound or noise or displaying signs or graphics in a manner disruptive to the proceedings. The chair shall rule out of order any member of the public who shall speak without being recognized or who shall not -- or who shall not address Council from the podium or other established speaker area. No person shall approach the dais of the City Council during meetings except Council members and employees of the city unless invited by a member of Council. All persons shall at all times conduct themselves in accordance with Council rules. Persons failing to do so shall be ruled out of order and May be directed at the discretion of the chair to be removed from the Council chamber. Such person shall not thereafter be readmitted to the Council chamber or city hall during the remainder of that days meeting. Thank you, mr. Chairman.
Alan Clendenin
5:08:42PM Thank you, Mr. Shelby. Mr. Daniels. [ sounding gavel Mr. Daniels. Mr. Daniels, I rule you out of order. Ill give you an opportunity to leave Council Chambers, to come back into order by changing your attire. If you choose to do that, you can reenter Council Chambers. Im giving you this opportunity now, please, sir. Mr. Daniels --
Martin Shelby
5:09:13PM Could you describe what is the response, if any? Is Mr. Daniels present in this room?
Alan Clendenin
5:09:21PM Mr. Daniels is present in the room and is now paying attention to his telephone. Mr. Daniels, I have ruled you out of order. Please remove yourself from Council Chambers. [ sounding gavel Mr. Daniels, please remove yourself from Council Chambers. Can I ask the police officers to remove Mr. Daniels from the chambers?
Martin Shelby
5:09:42PM Before you do so, Mr. Chairman, forgive me for interrupting. Youre ruling Mr. Daniels out of order?
Alan Clendenin
5:09:48PM Im ruling Mr. Daniels out of order on the basis of his disruptive behavior, and I asked him to leave. He has refused to leave. I am going to request that our officers help Mr. Daniels, assist him in leaving Council Chambers.
Martin Shelby
5:10:03PM Is He now barred for the remainder of todays meeting?
Alan Clendenin
5:10:08PM He is barred from the rest of todays meetings, thank you.
Martin Shelby
5:10:10PM Do you intend to call a recess?
Alan Clendenin
5:10:13PM I am going to recess right now. [ sounding gavel im calling Tampa City Council in recess. City Council, please remove yourself from the chambers and return in five minutes. And for the people in the audience, would you please remain seated while we do the business. Officers, would you assist Mr. Daniels in leaving the chambers, please. [Recess]
5:13:55PM Welcome to Tampa City Council. Roll call, please.
Charlie Miranda
5:13:58PM Here.
Guido Maniscalco
5:13:59PM Here.
Lynn Hurtak
5:14:00PM Here.
Naya Young
5:14:01PM Here.
Bill Carlson
5:14:02PM Here.
Alan Clendenin
5:14:05PM Here.
The Clerk
5:14:06PM You have a physical quorum.
Alan Clendenin
5:14:08PM Thank you very much. Again, never a dull moment at Tampa City Council. So, as you all can probably expect, we have a full chamber and we have folks down stairs as well. Because of the attention that items 1 and 2 has gained and there are a lot of other people here for other hearings tonight, but we wanted to give people an opportunity to request continuations if they wanted to for those hearings.
Lynn Hurtak
5:14:38PM Thats not legal. No, We shouldnt be doing that.
Alan Clendenin
5:14:41PM We covered IT already.
Lynn Hurtak
5:14:42PM Its not the right thing to do.
Alan Clendenin
5:14:44PM We covered IT already. Grant people an opportunity to request IT.
Lynn Hurtak
5:14:48PM Why. We have a full session next month? What are We doing? Were just kicking the can Down The Road. I dont care that im out of order. Tell me that all you want. I disagree.
Alan Clendenin
5:15:00PM Anyway, so well grant people the opportunity if they wanted to request a continuation. If theres anybody that has a hearing tonight and want to request a continuation, you can come forward and do that at this time. Is there anybody that wants to request a continuation? Hearing none, we will move forward with the agenda. Lets clear the agenda. Christopher Demanche, Development Coordination. We have one item to clear from tonights agenda. IT is item 12, file rez-25-112. This item was misnoticed, so we request IT to be removed from tonights agenda.
5:15:37PM Motion to remove item 12 for misnotice? Motion from Maniscalco, second from Miranda. All in favor, Aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Thank you so much.
Lynn Hurtak
5:15:59PM I move to adopt the agenda.
Alan Clendenin
5:16:00PM We have a motion to adopt the agenda from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. More housekeeping, if you are here and plan on speaking on item 1, if you are done speaking, if you would leave Council chambers so we can gradually start clearing to make room for other people to come up, we appreciate that. If you are planning on speaking on item 2 as well, hold on to your number. If you are going to speak on item 1, once you are done speaking, youll clear chambers, go back downstairs and then call you up for item 2, but youll hold on to your number. I think thats IT. ID like to have a motion to open public hearings, please. Motion from Councilman Miranda. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Thank you so much. Item 1, staff. Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. Before we get started, I would like to make a correction for the record. The original transmittal memo that was submitted to Council incorrectly stated that the amendment was found consistent by the Planning Commission at its August 2025 hearing. That statement was a typo and is incorrect. The Planning Commission found the amendment to be inconsistent. This statement is intended to correct IT for the record. With that, I will get into my presentation. Today, I will be presenting tacpa 24-18. This is for the site located at 84 Davis Boulevard. This is privately initiated amendment. IT is small scale in size. Its approximately 1.6 Acres. The request is to change the future land use from residential 50 to community mixed use 35. The subject site is located in the central Tampa planning district. IT is within the Davis Islands urban village. IT is also within the Davis Islands neighborhood and the subject site is in the coastal high hazard area. Here is an aerial of the subject site and the surrounding properties. The site is located at the southwest corner Of Adalia Avenue And Davis Boulevard. Its currently occupied by the Mirasol, which is a seven-story, 58-unit multifamily building. IT was originally constructed in 1926 as a hotel and was later converted into apartments in the 1960s. The site is currently developed at .81 Far. And approximately 36 dwelling units per acre. Although the Mirasol is nearly a hundred years old, IT is not currently subject to any historic preservation protections. IT is not designated as local historic landmark and not listed on the National Register Of Historic Places. However, IT May be eligible for a designation in the future. I did want to note that. The surrounding area includes a mix of housing types, including multifamily buildings, single-family detached homes, and two family dwellings. To the south approximately 325 feet of the subject site is Davis Islands apex park. Marjorie park yacht basin is located to the east of the subject site. To the north, west, and southwest Along Adalia Avenue And Baltic Circle, along here, we have single-family homes that are predominantly zoned RS 50 -- RS 75 and RS 50. The site is also located less than one half mile south of Tampa General Hospital and near commercial services and many Along Davis Boulevard. Ill run through a few images of the subject site. This is looking at the site From Davis Boulevard. This is the front of the Mirasol. This is looking northwest Along Davis Boulevard. The subject site is on the left over here. This is looking southeast Along Davis Boulevard. The subject site is on the right. This is looking north at the subject site. This is looking at an adjacent home from the subject site On Adalia Avenue. This is kind of an example of some of the single-family detached homes Along Adalia Avenue. Here is the adopted future land use map. So as you can see, the subject site is recognized under the residential 50 future land use designation. That is a medium-high residential density land use category, so IT allows up to 50 dwelling units per acre, allows consideration of multifamily, condominiums, those types of buildings. To the west of the subject site, this yellow color, are parcels designated as residential 6. So that is a rather low density land use category. Allows development up to SIX dwelling units per acre and as you can see, there is kind of that immediate transition between residential 50 to the residential 6 along adalia And Baltic Circle. To the north of the subject site, we have parcels designated as residential 10. And then we have residential 35 designated parcels up Along Davis Boulevard. There is some CMU 35 one block south of the subject site. When you zoom out, there are more CMU 35 found Along Davis Boulevard. Here is the proposed future land use map showing the subject site recognized under the community mixed use 35 designation. So this designation is a mixed use designation. Allows a range of uses, anything from commercial general to office to a variety of housing types. IT allows development up to 35 dwelling units per acre and also allows up to 2.0 Far. For residential or nonresidential uses. Currently under the residential 50 designation, the subject site can be considered for 80 dwelling units or just under 70,000 square feet of nonresidential uses, subject to meeting locational criteria. Those would be limited to your neighborhood serving commercial uses. As proposed under the CMU 35 designation, the subject site could be considered for 56 dwelling units or approximately 139,000 square feet of residential or nonresidential uses. This amendment has the potential of introducing some commercial general type uses on the subject site. IT also allows the site to be eligible for the utilization of far. For residential, to calculate residential density on the subject site. So there is a potential for a significant increase in density on this subject site. We sent this out to our partner reviewing agencies. The City Of Tampa staff objected to the request. In August of 2025, the Planning Commission reviewed the application and found IT inconsistent with several policies of the comprehensive plan. While the r-50 designation could be viewed as an immediate transition from nearby r-6 areas, the proposed CMU 35 designation represented a more abrupt change. This could result in a building Mass and scale that are out of character with the surrounding neighborhood, as well as the introduction of certain commercial general uses that could impact nearby residential areas. As a result, the Planning Commission found the request conflicts with policies intended to preserve neighborhood character and ensure compatible development. The request was also found inconsistent with policies related to the coastal high hazard area. Although the proposed amendment would reduce density from 50 to 35 units per acre, the CMU 35 designation allows far. To be used for residential development. Which could result in a significant increase in residential density within the coastal high hazard area. Potential increase conflicts with comprehensive plan policies that direct future population growth away from the coastal high hazard area. And based on those considerations, the Planning Commission recommended that the proposed map amendment be found inconsistent with the goals, objectives, and policies of the Tampa comprehensive plan. And this concludes my presentation. Im available for any questions.
5:25:16PM Does Council have any questions? Hearing none. We have a question. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
5:25:29PM Could someone from the City Of Tampa explain their objections?
Alan Clendenin
5:25:35PM We havent had the staff presentation yet.
Lynn Hurtak
5:25:37PM Oh, they are. Sorry.
Alan Clendenin
5:25:41PM Is City Staff going to do a presentation? Our objections were very much consistent with what the Planning Commission said tonight with the conflict, possible increase of density and intensity, particularly with use of the floor area ratio and the possibility of increasing residential density at the site within the coastal high hazard area. We do have some concerns. You are introducing commercial general uses at the site. So compatibility, not only from a density and intensity standpoint but also just from neighborhood use, where you have a large lot, single-family r-6, next to what will become potentially a commercial general use. Those are the main ones.
Martin Shelby
5:26:38PM Do you have a presentation as well?
Evan Johnson
5:26:39PM I do not.
Alan Clendenin
5:26:40PM No presentation. So well go right to the Applicant. Very good. Applicant. My name is Tyler Hudson. My address is 400 North Ashley Drive. If you would indulge me a moment to get this connected. Can you see my screen?
5:27:33PM Cttv, we need IT on the public screen. There we go. IT is hard to believe. Im still miswriting checks. The story of this land and the building that were talking about tonight, the building, the Mirasol building, which I reminds everybody exists. IT is a real thing. IT is .9 Miles away as the crow flies from where we are standing right now. Davis Islands was dredged back in 1924, over a century ago. Researching the case, I found out that they were able to dredge IT for the sum of $2 million, which is pretty remarkable when You consider IT went from being little grassy key, big grassy key, to the neighborhood community we see today. Interesting that Davis Islands itself had a lot of opposition when IT was created. A lot of the folks who lived in some of the mansions On Bayshore Boulevard opposed IT. Actually went All The Way to the Florida Supreme Courts. They werent successful and IT LED to the incredible Davis Islands community being formed. Youll hear a lot from folks on the davis island community about how much they love their neighborhood today. The hotel opens in 1926. Mediterranean revival building, designed by Martin Hampton, a prot g of Addison Misener. Opened the doors and celebrated by all the major newspapers of Tampa back in the day. Newspapers plural because this is a time when there were multiple newspapers delivering newspapers multiple times a day and a lot of cool stuff we found and talk about later on. IT didnt have a very long run. Foreclosed on in the Great Depression which followed the Florida land bust late 1920s and early 1930s. Another act turned into military housing during World War II. Generation had another act, and the hotel rooms started to get rented out as apartment buildings, apartment units. Thats been the use of the building since the 1960s. The building was built as a hotel. Been operated since the 1960s as apartment units. Were here today for one reason on this agenda item 1, we want to restore the original hotel use to the Mirasol building. A little bit of regulatory history, this is boring. I wont go too deep into this. Its really important to understand that the colors on the map, the letters and numbers, what they mean. 1975, the State of Florida passed the Florida comprehensive planning act saying every jurisdiction You need to have a comprehensive plan. So Tampa adopted its first comprehensive plan in 1980. Breathlessly titled horizon 2000 when the turn of the millennium was still a generation away at that point. They looked at this piece of land, saw what IT was and assigned the r-50 land use, residential 50. That future land use designation has been the same ever since IT was first put on the land. R-50 is unusual for davis island in two respects. The first is that IT is the only piece of r-50 land on davis island. IT is a one of one. That is unusual because as You know, when You see the maps, the colors tend to cluster a little bit. IT is the only piece of r-50 on the island. IT is also the most dense piece of land on davis island. Theres been talk about using far., Using units per acre. Typically, when im here before You, we are advocating on behalf of using far. To have a larger building with a large number of small units inside of IT. Its very important to understand that when IT comes to things like luxury condominiums, units per acre is actually far more valuable because You can put a moderate number of very large units into a building. What is r-50 look like off davis island? IT looks like this. The aquatic condominium at bay to bay and Bayshore. That is r 50. Some of You were here during the Ritz Carlson rezoning which was so nice rezoned IT twice. That was also r-50. This is a high density designation that can predominantly be used for fairly large luxury condominium buildings. We dont care that the far. Is nominal because putting 40, 50 per acre units of large scale units can create a significant building Mass. I want You to bear in mind, the current zoning for the land allows buildings to be constructed up to 120 feet. The Mirasol is 99. This is what were seeking, CMU 35. I think this is a very bread-and-butter category of the comprehensive plan. Its one that You see often. Based on our initial research, IT looks like almost half of the comprehensive plan amendments in the last decade have been to CMU 35. There is precedent for CMU 35 on davis island. There is precedent on East Davis Boulevard. You see that purple piece near the green star, that provides a very interesting historical analog. That was built as the palmerin hotel. IT was built in 1926 by Martin Hampton. IT was like the mirasols little sibling. IT was converted at some time from a hotel use to being a senior care facility. Its now called Hudson Manner, of which there is no relation to me. CMU 35 was assigned to that piece of land in 1980. 1980, everyone has to have a comp plan. Everyone gets a color. That piece of land in 1920s hotel was assigned CMU 35 because IT was still operating as a hotel until the 1980s. IT was still operating short-term rentals in the 1980s. But the Mirasol wasnt. 1980 when planners came around with their color swatches, they said that is an apartment. Thats residential 50. Thats going to be residential. And thats the only question before You all on this agenda item 1 is that quirk of history, does the fact that the building was assigned a residential land use designation in 1980, does that mean IT should never under any circumstance be considered to be a hotel again? Because if You believe that, You should vote no on this. That is the only justifiable reason for a no vote on this, is to believe that hotel use is impossible to accommodate within CMU 35 being mindful of the zoning controls that You, and only You as City Council maintain. East Davis Boulevard. Building is on East Davis Boulevard, An Arterial Road before the fork. You know How Davis Boulevard forks. This is before the fork. That section is An Arterial Road. The highest roadway classification that the city has and its very common in South Tampa to have CMU 35 on arterial roads. I alluded to this just now, this is why were here. R 50 prohibits hotel use. The original use for which this historic and historically unprotected building was constructed was for hotel use. IT is prohibited under the land use that this building currently has full stop. A comp plan amendment like this item 1 is required before You all even can consider what a zoning would look like. How big, how wide, how many parking, where is the garbage, trees, blah, blah, blah. That zoning You all cant even consider a hotel use here unless this item one is approved. This is a very important slide because I am asking that You all make your decision today based on reality and based on facts and based on procedure and process. A comprehensive plan identifies types of uses You can consider. IT provides a framework for evaluating zoning requests. Its a menu. Its a menu. Right now its got a breakfast menu. Were asking for the brunch menu or vice versa. I dont know. There are overlaps, but IT gives You a set of choices. What this doesnt do is grant any new use permissions. Youre going to hear that if You vote yes someone can ask to put a 200,000-square-foot shopping center on the property. Sure, they can ask for that. And I think everyone here with the pink shirts on would be here against that. No one will vote for that. Thats crazy. No one would ask You for that. This does not approve a specific project, this vote. IT gives You the option to approve IT in the future. This isnt your order. Its your menu. Ill repeat this. This comprehensive plan amendment You have here before You right now merely sets the universe of potential uses that You decide with zoning. When You hear from neighbors, folks say this will allow infinite commercial use, 200,000 square feet, to believe that, You have to believe that You all would approve that. I dont think its intentional. They are actually saying they dont trust that Council will have the discretion to appropriately safeguard the comprehensive plan entitlements through a separate zoning. Lets talk about zoning, because that matters and should bear in your consideration. This zoning right now is RM 35. Hotel is a prohibited use. If You vote yes for this twice but no zoning approved, You cant put a hotel here. Nothing changes. Something probably Changes The Way the building looks, but hotel use isnt allowed until You rezone the property. And thats not what this item one is. Your code talks a lot about historic preservation, but its words. Its stuff. Its arrangements of letters on paper. If You want to actually put enforceable preservation Outcomes Into Place, like, for example, having the Applicant commit to obtaining a landmark designation for the property before Co. That sounds like a good idea. You can do that in zoning. Cant do that here. Talk about reliance. That is a latin word. Means to rebound, spring back. This building has sprung back from a lot. 1926 hurricane, 1926 land bust, Great Depression. Converted to military housing, century of change. Think about the thousands and thousands of residents, generations of people that have called this home. Those of You who have dealt with rental property, the wear and tear of multiple generations of people on this building which is somehow still standing. This is an incredibly resilient building, but resilience has its limits, as a lot of people in this room and on the second floor and maybe still on the first floor know all too well. Some of You know all too well. This building got hit very hard by the hurricanes. We could spend the entire time talking about how and In Which Way and how much money its going to cost to fix IT, and why this historic preservation method, this adaptive reuse method of turning this building into a hotel is The Only Way its economically viable. Its been a long time talking about that. Ill give one anecdote. This building has a basement on an island. All the mechanical equipment for the building, HVAC is in the basement. IT didnt fare well. The building needs help. The building needs your help. The hotel use in converting this building is what gives this building a chance to have a 200th anniversary. That is the decision You all have to make. We have worked extensively and ill turn things over to Frank in a second who is the owner of this property, along with his wife Lindsey, we have talked from the beginning about this being a project of historic preservation because that is what IT is. This building was purpose built as a hotel. IT does not have a future as an apartment building. The cost of the renovations far, far exceeds the income that an apartment complex will generate here. Thats just a statement of fact. You cannot convert the building to luxury condos because IT was designed as a hotel, a boutique, small-scale hotel is the only economically viable means of historic preservation for this building. And we have work -- Frank and Lindsey have worked hand in hand with the Historic Preservation Community for a long time. We are honored to have the support of former councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena who has been intimately involved in the project from the beginning, along with the Tampa Bay community design center who I voted and I believe sent in a letter of support. But thats what this is about. I would ask that when we hear from folks on both sides, You bear in mind that You, Council, control the power on what happens here. Making decisions, governing by imagination and scare tactics and worst-case scenarios is not only irresponsible, its the biggest threat this building has ever faced in its hundred years. I would like to ask Frank to come up and say a few words.
5:41:09PM Start with your name, please. My wife Lindsey and I were proud davis island residents. This is where we live and raising our three sons and chosen to invest our future. Were here tonight not just as property owners but as neighbors and stewards of a building that is a hundred years old. Our goal is not maximizing development. Our goal is preservation and our vision is to return the mirasol to the original purpose as small upscale boutique hotel, respectfully operated and reopened to the community. The mirasol was originally built as a hotel and reflected the charm. Over time, IT just lost its purpose. Deferred maintenance accumulated, systems aged, storms took their toll. The 2024 hurricanes impacted major structural, electrical, plumbing, facade, roof needs. Each year that passes makes restoration harder and harder and more expensive. Preserving historic building like mirasol costs far more than building something new. That is exactly why so many historic homes were demolished after the 2024 storms. IT simply didnt make sense for those homeowners to hold on anymore. We are trying to make preservation of the mirasol work. Just like the homeowners, the value of this property is in the land, not the building. Over 20 years, my professional career has been in Multifamily Investment Sales. Based on my experience I can confidently say that a 1.6-acre Parcel on davis island, on the water is worth two to three times more without the existing improvements than with them. Additionally, I was part of the last two sales processes of the building and multiple developers expressed interest in the property. The easiest and most profitable path would have been to erase the history and start over. But that is not who we are. Lindsey and I are not miami or New York developers chasing density or profit. We are a family that lives here and our reputation is here. From the beginning we understood the preservation meant working with the neighbors over the past two years, two and a half years, and we met with neighbors, hosted town halls, open houses and listened carefully. We made real changes in response to what we heard. Preserving the mirasol under this current land use and zoning is unfortunately not financially viable. This rezoning will allow the building to be brought back to its original use as a boutique hotel that serves the community. If the rezoning does not pass tonight, I do not know how the restoration will be able To Take Place, which will likely mean that the loss of the building is inevitable. So tonight, we ask you to view this decision through the lens of realism and preservation. City Council, the truth is, long after this night is forgotten, will you be remembered for preserving the building or its inevitable demise?
5:44:20PM Thank you very much. We have questions. Do you have a question?
5:44:30PM That concludes the applicants presentation. Does Council have any questions for the Applicant? Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
5:44:37PM Im not really sure why your Client was talking about a rezoning when were not talking about a rezoning right now.
5:44:48PM I just want to ask why your Client was talking about a rezoning when were not talking about a rezoning right now.
5:44:57PM Were talking about a land use change right now. Can I speak? Were talking about saving a building. Comp plans are policy decisions that you all make. They are legislative policy decisions. So deciding whether or not a building can be restored to its original historic use, that is very much a policy decision. We are not talking about site conditions and parking. We are talking about whether the historic preservation can legally be allowed to get considered. So I think thats very much appropriate. I would acknowledge there is confusion on the point of comp plan and zoning. So one thing that I failed to mention in my speech was that I am putting on the record, and on behalf of my client, that if the comprehensive plan amendment tonight is moved to a second reading and the zoning is denied, We will withdraw the comp plan amendment prior to the second reading. We have no interest in obtaining a naked comprehensive plan amendment for this project unless IT is approved and accompanied with an implementing rezoning. But I would ask for some grace on both sides on the comp plan zoning point because these are really technical points. There are folks on both sides here who just really like the project or really dont like the project. They are not always going to know the full difference. My apologies for anything I do. I should know better. But youll hear from folks from whom this is their first time here, their first rodeo, and there are some overlaps between the two. This is an unusual circumstance being aimed at an historic building that actually exists today.
Alan Clendenin
5:46:46PM Councilwoman Hurtak. Question for staff.
Lynn Hurtak
5:46:51PM I think actually City Staff. I appreciate IT, Mr. Collins. My question is, if this comp plan goes through, do they have to fix this building? They do not. As Councilwoman noted this is a land use change. IT doesnt address the restoration, any type of historic designation. IT addresses the land. Whether as a policy matter Council thinks IT is a good idea to change from existing land use to requesting land use of CMU 35. There are criteria in the comprehensive plan that describe any change to IT as a major policy decision and some things Council should take into consideration when youre evaluating a request such as this one. That was a little --
5:48:00PM Thank you.
Bill Carlson
5:48:02PM Following that, Mr. Hudson said that with the new entitlement, City Council would have the right to approve whatever would be allowed under zoning. But just for US and for the public, could you describe what else could be -- talked about IT as being a menu of items, what are the other menu items under this category? What else could be put there?
Susan Johnson-Velez
5:48:28PM That might be a question for staff.
Bill Carlson
5:48:30PM Thank you.
Susan Johnson-Velez
5:48:43PM I will say -- Susan Johnson-Velez. Generally speaking, IT would allow any of the zoning categories that are allowable under the CMU 35 or any uses that are allowed under the CMU 35. I think Mr. Collins can elaborate on that a little bit.
Alan Clendenin
5:49:02PM Start with your name.
Danny Collins
5:49:03PM Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. So, yeah, this request would introduce the consideration of the commercial general zoning district, and just a few different types of uses that could be considered would be a hotel, a Microbrewery, retail sales, shoppers goods, Vet Office, Vocational School. Those are some of the types of uses that could be considered in the CG.
Alan Clendenin
5:49:36PM Go ahead.
Bill Carlson
5:49:36PM Mr. Hudson showed a picture of the Ritz Carlson. If this building was not there, if IT was condemned or torn down for whatever reason, could something like the Ritz-Carlton be built there under this category?
Danny Collins
5:49:55PM Can you repeat that?
Bill Carlson
5:49:56PM Hudson showed a picture of the Ritz-Carlton as being under the same category. If this building was condemned or torn down for whatever reason, could a building like the Ritz-Carlton be built In Its Place under this category?
Danny Collins
5:50:10PM If the city deems the Ritz-Carlton as hotel, IT could be considered under the CMU.
Alan Clendenin
5:50:18PM I believe the question is, if this hotel property -- they tear down the building, under the future land use currently enjoyed by this property, could you build something comparable to the Ritz-Carlton under the future land use on this piece of property? Condos. Could you build a condo tower of the scale of the Ritz-Carlton?
Danny Collins
5:50:47PM Yeah, so Condos could be considered under the residential 50 and CMU 35 category. Am I answering that correctly?
Alan Clendenin
5:50:58PM I think so. I understand the answer. Mr. Hudson, I have a question, please. There is an applicant representative registered online, Ben Deshiply. Is he part of your applicant presentation? No. Okay. Ill consider him public comment. Very good. Any further questions for the applicant on the future land use? Hearing none, we will proceed to public comment. We have one registered speaker. Im going to recognize them first. Then ill recognize Todd Pressman. Ben Deshiply, are you on and can you hear me? Not on. Going once, going twice, gone. Then we have Elizabeth Murray. Elizabeth Murray, are you on? Elizabeth, if you can hear me, please unmute yourself.
5:52:10PM Can you please turn on your video as well? Elizabeth, if you can hear me, start with your name and you have three minutes. My name is Elizabeth Murray. Can you hear me and see me?
5:52:24PM We can hear you. We dont need to see you. You can proceed. I had the privilege of growing up on davis island in the '90s and 2000s. Back then, the island was my playground. I remember total freedom of grabbing my bike to meet friends across the island without worrying about significant traffic or walking my dog around the block without fear of stranger danger. My Parents didnt have to worry either because they knew that the island was a family first, safe environment. But today im looking at the island through a bit of a different lens. I am a new mother. If you could see me on camera, im holding my three-month-old son. So as I consider the environment that I want for him to grow up in, I find myself reflecting deeply on the childhood that I had here on davis island. And I want him to have that same sense of independence I had -- the ability to explore a neighborhood that is safe, quiet, and predictable. However, the proposal to expand and convert the Mirasol Apartments into a hotel can put that legacy at risk. Introducing potentially 200 or hundreds of transient guests into a quiet residential neighborhood every single day fundamentally changes the nature of these streets. The village feel of davis island exists because we all are a community of stakeholders. I remember as a child getting ice cream at java and cream every single Friday afternoon with my best friend and the owner, Dennis, knew our orders by heart and always kept a space for US to play outside, but as I grew older, we swapped java and cream in the afternoon for tates pizza at night and our parents allowed US to go alone because they knew we had a village there with US. We had neighbors looking out for one another. But when you add transient visitors to a small island like davis island, you are no longer surrounded by neighbors. You are surrounded by strangers. Hotel guest here for a night or two has no tie to our history and no personal investment in the well-being of our children. So by approving this, we would be trading our childrens peace of mind for commercial expansion. My childhood set the standard for what I hope my son will experience here. I hope that the next generation of children on davis island will be able to stand here one day and say they felt The Same Way I did, with a sense of security and freedom in the davis island community. Thank you.
5:54:58PM Thank you, Elizabeth. Mr. Pressman. On Their Way up.
5:55:12PM Mr. Shelby.
Martin Shelby
5:55:15PM Do you intend to use a speaker waiver form? They were routed downstairs. I see them here.
5:55:23PM I believe theres going to be significant use of speaker waiver forms -- I believe theres going to be significant use of speaker waiver forms, at least thats my assumption. In order to effectively use a speaker waiver form, the people who waive their time have to be in the Chambers. Would you like IT?
Alan Clendenin
5:56:01PM Pause for one second.
Martin Shelby
5:56:17PM Just a reminder for members of the public on the second floor, in order for You to waive your time, You have to be present in the chambers and acknowledge your presence when your name is called in order for the Speaker to be given an additional minute for each of the three minutes that You waive. I see three people, five names on the list, two more coming in. IT is powerpoint number 1, please.
Alan Clendenin
5:56:44PM IT will be up in a minute.
Martin Shelby
5:56:46PM I see some people in front of me. If you could acknowledge who you are, Virginia Johnson. Thank you. Zelda Musson. Thank you. Clair Freedman. Thank you. Jim Davis. Thank you. Melissa Spark. Thank you. Thats five people, additional minute each plus the three Mr. Pressman has would be a total of eight minutes. If I can just also remind people and also particularly the public, this being the first time the speaker waiver form is being used, you can only appear if you are waiving your time on one persons speaker waiver form. You cannot waive your three minutes for multiple speakers. Just know that if your name has been called, ill be retaining these and hopefully the names should not appear again. Im not saying you would do that. I want to let the public know, especially those people not familiar with the process. Thank you.
Bill Carlson
5:57:51PM Marty, so people who -- people on a waiver form now and the next item, thats per item, right? They can only be on a waiver form once per item?
Martin Shelby
5:58:01PM Only on a waiver form once per item. Remind Council and I remind the public that the item before You is a legislative matter. IT is the Comprehensive Plan, future land use map amendment. That is before You now. Items related to rezoning will be discussed again for item number 2 with a different criteria and different subjects, and You will have an opportunity to speak to both items one of the Comprehensive Plan and item two, the rezoning. You could appear on the speaker waiver form twice because Somebody might give IT to You for item one. Somebody might give IT to You for item number two.
Charlie Miranda
5:58:44PM What is the maximum time that they can ask for?
Martin Shelby
5:58:53PM Seven people can waive three minutes for seven additional minutes. Every Person holding a speaker waiver form is entitled to a maximum of ten minutes, assuming that every name is checked off.
Charlie Miranda
5:59:04PM I dont know who -- what the other three people are doing here.
Alan Clendenin
5:59:08PM Those of You that do not have seats and if your name is already called for speaker waiver, You can resume your seats on the second floor. Thank You for coming up and acknowledging your presence.
Martin Shelby
5:59:35PM Thats eight minutes, Madam Clerk.
Alan Clendenin
5:59:38PM Go. Todd Pressman, 200 Second Avenue south, number 451 In St. Petersburg. I am happy and proud to represent as an agent one of the abutting property owners directly and working with the hundreds of residents, citizens, and neighbors indirectly on this request. I want to start by showing you that the entire planning establishment of the city and the county are recommending denial. That includes the Planning Commission staff recommending denial, the City Zoning Department recommending denial, and your Planning Commission board and your appointees, of course, included voted unanimously in denial of this request, along with strong impacted community opposition that youll hear a lot from, including the several residents on davis island who were generous enough to donate their time. And this is one mapping of opposition from the Planning Commission. Tremendously updated that we will present to you. A wide range of petitions and signatures. And not just simple petitions and signatures and letters, but really in-depth facts as well as emotion. But lets look at the barometer. Very simple barometers. This is a building coverage increase by our math at 254%. This is a 240% increase per our math of the number of units proposed under the future land use that would be permitted under the future land use, plus more intensive commercial uses. This would be a 100% increase in the floor area ratio. And taking all that into account is a significant reduction of parking by 40%. That equates to approximately 163 parking spaces. That would be, by my math, short of about 66 parking spaces every day, every hour, seeking closest nearby parking, which doesnt include stacking for ubers or uber eats. IT doesnt seem like anybody really goes and gets their food anymore. I still do. Stacking for taxis, and activity at a hotel. This is what the situation is now in terms of overflow onto the streets. This is adalia. These are Some Other Street views that you can see where there already is parking issues on the adjacent residential streets. So the increase change of use is 58 apartment units. Under the future land use amendment would be 118 hotel rooms. And a commercial uses, condos, IT would be approximately 130 new units. This is a paradigm shift of use from residential, which would then, as the staff told you, would include commercial general uses. I confirmed that IT would include, my understanding, event facility, parties, hotels, weddings, corporate events, new years, holidays, parties, loud music, weddings, bar mitzvahs, et cetera, allow the hotel, IT would introduce commercial general uses, barlounge would have the alcohol use required. So when you look at the locational aspect, situational aspect with the Mirasol you begin to see that the impact will be into single-family. So you can see single-family is the impacted source and focus. But, Council Members, its much more than that, because this would be sort of like a double tap. Youre used to seeing impacts of projects to homes next door and On The Street. In this scenario, as you can see, the backyards are a quiet residential canal. So all those intensities and all the intensifications on the future land use amendment are going to be both felt On The Street, at the homes, and in the backyards. Because, again, you have this quiet residential canal that will be impacted. This is one shot of IT. This is another shot of IT. Thats why your Planning Commission has told you and they report to you that lead to massing and scale concerns. The site borders a very low density area. Additionally, CMU 35 allows for CG commercial uses. Thats again, a paradigm shift of uses from residential to your main commercial category. Thats why your City Planning Department in their recommendation and they reported to you that they have concern for residential single-family existing as ive shown you. They say to the north, west, southwest will change the fabric of the existing residential in the immediate area. This is the immediate area. But here is the kicker on zoning, when you look at future land use categories. When you look at CMU 35 next to r 6, that is the highest category abutting the very lowest category in the entirety of davis island. IT doesnt happen anyway on davis island. This is your comprehensive plan chart. This is all your categories of future land use categories. Youre going from r-6, one of the lowest, CMU 35, one of the highest, that is a 14 category jump. And here is the comparison to put IT in perspective for you. If you look at Trader Joe's, somewhat infamous and pointed to as being business intensity next to residential, their category jump is from r-20 to CMU 35. That is a 12 category jump. What you would approve tonight in the future land use category is a 14 category jump. Each one of those categories are major jumps. So this would be setting up a future land use category that is, in my opinion, far worse than what you hear about at Trader Joe's and that unfortunate situation. Your Planning Commission notes also that while davis island designates the area as a mixed use, the actual development pattern for mixed use is three blocks away. In regard to some of the comments that my friend Tyler Hudson made, I do want to say that if you are interested in historic designation, they have owned the site I think for five years. You can file the papers tonight. You can file historic preservation five years ago, two years ago, week ago or tonight. In fact, I actually had the papers here. I would suggest, in my opinion, with all due respect, that is a bit of a transparency issue. Ive also heard, again, Mr. Hudson say, in my opinion, my impression, dont pay too much attention to the land use amendment because the zoning is really important. Dont consider too much of the land use because weve got to get to the zoning so you know what youre getting. With the greatest respect to him and to you, in my opinion, that would reverse how you review future land use amendments in every circumstance. You concentrate and approve the future land use amendment for what IT allows. If you agree with IT, then you move forward. But the CMU 15 -- or the CMU category they are asking for is a CMU category. And you have to judge that and evaluate IT. So with that, we appreciate your attention and consideration. There are many folks who are here that are residents. In summary, Council Members and Mr. Chairman, this is ten pounds of sugar in a five-pound bag. When you ask for 40% reduction in parking, that becomes ten pounds of sugar in a three-pound bag. And these residents and this community will be decimated. IT will forever change their community. IT will, in our opinion, destroy IT, because this will be taller, bigger, deeper, wider, thicker, more dense on the same size property. We appreciate your attention and consideration. Thank you.
6:07:40PM Thank you, Mr. Pressman. Jane. Do you have a speaker waiver form?
6:07:53PM Why dont you call the names. If you are downstairs and you hear your name for Mr. Shelby, would you immediately come upstairs to be recognized so we can allocate your time? Mr. Shelby.
Martin Shelby
6:08:14PM Ill try to read these. Val Black. Jeff Starman who lives on 545 l-a-d -- avenue, Michelle Davies, Jeff Hills, Ed Moore, Regina Siewert, and Nancy Wynn.
Alan Clendenin
6:08:38PM Can you read the name again, please?
Martin Shelby
6:08:42PM I wasnt watching.
Alan Clendenin
6:08:44PM If he read your name, would you raise your name, please.
Martin Shelby
6:08:49PM Could you stand up? I see one person.
Alan Clendenin
6:08:52PM What was your name?
Martin Shelby
6:08:58PM Thank you, I will check you off, Ms. Davies.
Alan Clendenin
6:09:01PM Valerie Brown.
Martin Shelby
6:09:04PM Black. Thank you. Jeff Hills. Im sorry. If you can go back to jeff. Your last name is? 78 Adalia Avenue.
6:09:32PM Thank you, sir. Anybody else? Ms. Wynn, thank you. Thank you, ms. -- is there a gentleman by the name of Jeff, first name Jeff?
Alan Clendenin
6:09:49PM Do we have a Jeff that signed a speaker waiver form downstairs?
Martin Shelby
6:09:54PM Last name starts with s-t-a, I believe.
Alan Clendenin
6:09:58PM Jeff S-T-A, possibly.
Martin Shelby
6:10:03PM Give IT a minute.
Alan Clendenin
6:10:04PM Those of you already acknowledged, you can go back and take your seats. Thank you very much. Jeff is coming. Jeff, can you state your name?
Martin Shelby
6:10:30PM Thank you very much, Sir. Seven names for a total of ten minutes.
Alan Clendenin
6:10:34PM Thank you, start with your name. You have ten minutes. Good evening, City Council. My name is Jane Graham, attorney at sunshine City law. I represent John And Ana Murray, who have lived at 122 Adalia Avenue for over 30 years, two doors down from the Mirasol. The murrays agree and support the professional recommendations from City Staff, County Planning Staff, and the Planning Commission's 7-0 unanimous finding of inconsistency for the land use amendment that you are considering tonight and strongly urge your denial. IT is inconsistent with numerous sections of the Comprehensive Plan, doubling the existing intensity, introducing a broad range of incompatible commercial uses, negatively impacting the quality of life, safety and character of the neighborhood and aggravating safety during hurricane evacuations and floods. Mr. Hudson said the only reason that they are here tonight is for the preservation of the Mirasol as a building, but when you look at what they are actually asking for, its double the intensity and they could be asking for lower land use designations to still become a hotel. As we sit in a full house tonight and you have received hundreds of comments from both for and against, its important to remember that land use decisions are not a popularity contest, and they must be based on specific criteria in both the City and county code and state statutes, and they have to be internally consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, the document which controls development in Tampa. The land use change means that you are changing the amount and type of development that can occur on a piece of land in a permanent And Significant Way. As Mitchell alluded to in her earlier comments, the Comprehensive Plan speaks to this. I want to read you a portion of IT so you get perspective as this discussion goes forward tonight. An amendment of the future land use map in particular is a declaration that growth and development pattern initially sought by the City in a particular location through thoughtful adoption of the Comprehensive Plan is no longer appropriate. Future land use map changes not functionally related to the overall purposes expressed in the map and policies contained herein could seriously undermine the integrity of the map and other provisions of the Comprehensive Plan itself. Then IT goes on to say, IT is a stated public purpose that growth and change in neighborhoods must be managed so that the quality of life in this part of the City form is maintained and enhanced. Okay, so what does this mean? Land use map amendments are a big deal. And in this case, you have clear and unanimous recommendations from your professional staff that this is inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan, citing at least 24 different sections of the Comprehensive Plan. The City Staff said IT best, that IT actually changes the fabric of the neighborhood. You dont want to be doing this just because someone bought a piece of land and they have a dream to turn IT back into a hotel. Tonight, you will hear from a variety of experts, including Charles Goatier, land use planner with five decades of experience, who has found independently the same findings as professional staff. And he will speak to that. The Applicant has the burden to demonstrate land use changes are supported by existing facilities and infrastructure and they have not shown that either. You will hear from a Traffic Engineer, Drew Roark, how the potential for commercial general uses, which could potentially double the intensity and change use, exponentially increase the potential for traffic. Now, lets stop a second, because as a land use map amendment, this is legislative. This is discretion. This is using your ability as legislators to think, what is right for the City? And think about the location of the geography. In the big picture, traffic on davis island is where tgh is, the Tampa General Hospital. That is the only level one trauma hospital in the Tampa Bay area. When you hear concerns about traffic getting backed up, you are really playing fire -- playing with fire. And there is a potential choke point at the narrowest area of the island. Please keep that in mind as youre kind of looking at this. Its just not functioning of some hotel. Its a Geographically Significant Place. The Applicant has the burden to show that the area has changed, justifying this change. In this case, they argue that IT is for Historic Preservation. But as has already been mentioned, no Historic Preservation has been applied for. There are lots of letters of support and a whole media campaign about saving the Mirasol but tonight they are not actually asking for historic designation. What they are asking for in reality is a land use change which literally more than doubles the amount of development on the site. With the far. From one to two. So when we talk about reality, what is the true reality here. You will hear from lots of supporters that they want the Mirasol as a place they can go, a restaurant, a nice kind Of Gathering Place, and that sounds great. You know what? You can actually do that under r-50 right now. And if you look in the Comprehensive Plan, they include restaurants and other kind of neighborhood commercial uses. Now, the difference is that under r-50, they require locational criteria to be met, meaning that IT has to be compatible. And so the difference is that IT is the magnitude of development thats double. As Mr. Goatier will explain, IT is the size of three large grocery stores that they are looking at. This is clearly much more invasive than, oh, its a Nice Gathering Place. The compatibility issues with the neighborhood cannot be overstated and your Comprehensive Plan has numerous sections that goals, policies and objectives that do speak to this. Single-family home neighborhood with longtime residents and quality of life, this is a significant intrusion. There are already some intrusive uses that are starting to linger in through Airbnbs and youll hear testimony of that tonight as well. And thats kind of the first step of IT shows if IT is already intrusive, if you actually change IT into a full transient use for hotel, youre going to have serious problems. The potential for a commercial marina use is also extremely invasive and the potential for events, weddings. We havent talked about affordable housing recently tonight at least. I want you to think about this. The Mirasol right now has 58 units. Whether you actually categorize them as affordable, they are a price point where people can go to. They are a safe, Beautiful Place for people to rent. Without getting into the rezoning, which is not appropriate, I would just say by changing IT to the CMU 35, youre opening the door to increase the value of this property to take away the option for this kind of affordable housing in the future. This is a legislative decision. You have the discretion to determine what is in the public good. As your Comprehensive Plan says, growth and change in neighborhoods must be managed so the quality of life is maintained and enhanced. Changing this 1.6-acre To CMU 35 get you that? Instead, in this case, IT is developer driven by an Applicant who bought the property with an idea in his head, but did he do the proper due diligence to really see what a high risk this was and the fact that there are unanimous findings of inconsistency? Perhaps they should have done a little more due diligence. The idea of spot zoning, now, without getting into zoning land use, one of your criteria is if something is an isolated use and CMU 35, what the City found in their analysis is that its completely isolated. And there is no other CMU 35 thats linked to IT. When you look at a map of South Tampa, youll see large tracts of CMU 35 along like henderson, and they do abut some single-family homes, but this is like a very large area that hangs together versus what we have here. Finally, the law doesnt subsidize bad business decisions on the back of every property owner in the neighborhood. So a lot of thought and care has been put into your land use designations on davis island, and we ask that you do not let that be undone by the whim of a Buyer who is trying to maximize their financial investment. Thank you very much. I have some documents to put into the record.
6:20:36PM You can submit them to Mr. Shelby, please.
6:20:40PM For those of you here for public comment, when you came in, you were issued a numerical number. Well call you based on your number. If you have numbers 1 through 10, if you would line up against the green wall here to the left and well call you in the order of your number. Mr. Shelby.
Martin Shelby
6:20:59PM Martin Shelby, City Council attorney. I am sorry to be able to interrupt, but ive been informed -- ms. Graham, would you please, if you can, step to the microphone.
Alan Clendenin
6:21:19PM To the podium.
Martin Shelby
6:21:21PM I believe you said that you had other people who you wish to speak. We have Charles Goatier.
Alan Clendenin
6:21:30PM This is public comment.
Martin Shelby
6:21:35PM Do they have their own speaker waiver forms?
6:21:40PM They havent received a number is what youre saying?
Alan Clendenin
6:21:43PM Everybody should have numbers.
6:21:50PM Well deal with that after We are finished with the numbers. The Way this will go, well call people up in numerical order. I know a lot of people have never been to Council before. We start with our name first for the record. Start with your name and you have three minutes to complete. If you have a speaker waiver form, please bring that to our attention and well submit IT to the Attorney and be able to call for additional minutes. Once you are completed speaking, in order to expedite -- We have over a hundred people signed up for speaking tonight. Once you have completed speaking, if youll go back down to the second floor and take a seat so he can slowly empty this room and bring the next group up as soon as you are done, We would greatly appreciate that. The Gentleman in the blue blazer with the colorful shirt. If you are going to speak on item number 2, hold on to your number when you go downstairs. If you are not planning to speak again for the rest of the evening, please leave your number on the podium.
Bill Carlson
6:22:50PM They only have to say their name, not their address.
Alan Clendenin
6:22:54PM We dont need your address. You just have to state Your Name for the record so the Clerk has Your Name for the record when You start and youll have three minutes.
Martin Shelby
6:23:03PM Just a reminder, if your address is relevant, You can include that as part of your statement. Youre not being precluded from saying your address. Just saying You are not required to. Unless Council would ask You, unless that is relevant for the Council Member. You have a speaker waiver form?
Alan Clendenin
6:23:21PM Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
6:23:22PM I want to remind all speakers that at the 30 second mark, youll get a yellow light will come on. When IT beeps the first time, that doesnt mean You have to stop. When folks are new, if they havent been here before, that can make a lot of People stop. I want to make sure People know they can go on until the red light. Then the red light beep does not stop until You do.
Martin Shelby
6:23:47PM Reminder, again, this is just for item one, the comprehensive plan.
Alan Clendenin
6:23:52PM Only comprehensive plan. If You are only here to speak to comprehensive plan for item one. Were going to start. Start with Your Name and You have three minutes.
Martin Shelby
6:24:01PM Speaker waiver form? Grant. Nice to meet you all. Members of the City Council in attendance with US today, I am coming to you as the insurance advisor for the Mirasol since the purchase of the current owner. I want to talk about the delineation between a building built in 1926 that hasnt really taken any codes into play with new roofs, new hurricane impact windows and new nuances like that. I think a good example is hurricane ian. There were some photos that were quite tragic of newer homes versus older homes. And maybe some of the older homes with newer roofs and newer roofs and newer windows did not get damaged as bad as ones that did not. In order for that to happen here, theres capital that would need to be injected into this historic building. I believe The Only Way that can happen is IT becoming a hotel. Better construction leads to more capacity for Carriers. So I think the residents of davis island should take into account that Carriers do segment capacity by geographic regions. They look at loss ratios, output in those geographic areas when making decisions on rates, deploying the capacity, so better construction equals lower losses equals more competitive rate environments. The second topic that I want to discuss is the overall insurance market here in Florida and how depreciation can really affect an insurance buyer and that was the exact situation here with both the wind claim and also the flood claim. We saw some pictures of the basement earlier and how that plays out on a barrier island when youre trying to recoup flood losses and get your elevator shaft working. This property needs money and IT needs help. Similar to that, single structure have larger hurricane deductibles because IT is based on the percentage of the building at time of loss, not the actual claim. So here, Mirasol had a deductible of over a million dollars, right? When you think of the amount of damage that really has to happen to get to a million dollars when you include depreciation as well, that is a substantial amount. I got the call when the claim occurred. They sprung into action. Still, with depreciation and how our Carriers respond, its a very difficult scenario to assist with as the broker. In closing, older structures on barrier islands are the most difficult to insure. Sometimes IT can be impossible and Actually The Way that this property stands today, IT doesnt even meet the criteria to be insured by citizens. You guys can imagine what that really means. I thank you all for your time.
Alan Clendenin
6:27:02PM Thank you very much. The next in numerical order. What number are you holding? Very good. 2. Thank you. Start with your name. My name is Todd Jones. Ive lived on the island since 1994. My wife and I drive past this property twice a day, as do many of the folks in the room. In listening to the comments submitted so far, I hear a lot of ifs and possibilities with a lack of definitiveness which really is going to rely with you folks assuming any change happens whatsoever. A land use classification is by state law required before a zoning change can be made. Its up to you whether either of these happen. I can tell you that the parking and traffic conditions at the north end of the island arent really so much to do with the Mirasol as the Hospital. We have employees at the Hospital who park on adalia who contribute to that parking congestion. Early in the morning, during rush hour and around 3:30, 4:00 through 5:00 in the afternoon, all the employees from Tgh are either coming onto the island or exiting the island. Thats where the traffic congestion comes from. The fact that there are 58 units now, divide that by two, you get 116 hotel units. Most hotel guests on the island are going to be coming from the airport to probably visit loved ones in the Hospital or family on the island or maybe in Hyde Park. They are going to be ubering. The real issue here is can we get some definitive answers on what the plan really is going to be? Personally, im in favor of the land use change and depending upon the particulars and specifics of the zoning change, the plan for the zoning change, thats where the metal is really going to Meet The Road. The fact that the hudson is right Across The Street and happened to be still used as a hotel back in 1980 when land use became an issue, pursuant to the Florida Legislature making the requirement, I was involved with some of that down in south Florida at the time. Whatever use Was In Place at the time went under the plan. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
6:30:01PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. If you are leaving, please remember to leave your number at the podium. Joe Hefner. 83 Adalia Avenue. Ive lived on this block of davis island since 1978. I am an architect. My firm has been in Hyde Park for over 50 years. When buying a property is bought as-is with current land uses and zoning, you have an ownership right to use the land to those standards. Theres no expectation or legal right to a change in the land use or a zoning to benefit you financially. IT is not the neighborhoods job or the City Council's job to bail you out to increase the value of your property. This appears what youre being asked to do tonight. City Council May remember some of these quotes that you made from April 24, 2025, to the Tampa Bay business journal. City Council opposes intense coastal development to protect lives. Council warns against overdevelopment as hurricane season approaches. Tampa can no longer support the intense development in its coastal neighborhoods. Councilman Clendenin warned staff that any plan to overdevelop the chha would be dead on arrival. This property is in a chha coastal high hazard area, evacuation zone a and flood zone ae. The Hillsborough County comprehensive plan directs future density away from these areas. The Mirasol is in the smallest area of land on davis island between hillsborough bay and the channel, which shows on this picture here. Thats about 300 feet from one body of water to the other. Its going to get storm surge from two directions. If changed to a commercial use, IT will be allowed to flood-proof the property much like Tgh did and create a dam effect and push the storm surge Down The Street to create more floodwaters for the residences. No need for hotel rooms on Davis Islands. There are 36 hotel rooms at the hotel on swann, 188 rooms at the epicurean on howard, and 48,000 hotel rooms in downtown. That is a total of 48,224 hotel rooms within a mile of Mirasol. In addition, most large homes on davis island have more bedrooms than people living in the homes. What is needed exactly is what Mirasol is now and has been for the past 75 years. Affordable rental units always in demand on davis island. There are thousands of people with good incomes that work at Tgh and would be able to walk to work. This would help traffic all over Tampa and save shuttle buses. With the photos of gridlock in mind that you see every day from between 3 and 4, City Council is going to double the gridlock when this approved building under construction at Tampa general opens up. Good luck trying to get a child off the island for Palma Ceia little league game, dance lessons, doctors or after-school event. 1992, after hurricane andrew, the state woke up with a new Florida building code.
6:33:26PM Thank you, sir. Appreciate IT. Thank you for coming out. Have a good night. Next speaker, please.
6:33:41PM Remember, if you come back for item 2, you can go downstairs so we can clear out the room. For a little over a decade now, I have lived on Davis Islands with My Spouse and our three children. Im here this evening to express my strong support for the application to change the land use to allow the Mirasol to return to an upscale boutique hotel. As a longtime resident of the islands, its probably no shock to you that I love living there. IT has everything my family needs. I taught my kids to ride bikes on safe streets, watch the dogs splash in waters, even gave birth to all my children at the hospital. IT has everything we need except for hotel. When my son was born at tgh, first grandbaby on my side and my family was on the first flight out, crossing the Davis Islands bridge before I was even discharged. My home could not accommodate all those newly minted aunts and uncles and grandparents. How special would IT have been if They could have stayed at the Mirasol. They could have walked to tgh to meet their grandson. They could have borrowed our bikes to join US home during those early days in a way that didnt add stress to an already emotional time. I wish there was a hotel on di. Then, a sentiment I relive every time my family descends for holidays, birthdays, and special occasions. A boutique hotel would be a tremendous benefit not just for Residents but also for families of patients at tgh who desperately need comfortable accommodations nearby. I understand that there are concerns about bringing the Mirasol back to former glory. Concerns about increased traffic and parking. Im not concerned. Putting aside the surveys conducted by expert traffic engineers and the revised plans and research conducted to ensure minimal impact on traffic patterns and Residents, I trust the intentions of the family that manages this property. They are Davis Island Residents, too. Like me, They Drive past this property every day on their ride home after pickup from their schools. Their kids also learn to ride their bikes on the streets. They have a deeply personal stake in preserving the safety, charm and livability of the neighborhood. What They are proposing is not a disruption. IT is a restoration. They are committed to returning the Mirasol to the original use, improving the sustainability, addressing long-standing flooding issues and creating a beautiful community oriented space that honors the history and character of the islands. There are so many reasons that I love raising my family on Davis Islands, the sense of community, unique texture of the neighborhood, the walkability, the rich history. The plans before you tonight reflect those very values. They will not change the character of the islands. They will enhance IT. Thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration.
6:36:25PM Thank you very much. Next Speaker, please.
Martin Shelby
6:36:47PM What was your name, sir? The name on the speaker, two names, Sarah Spicola and Sheila Spicola. Sarah is here and Sheila is here. Thats two additional minutes for a total of five.
Alan Clendenin
6:37:14PM Very good. Do you have a speaker number? Do you have a number on you? Thank you for coming up. You can go back down and sit on the second floor.
Martin Shelby
6:37:28PM Five minutes total.
Alan Clendenin
6:37:29PM Start with your name. You have five minutes. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. My name is Andrew Spicola. I am a resident of davis island. I live on baltic, one of the two streets that will be affected by the proposed change. I was born at Tampa General Hospital. Lived there for 56 years. My mother, who thankfully just left was born there as well and been there for 83 years. Probably would kill me if she heard that. My father of 89 years lives on davis island. My three children, 27, 25, and 23 were all born and raised and live on davis island now. My wife has lived there with me for 30 years or so. Safe to say we like davis island. Our family was born and raised there. We like its character. We Like The Way IT is. Unfortunately, over the last several years, weve seen pretty dramatic changes to the character of davis island. Obviously, the number of units of residential space has increased with intensity. And as a result of that, we have increased our traffic, significantly increased our traffic. Each day I leave davis island somewhere between 3:30 and 5:00 to go to the YMCA in South Tampa on himes. Depending on how early I live and depending on the shift change at the hospital, some days IT takes me 15 minutes just to get off the island. Other days, IT takes 25 minutes. Thats simply to leave my home on baltic, go down davis, cross the bridge and loop back on to Bayshore. Imagine, 15 to 25 minutes every day. Now, there will be other folks that come up behind me that have more specifics about traffic patterns and so forth, but one of the numbers that was tossed around at the last meeting was a 4200% increase in the amount of traffic to visit the Mirasol. Can you imagine the difference thats going to make to all of the folks that live on davis island. A 4,000 percent increase in the traffic. I would probably equate US to something like gasparilla where IT takes an hour and a half to get off of davis island because of the traffic. I can confidently say that everybody that im here that I just mentioned that I represent, do not want that. We dont want our island to be turned into a traffic jam. One more thing about a hotel, hotels dont close at 7:00 at night or 10:00 at night. They are open all night. The transient traffic is going to keep coming all night long. That is not appropriate for a residential area. Now, you certainly know your duties better than I do in your job. I can confidently say its not the city or the residents' job to bail out folks who make a bad investment. Its also not our job to bail out an Insurance Company so they can make more money and get better premiums on that investment. This meeting is to simply determine whether or not its going to have an adverse effect on the residents and directly next door is RS 6, the lowest designation on davis island. So I think its pretty clear that IT will. Before I leave, imagine, put yourself in my shoes or my mothers shoes or my wifes shoes, imagine if somebody came to you and said, you know, we think were going to build 114,000 square foot hotel with 118 rooms and 12 condominiums and two parking garages and two restaurants and who knows how many bars, access from the water to the same spaces, imagine how you would feel. Imagine if you are the person that lives ten doors down that has to deal with the parking issue already before increasing the 4,000 percent attendance of that building. Imagine if you are the person five doors down or two doors down. Imagine if you are the individual that lives right next door that has to deal with that now. Imagine what that does to their quality of life, to their home, to their values. I dont think there is a single person in this room that can confidently say and honestly say that they are in favor of something like that, if you are in your shoes. Thank you all very much.
6:41:53PM Thank you very much. Next speaker. Do you have a speaker waiver form? Three minutes. Start with your name, please. My name is Rosanna Brea. I was born at Tampa General Hospital on Davis Islands and have spent much of my life connected to this community. Although my family no longer resides on the island due to the hurricane, my husband and I remain deeply invested as small business owners in the davis island village. My husband is a proud veteran and together we own a luxury boutique. Were also proud parents of twin boys who are 11. Were also founding members of Diva, the Davis Islands village association. We created Diva so business owners could finally have an independent voice rather than having others speak on our behalf using inaccurate information. I am here today to speak specifically in support of tacpa 24-18, the comprehensive plan amendment. This vote is foundational to preserving the Mirasol. This amendment does not approve a project. IT does not approve a building. IT simply allows hotel use to be considered for a property that was originally built as a hotel and already exists. Opposition has attempted to prevent this from moving forward by using exaggerated density claims, hypothetical scenarios and worst-case outcomes that are not part of this request. CMU 35 designation already exists on Davis Islands and has not destroyed the character of the island despite claims to the contrary. What has damaged our community is the spread of misleading information and fear-based tactics. Fear is not factual. They are not facts. Hurricane helene devastated Davis Islands. Some businesses never returned. Others, including ours, flooded just days before opening our doors and for the record, zero insurance relief. Many are barely surviving. To deny responsible investment, adaptive reuse, and economic recovery at a time like this, its not preservation. IT is stagnation and destruction. Even more troubling has been the pattern of harassment, bullying, character attacks aimed at those who support this effort, business owners have had words put in their mouths and Developers have been wrongfully accused of by individuals who do not understand truly the hardships facing the Mirasol and its preservation. Fear of change should not result in character attacks or retaliatory conduct against small businesses. We are here because we believe in Davis Islands, not just for today, but for our children and their children. Preservation means allowing historic buildings to adapt so they can survive. This plan exactly allows that. I respectfully urge you to vote yes to tacpa 24-18 based on the facts, sound planning principles, and the long-term health of our community. Thank you for your service and leadership.
6:44:55PM Thank you so much. If you have numbers 20 or below, if you would line up against the wall to the left and start with the next cycle. Yes, Sir, start with your name. Thank you for your time and service as always.
6:45:14PM Keep your voices down, please. Start over again, please. Everybody, keep your voices down. We have a meeting. No talking. Thanks for your time and service and for listening to my opinions. I wanted to come down and speak on this. I dont have any relationship to the project at all, but I did grow up just over the bridge, 713 south fielding and spent much of my formative years on the island, sea scalloped at the end of the island. Probably rode by this building a thousand times as a young kid. One of my best friends grew up just around the corner from the building. I do think there is a lot of passion here and hopefully at the end of the day, whatever tough decision You guys make, that everybody comes together around this. I hope that most everybody agrees that they want to see the building get saved. To that point, I think, in my opinion, I would support the land use amendment as a means to do that. I think what You have here is a team and a developer who has made a commitment to restore this building, some professionals supporting him, including Alfonso Design, the right team to get this project done. I think IT is a heavy lift financially to be able to renovate this building, and that IT wont be able to be a hotel and likely lose IT if they dont get the comprehensive land use amendment. Theres been a lot of hyperbole, exaggerations and, again, I would like to see the building get saved. For example, the existing zoning -- here is what we got after a contentious entitlement process at the corner of de soto and Bayshore. So in summary, 70 high-end condos, 172,000 square feet, average of 240 -- 24 hundred and 61. Idea that CMU 35 is a significant increase in land use is factually inaccurate. IT is a change. Obviously, the next item on your agenda includes -- I mean, I would think You would need to look under the hood of that and vote no on the second reading of the comp plan if You dont like where IT is going. Personally, I dont know how You would take this building and designate a landmark in advance of having a land use that would allow You to -- You know, to renovate IT in a way thats financially viable, but I believe that the conditions I read in the zoning 16 are that they are committing to designate IT a landmark. Our decision and I wish You guys luck in your consideration. I do think You have the right team to get IT done if that is the direction youre going.
6:48:27PM Thank you, Sir. Next speaker, please. I do have some -- also, I have a powerpoint.
6:48:54PM Sir, I understand that You have a powerpoint. Did You submit that ahead of time for presentation?
6:48:59PM State your name, please. My name is Charles Goatier.
6:49:05PM Mr. Shelby, would you please read the names on the speaker waiver form. If you are downstairs and hear your name, please come up to be acknowledged so your time can be donated to the next speaker.
Martin Shelby
6:49:15PM If you could just say your name if you are in the room, please. Pam Antanori. Thank you. Carol Fishman. Thank you. Vera Farman.
Alan Clendenin
6:49:30PM Vera Farman, if you are downstairs, please come upstairs.
Martin Shelby
6:49:34PM Bobbie obrien.
Alan Clendenin
6:49:36PM I see Bobby.
Martin Shelby
6:49:38PM Jean Wolf. Thank you. Pat Wolf. Thank you. John Howton.
6:49:47PM Thank you. I believe we are waiting for Vera Farman.
Alan Clendenin
6:49:57PM If You like, You can go back downstairs and have a seat.
Martin Shelby
6:50:02PM Seven names. Total of ten minutes.
Alan Clendenin
6:50:12PM You can start with your name and how many minutes?
Martin Shelby
6:50:15PM Ten. I could use help getting to the powerpoint.
Alan Clendenin
6:50:23PM Your presentation is on. You should be able to control IT. We see the screen with the land use up there. IT is an honor to appear here. My name is Charles Goatier. I am a planner. I dont quite have 50 years of experience. 48 is plenty enough. I was asked by John And Ana Murray to analyze this comprehensive plan amendment, which ive done. I produced a report, which was submitted to you that goes into some detail. Let me quickly touch on my background. I am high mileage. My career has been divided into thirds roughly. A third in local government, a third in State Government, a third in the private sector. I did serve as planning manager for Collier County, Zoning Administrator for Lee County. I was the senior official at the Department Of Community Affairs. For 17 years I approved 3,000 comprehensive plan amendment packages. You are probably looking at someone who has approved more development than what youre used to. I worked on my own the last 12 years. Im the third professional planner youve heard from this evening. And we all have the same conclusion. This is inconsistent with the citys comprehensive plan. Its simply incompatible. Its too much. Its way too much of a land use category in the setting. I think that setting is crucial. The emergency shows IT is all residential surrounding the Mirasol site. Single-family up and down the waterway immediately to the north and Across Davis Boulevard, its more multifamily or town house, but IT is simply a sea of residential use that the Mirasol is within. So thats like the crucial factor in this review. The comprehensive plan amendment would add a massive amount of development potential. The comprehensive plan is important. If you approve this amendment, youre making a major policy decision saying, this level of development is potentially okay with US, subject to zoning. This is a very important decision. What would the change be from r-50 to mixed use 35? Well, a 200% increase in commercial floor area, under the present future land use category, yes, you could have commercial office at 1.0 Far. This would bump IT to a 2.0 Far., IT would double IT, and IT would up the uses. IT wouldnt be office. IT would be general, commercial, and retail. That is a double intensification. The hotel potential, I estimate IT at 285 hotel units are potentially possible using the 2.0 Floor area ratio. Now that is an estimate. IT is an estimate because the size of hotel rooms could vary. Smaller room, you might have a bigger number. Bigger rooms, more common area, a less number. But that is the degree of hotel potential that is made available. Residential use, using that floor area ratio method, IT would bump up by about 36%. Again, IT is very significant increase, as I said. Its massive. My conclusion is the type and scale of development under CMU 35, its patently incompatible with adjacent and nearby residential uses. We see that on the future land use map. The future land use map shows residential. In fact, the current CMU 35 is an aberration. Its like different than what surrounds IT. This would step IT up not one step but multiple steps in intensity. The amendment specifically conflicts with plan amendment review criteria, I think cited by the Planning Commission staff and your own staff. There are plan amendment review criteria that says a land use category of similar density or intensity must be located on at least one side of the subject site. Well, thats not the case here. Theres nothing similar to this on any side. Ms. Graham referred to spot zoning, well, this is sort of spot planning what is being contemplated here. My conclusion reviewing this, of course, im familiar looking at this from a state perspective, the amendment is not based on relevant and appropriate data and analysis. This upward development potential was not recognized and assessed. Coastal high hazard, yes, its in the coastal high hazard area, its certainly subject to flood. The base flood elevation is 11 feet on the subject property. You have policies in your comprehensive plan that say direct population concentration away, no net increase within. So IT conflicts in terms of the residential development potential. Ill just add, once a future land use map amendment is Put In Place, later presumably youll talk about a zoning change, thats one version of whats possible. There could be other versions that happen somewhere Along The Way. Just a couple of other points -- the compatibility. You have a specific policy in your plan that says all proposed general commercial, neighborhood commercial, and residential office uses shall -- shall be compatible with existing surrounding development. Thats not the case here. You have a definition of compatibility in your plan, and one of the elements of compatibility include scale, Mass, and bulk of structures. So were setting up a scenario where the scale, Mass, and bulk of structures could be quite expansive to the point where its not in harmony with immediately adjacent single-family uses or the general neighborhood. Ms. Graham mentioned affordable housing, also in my report, I mentioned that. I think that is a very important aspect. Right now, the Mirasol does provide some degree of housing available to middle income individuals that would disappear here. But ultimately what were talking about is putting intense commercial development in the middle of a residential area, and my conclusion is its simply inconsistent with your comprehensive plan. With that, ill conclude.
6:58:14PM Thank you, Sir. Appreciate you very much. Next Speaker, start with your name, please. I have Speaker forms as well. Since were only talking about the land use, I think I can get through IT in three minutes.
6:58:40PM Okay. We can hold back on those if you want or -- whichever you prefer. Start with your name. The Traffic Engineer representing the neighborhood, basically. Ive been a Traffic Engineer and a registered professional engineer in the State of Florida for over 30 years. Ive done dozens of traffic studies. I wont go into too much detail, but done quite a bit. So I wanted to primarily clarify, I think theres been a lot of thunder stolen from my point ill make. Ill just make one point. Basically, since were in the land use amendment section of this analysis or your decision, theres really only one thing from a traffic engineering perspective to look at, and thats potential. Mr. Goatier just talked a lot about potential. So were not saying this is whats going to happen. We dont know. You wont know until you go to the next phase. But under the current use at 58 dwelling units, the Mirasol generates approximately, according to IT. Trip generation, approximately 263 trips a day. Under the proposed land use amendment, whats possible, and the staff mentioned this in their presentation, is a commercial use that could include over 139,000 square feet. From a trip generation perspective, that would result in about 13,000 trips per day. So going from 263 trips to over 13,000 daily trips is an increase of over 4900 percent. Again, this is a potential, if you approve this land use amendment, for this site under this land use. With that, ill stop.
7:00:38PM Very good. Thank you so much. Start with your name, please. Good evening. Im here really to speak on behalf of the building. So that May sound a little strange. Just a little background on that, I have lived on davis island for 32 years. As a professional, I am a bridge engineer. I do a lot of work on bridge restoration projects. I was the project manager for the Historic Preservation of The Platt Street bridge just Down The Street here, completed in 2012. I know a little bit about old structures and things like that. The thing that really brings them to their end very frequently is they just keep deteriorating a little bit, a little bit at a time and then get to a point where its a tipping point and its no longer economically viable to restore them and keep them for a longer period of time. For the past year, ive actually been living at the Mirasol because my house on davis island was flooded. Hopefully ill get IT replaced soon. Living there for a year, I can tell you that the structure itself, the core of the building, is pretty good. Its a very well constructed building. But everything else is in a lot of need. Everything from upgrades for ADA and hurricane-proof windows, All The Way down to flooring and staircases, stair steps, you know, everything. Ac, all of that. IT needs a major overall. As somebody pointed out, quite surprised, had a basement and all the equipment in the basement on an island. Probably need to move the equipment someplace else. I believe restoring the Mirasol to the original use as hotel provides the only means to make restoration viable financially, and that would be the method that would save this beautiful old historic structure, which is a great example of mediterranean revival architecture as is The Platt Street bridge, By The Way. My concern is if the amendment is not approved, the Mirasol will fall into further decline and dilapidation. Like several other buildings that time period on davis island that will get to the point where we lost IT forever. Its beyond being restored. I would urge you to approve this amendment and provide a means to save the Mirasol as a building and hopefully gets historic status at that point. Just on closing note, if you want to fix the traffic issues on davis island, its not the Mirasol. You got to Return Brorein Street To Former Lane configuration. Thats what destroyed getting on and off the island.
7:03:39PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Blake Casper. 80 ladoga on davis island. Been on davis island the last 20 years. Im here to speak in support of the application and the changes. I know the owners and the Current Design Team. I believe this is the right Team to save the Mirasol. I restored adaptive 200-year-old buildings, stovall, now the Oxford Exchange and in front of you eight years ago to save the stovall house. Fortunately, this body approved that application. I think there are a lot of similarities between the Mirasol and the stovall. The neighborhoods, lots of concerns about a change in use. I recognize that. I think what weve done at the stovall, we have restored the house, and weve locally designated IT. IT is now protected. Stovall house will be protected for indefinitely. Had we not gotten that approval, I, too, bought the building before, the property before I got IT zoned. I was in the same circumstances. I would have sold IT. Whether or not I would have taken a hit or lost money, whatever, that is what I was going to do. And that property would be at the very least IT would have been redeveloped and cut up and the house was not protected. I do believe that house would have gotten torn down. Whether or not a tower got built there or not is debatable. But that property would be different today than IT is. So I think the same thing with the Mirasol. If you dont approve this, I think there is a very high chance that the building gets torn down. I think that would be really unfortunate given that there is a lot of history thats already been eliminated on the island. I think this is the Team to do IT. I really do. I hope you all will hear IT out and vote in favor.
7:06:17PM Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Im here not to speak or restate the details of this proposal but rather to speak about what The Mirasol represents and what would be lost if IT is not saved. The Mirasol is more than a building. IT is part of tampas architectural and cultural story. IT reflects a time when Davis Islands was thoughtfully designed as a place to live, gather, and welcome people. Once a structure like this is gone, IT cannot be replaced, not with money and not with good intentions. My family and I lived at The Mirasol, and although we loved IT and were very comfortable there, we saw firsthand the deterioration that was already present well before hurricanes helene and milton. Aging infrastructure, deferred maintenance, and the challenges that come with keeping a historic building viable in modern conditions. After the hurricanes, that damage worsened. What was once manageable became increasingly difficult to ignore. This is why preservation through Adaptive Reuse is so critical. Without meaningful investment, buildings like this dont stand still. They decline, and eventually the only option left is demolition. Saving The Mirasol means choosing revitalization over erasure. IT means respecting tampas past while allowing the building to evolve so IT can continue to serve the community, rather than become obsolete. Adaptive Reuse is one of the most responsible planning tools we have. IT protects history. IT reduces environmental impact, and keeps neighborhoods rooted in their original character. Cities that thrive do so because they value continuity. They do not tear down meaningful landmarks when there is a thoughtful path forward. They find ways to honor them, maintain them, and allow them to remain part of daily life. The Carrieras spent years developing a thoughtful, deliberate plan to do exactly that. One that repairs and preserves The Mirasol while actively listening to and addressing the concerns of davis island residents. This decision is about more than a single property. IT is about whether we preserve a piece of tampas history or allow IT to be replaced by something that can never replicate its significance. I urge you to support saving The Mirasol and to support The Carriera Family in their endeavor, not just for today, but future generations who deserve to experience the Tampa that we so love.
7:09:35PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. My name is John Lorendi. That was my beautiful wife. I would like to share our experience at the Mirasol that she alluded to. In July of 2024, my family and I packed up our lives and decided to move here to start fresh in Tampa. Like a lot of moves and builds, ours did not go as planned and undergone some time delay. So when we arrived only to realize that our home wasnt ready for occupancy, we found ourselves living at the Mirasol for a few weeks. IT was lovely. Every morning walking through that lobby and every evening coming home after exploring the city, we just fell in love with that building. I mean, we felt the history in IT. Those architectural details, The Way the light came in through those windows, IT was special. Something else was clear. The grand lobby, The Way everything flows, those common spaces, they were all designed to welcome guests. For US staying there temporarily, IT was perfect. But you could feel IT wasnt built for long-term living. This building wants to be what IT was always meant to be -- a hotel. And while were falling in love with the building, were also seeing the reality of its age. The wear and tear, the deferred maintenance, IT was noticeable. Im not saying that to be critical of anyone. But I completely understand why the owners want to save IT. Its beautiful. Its historic. Its evident IT matters to this community, but the reality is, preserving something like this property takes serious resources. IT takes a real investment. After those hurricanes, its even more obvious that this building needs more than just regular maintenance and upkeep. IT needs the kind of comprehensive restoration that can only happen with significant capital behind IT. Thats why im here supporting the plan. Returning the Mirasol to a boutique hotel gives IT purpose -- the purpose IT is designed for and the resources IT needs to survive another hundred years. This isnt just about saving a building. Its about giving Tampa back one of its gems. Honestly, selfishly, when my family comes to town for a visit, do I want them to experience what we did, to stay in this piece of Tampa history and feel what makes this city so special. Thank you.
7:12:14PM Thank You very much. Next speaker, please. My name is Steve Stanley. I live at 20 adalia. I live on Davis Islands since 1985. I didnt know that we were here on saving the Mirasol. I thought we were here on a land use amendment hearing. So I like the Mirasol. I like the building, but for the land use amendment, im against IT. Youre talking about changing the density of that site such that You might as well be on the corner of Kennedy and Westshore, columbus and lois, just high intensity development. From everything ive heard, I dont believe this is just about saving the Mirasol because, You know, this is not about financial feasibility of saving the Mirasol. Its about the land use. Land use plan amendment. The Mirasol could be saved just as IT is for what IT is now, which is a multifamily residential structure. So somebody could put the money in IT and do the things IT needed to make sure that IT is preserved. But IT doesnt have to be -- doesnt have to take a land use plan to do that. Were not here to decide whether or not we need to make IT financially feasible to do this project. Were here to determine whether were going to make that site stick out On Davis Boulevard like a sore thumb with the potential to develop the whole site with an intense commercial development of -- You heard a lot of different numbers, 139,000 square feet of mixed use commercial. You got a marina behind IT. Change that marina from a little sleepy residential marina where ive kept my boat before, not now, into a commercial marina. On a canal that is nothing but single-family residential houses. You can allow a land use plan amendment thats going to allow that whole little site to be an enormous noise maker, traffic maker distraction instead of what They are saying is this sleepy little boutique property. Because ive seen a peek at what They want to do. They dont just want to save the Mirasol. They want to add a bunch more buildings and structures. We have to get back to why were here. I hope You turn down the land use amendment because we dont need a major increase potential development site at that property where IT is on davis island. Thank You for your time.
07:15:18PM Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. A question, how many people are left in the room that have numbers to speak this evening for this item? After we are finished with the ones that are lined up at the wall, well take a short 15-minute break. Just so youre planning, know that we will take a break after these two. From the Mirasol. My wife and I moved to the area about three and a half years ago, and over that time, my neighbors Experienced Increased Street parking issue mainly due to the Hospital. But mind you, I love the Hospital and what they do for the community, and that is not why we are here today. I share this google image with you, like every family that have kids and dogs, they like to roam around davis island because IT is so lovely. All the streets I walk by every day. If you dont live on di. And shift changes and people affiliated that have to come to the Hospital, they come and they descend on Davis Islands and take up the free parking on all of the highlighted streets. I see this every day. I invite you to my house if you question this at all. I think maybe IT is because they are running late for work. Who knows, maybe they want free parking. Whatever the reason, this is a parking issue, and that is a hazard. Next thing I am going to show you is just our block. So we residents can call Tgh Security or Tampa's Parking Division to ask for help, but neither have been able -- or following come up with a solution to solve the parking problem in our neighborhood. Me and many of my neighbors resorted to putting "no parking" signs in front of our homes, and typically prevents people from blocking our driveways but doesnt prevent people descending from the Hospital from taking Up Our Street parking which, as you can see, is frustrating for a variety of reasons. Your home is blocked all the time. Getting in and out of your driveway is a challenge. So I share all of this with you, because I feel strongly if the city were to approve the mirasols land use change request, IT would have a significantly negative impact on the parking for residences surrounding the area, which, as you now know, is a huge problem from all the residents you heard from tonight. And what I am going to do finally is share this photo with my last minute. So this is just a disheartening little experience that happened earlier this week. I was leaving my home Monday morning to take my kids to school. As I was pulling out of my driveway, my neighbors and I encountered an individual removing the peaceful "save our neighborhood" signs from yards throughout the neighborhood. We asked who he was and why he was removing the signs. He said he was hired by Frank, the owner of the Mirasol to collect the signs. That the owners of Mirasol will resort to such tactics to work with our neighbors to approve di. And our neighborhood. I hope you do not approve the land use request change. And thank you for your time.
07:18:33PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. And remember, if -- if you finish and you are going to leave the building for the night, leave your number. If not -- and if you finish speaking, go downstairs to the second floor. The Barrio Latino Commission, and I was there about SIX years ago and renewed three years ago and up to my term limits here. I would like to speak. I am an architect myself and like to speak from land use planner as member of the barrio Latino and not my jurisdiction in an official capacity, but I would like to speak of the historical aspect. As a member -- overseeing Ybor City and most of the historic preservation is that many people mention takes a lot of capital is the widely known thing with historic preservation, but what we have to do when we kind of consider that as well, is we often kind of consider land use amendments that we recommend to City Council whether to approve or deny as well. And this, unfortunately, I would have to say, should be a denial. IT is -- as you heard from the land use planners, IT destroys the fabric of the neighborhood and Davis Islands. I am very sympathetic of preserving the Mirasol, but the intensity where IT increases the capacity of the commercial use and residential use to have the foresight to kind of do something like the ritz-carlton. The amount of square footage on these parcels can double what you kind of see for today. In that aspect, the Mirasol was nominated to be historically preserved since 1987, as this article kind of serves. Unlike something like Ybor City, IT does not have the guardrails of the historic district to kind of help amplify and preserve the massing, scaleand all that within the historic district. A stand-alone property. IT was never put on the registry of landmark designation. Not a historic building and nothing to keep IT from being developed to its full potential if the land use amendment is approved. And I want to emphasize that. Thank you for your time.
07:20:48PM Thank you very much. Okay, next Speaker, please. You have three minutes. After this Speaker, We will take a 15-minute break. Start with your name, please.
07:21:03PM Yes, go ahead. I live On Davis Boulevard. I lived on davis island for 25 years. I moved here to take a job as a professor in the College Of Business at the University of Tampa, and specifically, I teach management and entrepreneurialship courses. So you are probably not surprised to hear I am a big fan of economic development, free enterprise, job creation, and entrepreneurialship, in general. I like Tampa. I like US to create jobs. I like to see our leaders succeed. I like to see that the companies are growing and the economy is growing. But economic development must be consensual among the stakeholders who are impacted by the development. IT is unfair and unreasonable for the Developer to earn the profits on this project while the neighbors bear the costs of increased traffic, noise, and inconvenience forever if the land use -- land use is changed. I noticed a pattern tonight. I listened carefully where people have said and where they come from. Maybe you noticed IT too. If you live very near the mirasol, you are opposed to the land use amendment. If you live farther away from the mirasol, you are in favor of the land use amendment. I am not talking about the attorneys, but I am talking of the neighbors who live nearby the property. So based on that pattern that I noticed tonight, I have a thought experiment for US to consider. Is there any parcel on davis island where the nearby neighbors would like to have IT converted to a commercial district? Who wants to live near a night club or a hotel or shopping center maybe only 500 feet away from your residence. Raise of hands, anybody want to live near a commercial district after you havent had that nearby? So nobody really wants to have that in their neighborhood. So why should we have that in our neighborhood when we are opposed to IT, people who live nearest to this property. So I hope you will see this treats US in a way that no one wants to be treated, the people who live nearby. And I hope you vote against the land use amendment tonight. Thank you.
07:23:11PM Thank you very much. Okay, we will take a short break. 15 minutes, Council will be back at 7:40. [Gavel sounding]
07:43:54PM I will call this meeting to order. Please have silence in the room. Everybody stop talking. That means everybody. Jane. Jane, shush. [Gavel sounding] thank you. Roll call, please.
Charlie Miranda
07:44:13PM Here.
Lynn Hurtak
07:44:15PM Here.
Naya Young
07:44:16PM Here.
Bill Carlson
07:44:18PM Here.
Alan Clendenin
07:44:19PM Here.
Clerk
07:44:20PM You have a physical quorum.
Alan Clendenin
07:44:23PM Thank You. We will start back with public comment. If You have a number, if You would line up against the wall, and We will start calling You up one at a time. You will have three minutes. Everybody left in the room with a number, please. IT should be less than ten left in the room so just go ahead. We wont arm wrestle for IT. No, IT is good. I appreciate that. Thank You. Start with your name.
07:44:57PM Your name. Start with your name again, please. Taylor Ralph, 401 East Jackson Street. Just for the record, I have no involvement in this project whatsoever. And I really understand, like, this is a really complex situation with the land use amendment. Excuse me, I am finishing my candy I got downstairs. IT is my habit when I come here. But, you know, sometimes these things get really complicated. People dont really understand how zoning works, how land use works, and, you know, how development process works. Whether you buy a property or dont buy a property and historically, all that. Timeline is different, and certainty is different, and we all have these to understand. What I understand about this Team, They care. They want to do the right thing. They are people of the community. And They want a chance to show you what They plan to do with the property. And this -- this land use change allows you to see what They plan to do with the project. I think IT is very complicated. I think this Team has made IT very simple. I believe Tyler Hudson when he says if the land use is approved and the rezoning is not, he will pull the land use change. So IT is complicated, but IT is very simple. You have the opportunity to bring this project back to its original use from 1926. Guess what? We do not have a land use zoning regulation in 1926. We didnt have any of those rules until 1943. I believe that this Team is committed to historically preserving this property. And They are doing IT through the use that you need to help Them allow, which is cmu-35. IT is really easy to use hyperbolic and scare tactics and wild estimates of trips and things like that to scare the neighborhood. Again, allowing this vote gives you a chance to look at what They are going to do through a planned development, and IT is not something that anyone can do anything with. IT is a rezoning that They will be restricted based on your guidance, based on their plan, that no one else can do anything else than what is on that planned development project. So, again, give Them a chance. They have a Team that has looked at this from every angle as far as how do you save the building. How can we deal with apartments? How can we deal with other things? They -- I believe Them when They say if this is not allowed, the project -- the building potentially will deteriorate further and will continue to be knocked down, which is an r-50 underlining zoning or land use that will allow you buy a Ritz-Carlton residential project. Let Them show you They will keep the same height of building and preserve this historic building that we have so few. This is a vinoy moment. The vinoy is not a traffic Congested Nasty Place but a historic cared-about Place. Give Them a chance.
07:48:13PM Thank you very much. Appreciate IT. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Start with your name. I live on Davis Islands. I want to support the land use change. And I think IT is about -- IT is bigger than the building, bigger than that particular lot. IT is about improving the island. I think before the hurricanes, there wasnt much there but to live there with a family. After the hurricanes, you go to the downtown area, everything is shuttered. Most of the businesses -- you dont want to take out-of-town relatives. You want to go off the island. I think IT will send a positive example that the island is worth investing in. If IT was me, I wouldnt go through the sort of difficult And Complex Road that these individuals are trying to go through. I would go through IT with a clean slate route and approach. I think like the previous gentleman, that a lot of the numbers that people are presenting, with the background dont make sense. 13000 trips a day, 12 hours a day, 1,000 trips an hour, like 60 cars a minute. These numbers, they dont -- they dont add up. So I think that when you look at the biggest risk for the island is people dont come in, they dont repair things, and stay shuttered like that. And I think there is no guaranteed for them they will have full occupancy. That they will have good marketability, and that there will be -- people checking in and out every -- every hour of every day, seven day as week. IT doesnt make sort of logistical sense. So I think the upside to the Local Businesses, the foot traffic to downtown will help local economy. Maybe they will go back into improving the island and a lot of the other sort of unrelated topics of parking, safety, traffic, cyclists dont have anything to do with this land use change. I would like to thank you for your time, and thank you.
07:50:12PM Thank you very much.
07:50:15PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hi there. Good evening. I live on blanca, a five-minute walk of davis island towers. I lived in the davis island tower to now in the mirasol when hurricane elena came through and flooded the basement before. The Preservation Owners at the time redid the basement and made IT an apartment building. I am vehemently opposed to the designation of a land use change at this time. That is precedent setting for Along Davis Boulevard as one of its previous speakers pointed out is the narrowest point from water to water. But the contiguous land uses. We have four blocks in the downtown village parts of davis island that are CMU. That is fine. You can put a hotel there any day. Right now, the mirasol is using, I believe IT is, nine airbnbs there. A test market for the hotel, and they can continue doing that under state law. So be IT. But I dont think you should conflate the zoning and the land use. The land use is the key here and precedent setting and too intense for this residential neighborhood. You will change the fabric and start a ricochet. Thank you very much.
07:51:42PM Thank you. Good to see you. Next speaker, please. Im Marie Borland. 113 adalia with my husband right Down The Street from the Mirasol where anecdotally I moved in 1990 as a young lawyer and began my career with hill, Ward, and Henderson where I still am. I lot of building and passion for its preservation. IT is not necessary to preserve the Mirasol, to change the land use designation. What I really want to focus on that some others havent focused on. I have been a member of the bar since 1990, a Board-Certified appellate lawyer, and I handled land use deals. I am not against developers. I am familiar with the burden of proof. This Council knows better than I, the comp plan is like a constitution. IT is very difficult. And IT is a very uphill battle to change a land use designation. This hearing sounds like IT is a balancing of the scales between a group of investors and their friends who desperately want to pursue this project for profit and financial reasons, and rest of US that are going to be impacted daily in our daily lives, our property values will be impacted. We already dont have enough parking. We already feel that IT is hazardous to try to turn over, turn out on To Davis Boulevard from the Mirasol. So I am not sure why this hearing has sort of devolved into this kind of swearing match where is IT more important to perserve the Mirasol which is not going to happen with this project, and this project will make the Mirasol unrecognizable and not about the fabric of the neighborhood. IT is not about whether IT is inconsistent with the comp plan, whether IT is incompatible. This -- I am -- I am kind of offended by this motion that these are scare tactics. I can tell you that we are the ones, the property owners, who are going to be affected. We are the ones that are scared by this. Our neighborhoods will change. They wont feel safe. They will feel completely different. Our property values will go down. I quite frankly dont know if I will keep my house. In 2016, I moved in my forever home. Happy to be living Down The Street from the Mirasol. This is not a necessary project. IT has not -- there is a reason why the city Planning Commission or the Planning Commission voted unanimously 7-0 saying IT is inconsistent with the comp plan. If I was asked to handle an appeal on behalf of developers whatever this decision is, I dont know what I would say legally in favor of this probably because IT has been laid out in Black and White on the Planning Commission report that IT is simply incompatible and inconsistent. IT is not necessary to preserve the Mirasol. IT will do the opposite. And I would respectfully request that this City Council deny the amendment.
07:54:36PM Thank you very much. Good evening. Next speaker, please. Davis Islands and a parent. What matters to me preserving the mirasols history and make sure IT has a future. If the mirasol can return to what IT was to originally built to be, a hotel And Gathering Place by aligning the land use with that purpose. IT was built as part of a mixed-use vision of Davis Islands. Our community lives with that vision every day. The village is a heart of the neighborhood. Cmu-35 already exists here and works. IT havent damaged the character of the islands, IT helped define IT. This amendment doesnt introduce something foreign to the islands, but IT brings the land back to alignment with the buildings original intent and how the community already functions. If we deny that alignment, we dont preserve the mirasol, and we live IT in limbo. Buildings in limbo dont stay standing, they deteriorate or disappear. As a parent, I think of what we pass on. This amendment allows preservation possible. IT keeps the mirasol as part of the Davis Islands story. Thank you.
07:55:54PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Start with your name. I am actually the property manager at the Mirasol. I care deeply about Davis Islands and the legacy we leave for our future generations. The question before today -- before you today, excuse me, is whether the Mirasol should be allow to include hotel use. At its core, this is a question of preservation, whether we protect a living piece of the islands history or allow IT to fade slowly. Davis Islands has never been purely residential. From the earliest plannings, IT has designated a mixed-use community with commercial activity intentionally woven into the daily life, the village, Davis Boulevard, and Mirasol itself all reflect that in its original provision, excuse me. The Mirasol was built as hotel and still functions like one. IT is already a highly transit building. Our longest standing resident moved in during 2020, and there is only one. Most residents stay a few years and then move on, either to larger apartments or into homes. The units are small, and for many people, the Mirasol serves as a first step into downtown living because of its comparative -- comparatively affordable -- because IT is comparatively affordable, excuse me. IT is not accidental, a natural result of building not built for long-time residential use. Height, scale, and presence already exists. What is at risk here is not overdevelopment but irrelevance. Buildings that are not allowed to adapt are not preserved. They are slowly lost. Restricting viable uses increases the likelihood of disinvestment, demolition, and eventual replacement with dense residential development that permanently erases history. Hotel use is not a threat. IT is a way to keep the Mirasol active, sustainable, and connect the community, and IT has served for generations. Approving this land use amendment is choosing adoption over abandonment and preservation over loss. Thank you.
07:58:09PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. This is submitted for the record, is that my understanding? Okay. Thank you. Start with your name. You have three minutes. I lived on davis island for 33 years. Most recently 124 Adalia Avenue, adjacent to the mirasol. Mirasol is a beautiful property. I sincerely appreciate the historic beauty and architecture and fully support preserving IT as a residential property. I understand why Davis Island Residents like the idea of a waterfront Hotel and restaurant, but residents who live further south on the island as an earlier speaker pointed out are not really "neighbors" of the mirasol, not in The Same Way that the residents surrounding the mirasol on this map, not in The Same Way that IT is going to affect them. For instance, someone on rivera, which is over a mile away, could spend the evening having a good time at the mirasol restaurant and bar and then go home to their Quiet Residential Street. They would not be greatly impacted by the commercial land use change. We have about 270 residents who have formally opposed this with petitions andor opposition letters. But these are the neighbors that matter most in this change. The surrounding neighbors of the mirasol with impact seven day as week and seven evenings a week of a commercial land use and the many potential commercial uses and the magnitude of the possible development. These are the neighbors whose landscape will forever change if the mirasol is allowed to build new buildings along adalia and along baltic. Please, and stay on that, please. These are the residents who will be affected. If that goes through, zero setback on what they want to build there. Whether IT is a Hotel. Whatever IT is. We know that there are opportunities for a variety of things. These are the neighborhoods whose streets will experience heavier transient traffic, including all of the Ubers. Ubers are traffic. Including all of the Ubers as earlier speakers have mentioned. These are the neighbors whose streets will be parked up and down with mirasol overflow parking. These are the neighbors whose quiet lifestyle will be affected by noise from patrons and guest of the Hotel, restaurant, bar, and weddings outside on the streets, on on the Hotel balconies and on the water side. These are the neighbors whose properties would lose value. Rest of the island residents May only have to deal with increased traffic as we are trying to head off the island. I respectfully request that you deny the amendment.
08:01:26PM Thank you very much. Good evening. Next speaker, please. Mr. Pressman, reminder, only one speaker at a time.
Martin Shelby
08:01:36PM Thank you, if your name is here, please speak out so I can hear you. Catherine Sendais. Adalia.
Alan Clendenin
08:01:54PM Mr. Pressman, this is public comment so only one speaker at a time.
Martin Shelby
08:02:00PM Jamie Defrates. Jamie Garrison, Tracy Mcdaughtry. I guess they are downstairs. They are coming in?
Alan Clendenin
08:02:13PM Say the names one more time, Mr. Shelby.
Martin Shelby
08:02:15PM If I can read this. Catherine -- my apologies.
Alan Clendenin
08:02:21PM His here is.
Martin Shelby
08:02:22PM Jamie Defrates. Jamie Garrison and Tracy Mcdaughtry. Thank you. Four minutes additional, plus three is seven minutes.
Alan Clendenin
08:02:35PM You guys can go back downstairs to sit down. Thank you for coming back up. Start with your name please, and seven minutes, correct? I live at 124 adalia, the first house next door to the Mirasol of the canal. I dont know if you guys can see this, but that is my back yard. The Mirasol, I can -- you know -- I see IT every day. Exposed to IT the entire back side of IT of the marina. I am also an investor in commercial real estate. I have been in business 30 years. I have done a lot of commercial development, a lot of financing, and actually made an offer on the Mirasol in 2016, with a partner of mine, Hamilton Jones, who actually owns the palace of florence and used to own hudson manor. We own another property together built in 1886 a historic property, so I know about maintaining historic property and the cost of IT. He couldnt make IT here tonight, but he wrote a letter and sent in to council -- into the City Council. And he objects of the land use amendment as well. We both dont think IT is necessary to save the Mirasol. We think the Mirasol can be saved as apartments, just like our other properties that got flooded. We paid to fix them up, and they are. We have saved Them That Way. I want to talk about -- I want to talk about the Mirasol site. The top photo here -- that is an aerial. That is my home right next to IT. That is the Mirasol apartments, 2025 aerial view. The bottom photo in blue and red separates the original hotel site. The original Mirasol hotel was only On Davis Boulevard. IT was about half the size. And IT operated On Davis Boulevard, not the wings on the two residential streets. In 1962, when IT turned residential apartments, IT was expanded. So the Mirasol site is almost double the size of the hotel site. Five residential lots that were added to IT. Land use amendment does more than to allow the 100-year-old building to be a restored hotel. Seeks to amend the land use of residential waterfront lots never before used as hotel and commercial to cmu-35 as well. We went back and discovered each of the original deeds in the Mirasol property, and those expansion lots, the ones in red, they all included deed restrictions that said the land shall only be used for residential purposes, although 100 years old, these deed restrictions are no longer enforceable. They clearly show the original intent separating the residential lots from the original Mirasol hotel. And up through tonight, a century later, the residential expansion portions of the Mirasol site have never been used for anything but residential ever before. This land use amendment is not preserving or restoring the mirasols history, IT would be rewriting IT. Original Mirasol unit had 616 with no adalia access, no on-site parking lot, no pool, and no boat docks. All came decades later as part of the apartment conversion. Under cmu-35, the original hotel could more than double in size allowing for new construction on residential lots that were never intended to be used for dig but residential since the islands were platted. This land use amendment is not an act of preservation, but a path toward expansion on residential land, an expansion ainconsistent with Davis Islands history, its surrounding properties and incompatible with the neighborhood. Little history that I found. After IT was foreclosed on in 1931, found Chancery Records that confirmed that $15,000 sale was subject to five years of unpaid taxes. There was a big tax appeal lawsuit at the time. IT May have been a great -- IT still is. An elaborate beautifully designed building, but IT faced almost immediate financial distress. And the decades to follow changed hands repeatedly going through closures in the 1950s. As a hotel, the Mirasol was never a success and never resold for more than 20% of what IT cost to build. Its last sale as a hotel was for 150, and original cost was $750,000. The mirasols true value and success came from the 1960s with its residential waterfront expansion. Since then, IT has increased in value and provided stable residential use for twice as long as IT ever operated as a hotel. The Mirasol is a davis island gem with historic and architectural value, but the real value now lies in its 1.62-acre Site. CMU request is not about preserving history but maximizing development potential at the expense of our neighborhood character. The amendment would permanently change 100-year-old residential lands into high intensity commercial use, Paving The Way for demolition risk, expansion and redevelopment of the site out of character with our surrounding neighborhood. In conclusion, commercial land uses do not belong in the middle of a residential neighborhood. I respectfully urge you to you recommend denial of this amendment, which would follow the unanimous inconsistent vote of the Planning Board along with staff reports of the Planning Commission and the City Of Tampa.
08:09:48PM Thank You very much. Appreciate IT. Have a good night. Next speaker, please. And dont forget, if You finish speaking, if You can clear the room for the next set of speakers. My wife and I live three properties west of the Mirasol. We have been proud homeowners and residents of Davis Islands for over five years, deeply valuing its unique residential and family environment. Professionally, as the CEO for five years and two plus decades and prior experience as a CFO of one of the largest telecom companies, Verizon and Sprint, I manage long-term decisions like what we are discussing today. Mirasol is bordered by single-family neighborhoods with a character that is unique to Davis Islands in Tampa, and this land use change would be invasive and incompatible as You already heard with the surrounding neighborhood resulting from the combined negative impacts on the neighborhood, vastly increased traffic of both Water And Road, noise, elevation, invasion of privacy, etc. When we moved to the Tampa Bay area, we consciously chose to invest in and live on Davis Islands rather than Locations In St. Pete, clearwater, west shore, etc. Because of its unique 08:11:15pm character. In doing so, we made the same fundamental assumption that anyone who is responsible for long-term real estate decisions make. That assumption being the planning regulations and associated framework upheld with unpeachable rigor and discipline and armed subject of change based on risk and conflated rationale, and we had plenty of that tonight. The Mirasol has been residential neighborhood for more than SIX decades. Absolutely no compelling reason to change its land use now in a way that harms its neighbors and to even contemplate doing so would really open up pandoras box and potentially unimaginable ways. For these reasons, I am requesting that You deny these proposals, and we thank You for your consideration.
08:12:09PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. And I have not met any of you. I do not know where you live. And I would just like to you take a moment to envision if you lived in a residential area, what IT would be like for the possible -- possibility of a hotel being built three doors down from your house where you and your family live, because that the reality that is facing my family. I live on baltic circlem three houses down from the Mirasol. I lived there for 18 years. And IT is a wonderful, quiet, residential neighborhood that I have been able to raise with my wife our two kids. The idea that the Mirasol would be approved for a mixed use and possibility a hotel would destroy what has been an amazing neighborhood to grow up with my family. We have also the fear that we do live on the water. So the idea of a possibility of a marina where they could have commercial use. They could have boats going in and out. Tours. Place where kids fish off the dock. Paddleboards become a safety issue and all is concerning. In our back yard where we hear a little noise around the pool, but I cant imagine a hotel, 100 people out there having a party. The amount of noise that would cause for our house and the surrounding houses on the canal. Been here the whole night tonight, and I have not heard one owner of a house On Baltic Circle or Adalia come and talking for the amendment. That is not a coincidence and has been mentioned before. I heard one speaker for the amendment that thought IT would be a nice convenience for her family to go visit her in the hospital when she had a baby. That is a nice convenience, but that family can leave after a few days where as mentioned before, living three doors down from the Mirasol, I would have to deal with the increased traffic, noise, 24-7, not what I thought of when I moved my family to Davis Islands. I talked to other people on Davis Islands. And my friends when I ask them where I live, I say I live on Davis Islands. And what I love most about IT is when I am coming home, I drive over the bridge, and I get this calming feeling. If you vote to approve the land use amendment, that feeling will be gone forever. Thank you.
08:15:01PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. For those of how are downstairs, if you have numbers 34-66. 34-66, if you can Make Your Way to the third floor and wait to be let in. We would appreciate that. Okay, go ahead. Start about your name. However, I was a resident at 84 Davis Boulevard in the Mirasol for five years. You heard a lot from their friends and family of how much IT is great and wonderful, and this team is amazing. I can completely contradict that. They are using scare tactics and stating if this land is not used, the building will be torn down. When they initially purchased this building, they had stated they wanted to make IT a hotel. Their initial purchase was for a hotel. Prior to the hurricane, Mirasol was small community residence. IT was beautiful. They say nobody lived there since 2020. We have been living there for years. Since the hurricane, there have been a strategic and eradication of long-term residents at the Mirasol, which is why there is no one there now anymore. We had been there. I was the shortest one there at five years. Others had lived there decades. Actually, sadly, died there after 19 years. We had a community. I knew people as my grandma knew. We helped each other as friends. Over these past few years, no, the land use doesnt change, but they changed the Mirasol inside to airbnbs. They are renting out their hotels -- the rooms already as nightly hotels. We have had parties in the lobbies. We had trash all over our pool. IT is a travesty already which is why we moved out. IT became different with transients. I was unsafe living by myself and my dog. So im here as a past leasee to say no to this. The amount of children I watched in car accidents On Adalia Boulevard. And I pulled out a four-year-old from a tesla after they were t-boned is not what we need with more traffic on this land use. I have watched many in my five years there. Tracked three to four accidents every year at the corner of adalia And Davis Boulevard. This land use also not only add to traffic but also takes away from the small community that we already had. We lost our community at the Mirasol. The 54 of US dont live there anymore, and now there are new residents and constant airbnbs. IT already has become transient. And their deferred maintenance is their decisions. Deferred maintenance Was Happening Way before the hurricanes. IT wasnt because of hurricanes. IT is because of neglect. Thank you.
08:18:01PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good evening. Start with your name. Good evening. I am a life-long resident of the City Of Tampa and im here tonight to express the strong support of the Mirasol comprehensive plan amendment. Mirasol is more than a building on Davis Islands. IT is a community landmark a part of the neighborhood for nearly 100 years. Originally constructed as a hotel in the 1920s, IT served many generations, and what is being proposed is a thoughtful restoration of the legacy and respects this community character and history. Over the 2024 hurricane season with Helene and Milton, IT becane vulnerable how coastal buildings are. Costs $274 billion locally with some storm surge in Tampa Bay with eight feet. No one wants to experience that again, but IT is a reality living on floridas gulf coast. We can prepare. Allow the Mirasol to be restored with modern structural and mechanical systems so this historic property is equipped to withstand the challenges of the next 100 years. Since first submitted their application, owners have listened carefully to the community and made meaningful changes despite what you had heard tonight. They preserved historic view vulnerable with coastal, increased building height, and reduced square foot and redesignated traffic circulation to increase efficiency. The applicants request to amend comprehensive plan to cmu-35 is appropriate for the Mirasol since IT exists 500 feet with the hudson. Mirasol was always intended to operate as a hotel and a focal point to the community. This is not about developing vacant land but returning Mirasol to its original use. Project supports the broader community as Tampa General Hospital continues its major 134-story, 565,000-square-foot expansion. Davis Islands has limited lodging options for visiting families and medical staff. Thoughtful redevelopment like the Mirasol helps and supporting the growing need. Not a development from New York or miami trying to get a quick profit. Frank and Lindsey live here and raised their kids on Davis Islands. They have been a part of this community for a decade. They build real relationships and supported their local businesses. Reinvesting in this property come from a genuine commitment And The Place they call home. What I respectfully ask is for you to consider this. After what we experienced during 2024 hurricane season, IT did not make sense to take a thoughtful step now and prepare one of tampas most historic properties for the next 100 years. Approving this plan offers the mirasols legacy, strengthens its future, and the landmark will serve Davis Islands communities. I spent my career working in multifamily development, financing and sales, a future with multifamily does not make sense and not a path forward. Hotel and a complete revamp of the existing conditions and repurposing IT is the path forward. Thank you.
08:21:14PM Thank You very much. Anyone else in the room that havent spoke? If You have already spoken, You need to clear the room of people so we can make room for everybody else that needs to speak. If You have already spoken, go watch the hearing from downstairs. If You are planning on leaving building, please leave your number. Go to the second floor, and we will call You back up next time. Thank You very much. Appreciate your cooperation. Okay. Next speaker.
08:21:58PM Okay. Good evening, Linda. Okay. Attorney is going to read names of the speaker waiver form. If you were in the room, please acknowledge by raising your hand or standing up. If you were downstairs, please come upstairs to the third floor to be recognized in City Council chambers.
Martin Shelby
08:22:19PM Harriet plier. Harriet, they just called your name.
Alan Clendenin
08:22:26PM Harriet.
Martin Shelby
08:22:27PM Harriet.
08:22:31PM Thank you. Shannon Teplony. Are you here? Thank you. Shawnee Wiggs. Or Shawn. Shawn Wiggs.
Alan Clendenin
08:22:52PM Can She come into the Chambers, please.
Martin Shelby
08:23:04PM That is the last. I have some names crossed out. Lauren Campbell and Kevin Jackson are crossed out. I am waiting for one, two and a third to give you a total of SIX minutes. Plenty of time.
08:23:20PM They are not out there? Okay. That is three and two so five minutes. I am Linda Saul-Sena, and I live on Davis Islands, three blocks from the Mirasol. IT is fun to see many familiar faces here tonight. And many people are surprised that im here as their long-time neighbor and preservationist that I am siding with somebody who wants to make a change on the island, but actually im here as a passionate preservationist. Little background. I was born at Tampa General Hospital. I was raised on Davis Islands. And I now live on a house on the island that I have been for 35 years. My mom started the Davis Islands civic association. And as a young person, I move back to Tampa and worked as a planner on the Planning Commission and wrote the Davis Islands plan. I served as a member of Tampa City Council for 20 years, and I always supported historic preservation. I -- in March of 2024, I organized the 100-year celebration for Davis Islands because IT was created in 1924. And We had 12 buildings. Some of you participated. IT was a fabulous tour. We ended up at the Mirasol, and Rodney Kite-Powell, the historian who wrote the book the history of Davis Islands, was our speaker. So I really, really, really care about Mirasol and about Davis Islands. So let me tell you why I am so supportive of this. Because I believe in beauty. And the Mirasol is one of the most beautiful buildings in our community and certainly one of most beautiful ones on Davis Islands. Now in 1927, Davis Islands won the American Planning Association award for the best planned community in america, which I think IT a big deal. IT had a variety of land uses. IT had multifamily, single-family, and had this hotel that existed when IT was given the award surrounded by homes and apartments. IT always has been a mixture of uses, which to me says urban, vibrant and healthy. IT is very difficult as you know from council members to dictate quality. I tried IT. IT is really hard. You can talk about, you know -- you can talk about a number of things legislatively, but ultimately, IT comes down to what is -- what the -- the aesthetics of the builder or developer has in mind. In this case, We are not dealing with a raw piece of property. If We were, you would all be terrified that IT is currently r-50 because could be some huge thing. What We are dealing with is the reality of this beautiful historic building that is there. And the proposed land use that is being requested as a -- as a plan amendment -- I mean, not a plan amendment, excuse me, a map amendment, would just allow this existing beautiful historic building to return to its original use as a hotel. And I -- I have seen so much change on Davis Islands. Specifically since the hurricanes, We unfortunately have already lost 10% of our historic buildings. And the new buildings that are being built are -- to my eye, they are mostly dreadful. Using every square inch that is available. They are too big. They are inappropriate. What -- what the character -- the character of the island needs to be protected, supported and whatever left that is historic needs to be -- needs to be supported In Whatever Way We can. Therefore, I respectfully ask you -- from the bottom of my heart to support this map amendment to allow preservation of this jewel. Thank you very much.
Alan Clendenin
08:27:31PM Thank you, Councilwoman. Next speaker? Why dont we pause for a second to allow more people come in. Pause for a second to let more people come in.
08:27:45PM Hold on, so You can get our full undivided attention. Is that IT?
Martin Shelby
08:28:15PM No, doesnt look like IT. People at the gate.
Alan Clendenin
08:28:19PM Okay. Come on in. Take a seat. Appreciate your patience. You can imagine -- We have a very limited capacity, so the logistics is difficult. Welcome. Darlene, how many more are out there? Okay. We will wait. We will wait now or wait later so We might well wait now. Anybody want to sing? [Laughter]
08:29:45PM We can do council karaoke right now. Lynn is gone. She is our ringer. Sounds like a plan. Thank you for your patience. Start with your name. You have three minutes. Sarah Lash. Thank you for listening today. I really appreciate IT. Im here to support the change in the comprehensive plan to allow the Mirasol to return to its original state as a hotel. As a student at ut. In the '90s, I lived in the Mirasol, so I can appreciate the value of the property. I can even remember the first time that me and my roommate went to the -- went to the condo to look at IT -- to the apartment to look at IT. We walked through the back gates. And we saw the waterfront pool, The Shaded Terrace, the sailboats were docked there. And I had no idea that IT looked like that from behind. I can only see how beautiful IT was From The Street. And IT was gorgeous. That was really when I fell in love with Tampa. And that feeling has stayed with me. Since then, I have built a life here in South Tampa. I have raised my children. And I really raised them with the affinity for the island. We go there often. We frequent the coffee shop ever since they were little. We dont look at Davis Islands as a gated community. I enjoy frequenting IT. I think IT is important to raise children to feel connected to the places that they live. And places like the Mirasol I believe do that. I would like to bring my children to this building as we have passed and driven by IT. I said that is where Mommy lived when I was in college. But they have never gotten to see the inside. And some of the other people here had described, the inside is pretty magical. IT would be a Great Place for the community to be able to enjoy. Thank you.
08:33:08PM Very good. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Start with your name. And you have three minutes. My name has been mentioned already. I am a Historian. I wrote the book on Davis Islands. And I am really here to almost -- kind of gratifying to hear how much appreciation there is for the history of the island and for this building. But I do want to reiterate some things that you all have heard and also clarify something. One person mentioned about the building itself. I will use this -- I apologize IT is on my phone. I didnt know I would be doing anything with this.
08:33:46PM We can see that. Built. And you can see that is basically the same building that IT is today
08:33:54PM On the top of the wolf, there is a dial where you can zoom IT in. The tv people are doing IT for you. But anyway, just to show that the Mass of the building as IT is today is basically the same as IT was. There wasnt any kind of large addition done in the '60s when IT was converted from use from a hotel to apartments. But to reiterate some things that were said. Davis Islands did indeed win a planning award. IT is interesting that the -- that Planning Commission is -- is not approving this because the original plan, you know, again, was an award-winning plan, and IT is really done in such a way that you have the separation from multifamily, commercial, single-family. And Davis Boulevard is a major thoroughfare that supplies those multifamily and commercial uses in a Pretty Efficient Way. Believe IT or not, supposed to be a hotel at the end of biscayne and blanca in the middle of the residential area, but biscayne was made wider to accommodate that As Davis Boulevard was made wider to accommodate the traffic that we anticipate and see along that corridor and that commercial multifamily and residential corridor. Another important fact is that davis island not only had an Award-Winning Police Officer, but design guidelines attached to the island originally. That is why all the buildings looked the same. Over 100 buildings built on the island, Mirasol being one of them and Miss Saul-Sena said we lost several. And 50 to 60 historical buildings left on the island. I believe IT is imperative to save this building, and this is probably the Most Practical Way to do IT. To forgo through historic preservation process with a Willing Owner now then if IT were to sell and some kind of contention of not being able to change the use and force or at least attempt to force preservation on an unwilling participant that is not the best use of anybodys time and generally does not work out that well. Thank you very much.
08:36:13PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. I go by Dani, a single mother of two and residential designer and worked on homes On Every Street on Davis Islands, big and small and old and new. Living on Davis Islands for over 18 years, and I never once stepped into the Mirasol until the recent open house. When the owners invited the community in to experience this beautiful storied structure. I was quite amazed by IT, especially as an interior designer. Im here today to support the passing of the comprehensive plan amendment for the Mirasol. After the hurricane, like many Davis Islands Residents, I lost my home and was forced to make incredibly fast and difficult decision about where my children and I would live. I gave myself just 48 hours. I still get emotional when I speak about this. I gave myself 48 hours after hurricane helene to decide what the next decade of my familys life was going to look like, because as a single mother, I had to make these quick decisions. My options were limited and extremely challenging. Rebuilding was not financially possible. Selling would have meant taking a loss. I even considered rezoning my 104-foot-wide lot by 103 feet deep into two parcels. As anyone in this room knows that process takes years and requires significant money neither of which I had. So I did what many Residents were forced to do, I used my personal funds to move water mitigation and restoration forward so my children and I could return to our home within a fairly reasonable time. Long before any insurance funds would arrive. More than a year later, those funds have still yet to come through. That perspective matters. Because the Mirasol ownership faced the same pressure, only on a much larger scale. They were reasonable -- they were responsible not just for themselves but more than 56 residential units. Asking Residents to vacate long term was not realistic, so they invested significant personnel capital for basic electrical, plumbing and safety systems so these Residents could return to their homes. They did this because they did not want more davis island Residents displaced with nowhere to live. But temporary fixes are not sustainable. Until the building is fully brought up to code, money will continue to be spent inefficiently and repeatedly. The comprehensive plan amendment is only viable path of restoring the nonhistoric but historic structure responsibly. By returning the Mirasol to its original 1926 hotel use and preserving the character of what we know as Davis Islands. I am sorry, I know that that time is up, I respectfully urge the Committee to approve the Mirasol comprehensive plan so this property can be restored responsibly and continue servicing Davis Islands Residents for years to come. Thank you.
08:39:22PM I want to remind everybody, this is just the comprehensive plan. If you have a number and you are finished and going to leave the building after this, if you would leave your number. If you are planning to speak to item 2, keep your number and we will recycle you back through. Thank you very much. Start with your name and you have three minutes. I am a resident of davis island and here to speak in support of passing the comprehensive plan amendment for the Mirasol. I want to start by saying I didnt come to this lightly. I attended an informational meeting I saw posted on social media where the Team walked through their plans to save the Mirasol. What stood out to me was how thoughtful and responsible the approach is and how deeply IT respects the character and history of Davis Islands. Mirasol is not just a building. IT is part of the identity of this neighborhood and a key piece of the original Davis Islands master plan from the 1920s. Built as a hotel intentionally placed along An Interior Boulevard to serve as an amenity for the surrounding residential community, and allowing IT to function as hotel again honors that original vision rather than changing IT. The proposed cmu-35 designation is appropriate for the site. IT exists in the island in the village and Along Davis Boulevard. And those areas have not lost the character or harmed nearby neighborhoods. In fact, the village is the heart of Davis Islands and thoughtful scaled commercial uses are part of what makes IT thrive. I understand concerns about traffic, but the concern is valid, but this project has already been evaluated through a professional traffic study. IT shows impacts that will be minimal. What cannot be minimized is the loss of this historic landmark if we deny IT the flexibility needed to survive. Passing the comprehensive plan amendment is a vote for preservation, stewardship, aligned with both the historic vision and the present needs of Davis Islands. Thank you for your time and consideration.
08:41:26PM Thank You. Have a good evening. Next Speaker please. You have three minutes. You have a Speaker waiver form?
08:41:34PM Mr. Shelby, read the names. If you hear your name, please raise your hand.
Martin Shelby
08:41:39PM Seven names. Lori Harwell. Thank you will speak out if you can too as well. That will help me. Joe Randall.
08:41:53PM Thank you. Tammy Crawford.
08:41:58PM Thank you. Karen -- thank you. Steve Harding.
08:42:05PM Thank you. And Tamara Corea.
08:42:11PM Total of seven and ten minutes. Neighbors, and we live on adalia. We are on adalia. I am not saying I live in South Tampa or Davis Islands. I live on adalia. I live houses away from the Mirasol. That Is My Street. I lived there 32 years and not the only property I own on Davis Islands. I own a small historic 75-year-old apartment building less than 500 feet away from the Mirasol. So I very much understand what they are going through. We flooded. They flooded. IT is a challenge owning an older building, but we are doing everything we can to preserve IT. And IT is also zoned residential. I am not against saving the Mirasol, but I insist that the Mirasol stay residential. I am against a commercial development. Davis island residents do not want or need a large commercial complex on our island. We chose to live on Davis Islands because we like the small town feel, the neighborhood, the land use change to cmu-35 is not in line with that style of living. The City Staff and the county Planning Commission are all in agreement that zoning change is inconsistent with the neighborhood and increases the density in a coastal high hazard area. I just heard the city staffer explain that this land use change could allow for a massive project on the property. "Massive" was his word. Nothing on my small residential Davis Islands Street should be massive or commercial. If we start to allow for commercial projects and parking garages in the middle of a completely residential area, what is next? Where does the nonconforming and nonconsistent developent stop? Flooding on Davis Islands even during a regular rainstorm is bad. All four lanes Of Davis Boulevard flood just from a summer storm. During hurricane helene, the Mirasol and our properties and neighbors' properties flooded with three feet of water. My family lost vehicles and sustained damage to our properties. All due to the overbuilding being allowed on Davis Islands along with the aging floodwater infrastructure and only worse without a major flood plan upgrade to all the surrounding streets. Yet there is no plan in the works to support all the large new residential homes being built on Davis Islands. I heard the Mirasol Owners over and over again blame the need for repairs on the -- on helene. But nearby residents know they let this building fall into disrepair long before helene. Helene is a convenient excuse at this point. We all heard the Owner mention earlier tonight their issues are due to delayed maintenance. Those are his words that they have been delaying maintenance for a very long time. The Owner of the Mirasol bought a 100-year-old residential buildings, and they want -- they want -- they dont need to, but they want to change IT to a commercial complex to maximize their financial gain. This mess falls on them and not the nearby neighbors for US all to help fix IT. I dont think anything with 130 units is to be a boutique. A boutique? I looked up at definition of a boutique hotel and defined as less than 100 units. Lets call this what IT is. They want to develop a huge commercial hotel, event center, and bar and restaurant. Parking garages, loading docks, delivery from tractor-trailers, and a trash incinerator. Who here wants to live next to such a massive commercial development. Owners dont live On The Street or The Next Street. They live on the back of the island. This entire land use change is somewhat ridiculous. Not to preserve the historic building as they claim. The changes they are requesting will not preserve the building or its history. They have not protected IT as historic, and there will be nothing to keep the Owners now or in the future from knocking the entire thing down and building any commercial cmu-35 structure they want. If they really want to save the Mirasol, I challenge them to do IT right and designate IT as historically preserved. I heard there are forms around here they can fill out tonight to do that. With Davis Islands being a coastal high hazard area, shouldnt that by itself disqualify and change the intensity? I went to the comprehensive meeting on davis island where they came and they explained the comprehensive plan to US. And there was a Representative there that stated that the planned goal was not to increase the density on the island. Lets not lose sight of that very important goal. We do not need and we cant not afford to and our infrastructure request not support increased density and intensity on Davis Islands. We already had significant traffic. You heard of the traffic. So dangerous to Cross The Street at davis island. My dog and I cross at the crosswalks, and we have to make sure that the vehicles actually stop to put a foot on the crosswalks because these vehicles are not stopping. Not a Safe Road. The thought of an additional 13,000 more vehicle trips a day? This is not a land use that we want. Supporting Emergency Services. City Fire Department has continuously spoken out against more building in South Tampa. Our Emergency Services cannot handle the overdevelopment. Lets not add to IT with a land use change. I live on a Small Residential Street and taught my kids to bike. How safe for our neighbors to have kids bike On The Street with tractor-trailers backing into a loading dock. Nothing safe about that. We do not need valet speeding through the streets to get to the parking garages. We do not need tractor-trailers making deliveries. We dont need ubers waiting for the late night drunks to leave the restaurant or the latest event. We are Davis Islanders. We dont want to be South Tampa's next edition or epicurian. We dont need that. I am not here to tear down the Mirasol. Im here to save our neighborhood and keep the Mirasol residential. Please do not support this land use change in our residential neighborhood already plagued with overbuilding, serious flooding and excessive traffic. The neighbors do not want these disruptive changes. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin
08:49:01PM Thank you. Good evening. Next speaker, please. Good evening honorable members of the city -- Tampa City Council. My name is Bradley Campbell and a resident that live at 112 Baltic Circle on the canal, five doors down from the mirasol. Im here to voice my strong opposition of the land use change of my neighbors property from residential to commercial use. Our neighborhood is a quiet, safe, and family-oriented community. Children walk their bikes and they kayak and paddle on the canal. Changing IT from residential to commercial land use alters this area in ways that cannot be undone. Commercial use brings increased vehicle traffic. That means more cars, more uber drivers, more trucks and delivery vehicles moving throughout the quiet streets. My Street Is Baltic Circle where with the majority of the increased traffic would flow. This produces a direct safety risk for my children who play outside, people who walk or bike, and those who value the peaceful development we built together. People driving in The Neighborhood Drive differently on their Own Neighborhood Street using caution and respecting fellow neighbors when they pass by. You start mixing in commercial vehicles and their drivers who are not used to the areass curvier roadways. My family and I built a home eight years ago because of its location. Invested all my savings into the canal lot because of its quiet location and the residential feel this location has. Its off the beat path of other busy streets throughout davosislands. And located away from the commercial district of Davis Islands. Our home is located on the canal, and we sit on the back porch in the evening and enjoy a quiet sunset. Commercial operations to the canal will change its nature from residential recreational waterway to a commercial passage. Our canal is not designed to accommodate frequent or heavy boat traffic. Increasing usage for business purposes will create congestion, safety concerns, and diminish the enjoyment of those who use IT for quiet activities like kayaking, paddleboarding and fishing. Lastly, we must consider the impact on noise and the atmosphere. Right now, IT is serene and charming, and a shift to commercial activity brings more noise, longer hours of activity, and a disruption to the peace we all value. Once that character is lost, we can not get IT back. I understand the need for business development in our city as I am a residential -- or I am a real estate developer myself, but IT should be done thoughtfully in appropriately zoned areas. Our neighborhood is Not That Place. Our neighborhood is zoned residential. I respectfully urge to you preserve the integrity and safety of our community by preventing this from residential and not commercial use. This is for our families. Thank you very much.
08:52:09PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Dont forget to leave your numbers if you are going to leave the building. You can hand IT to the guard standing there. Good evening. Start with your name. You have three minutes. I lived on Davis Islands for 40 years. The past 36 years, 94 Baltic Circle immediately adjacent to the mirasol apartments. This is the view of the mirasol. The view of the waterfront. Tthe view that people rarely get to see. This is an area with an opportunity amplifies noise, activity, and visual impact. The vote before you tonight is not about our hotels, restaurants because preservations are good ideas. IT is about where the cmu-35, an expansive permanent land use designation belongs at this location. Now. I fully understand of operations and other commercial uses would require approval of the rezoning stage. But I want to raise the waterfront issue tonight for a narrower and important reason, To Place a foreseeable sequence of this land use framework on the record. For a waterfront hotel, the waterfront itself is the humanity. Pool decks and docks are used for guest gathering with elevated noise levels, amplified music, particularly in the evenings and weekends when the rest of the neighborhood has gone quiet. Residential waterways, these sounds are further amplified intensifying the impact on nearby homes. This is not speculation. In 2024, the mirasol marina was used as a staging point for party boat rentals. They were busy setting up jet ski rentals there as well. The waterfront hosted many private events including rowdy parties accompanied by amplified units. And what distinguishes water impacts from land side impacts is the absence of any meaningful buffer. Along the roadways, their lanes, setbacks, sidewalks and you can impose traffic control. Along the canal, there is no walls. No separation and no enforcement bound to prevent noise, lighting or activity from carrying directly into residential homes, especially one along this waterfront. If cmu-35 passes and this project moves forward, the marina and waterfront will be central issues in the rezoning meeting to follow. Close scrutiny and cannot rely on assurances how sincere they are offered. Ultimately, the question is of desirability. Transformation of waterfront homes like myself into projects that are defined by the adjacency to hotel night life and making IT materially harder to sell where children can ride their bakes, skateboard and play basketball without having to dodge cars an crowds.
08:55:36PM Thank You very much. Have a wonderful evening. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Sefon begun, and I live on Davis Islands. Im here tonight as a neighbor to respectfully ask You to approve this petition so the Mirasol can be repurposed and reopened as a Hotel. And the strongest reason is simple. Davis island needs a place for visitors to stay overnight. My family have lived this firsthand. When our children were baptized, we wanted to keep our family close by, but our house simply doesnt have enough room to accommodate everyone, and our family had to stay off the island. IT is inconvenient and takes away from being able to come together In The Place we call home. A neighborhood-scale Hotel solves that. IT lets families stay close together so people can walk to where they need to be. And IT actually experiences davis island rather than driving on and off the island. IT makes sense given the mirasols proximity to Tampa general. Families come to support loved ones who receive care at the hospital and having a nearby Hotel will serve the real community needs. And this isnt a new concept that is being imposed on the island. I actually have the original davis island plat hanging in my living room and one in my offices downtown. IT is clear that the island was envisioned as a balanced mixed use neighborhood, single-family homes, multifamily areas, commercial center, and a Hotel. Over time, we have lost that Hotel, and now IT is time to bring that Hotel back to benefit the residents. And this is exactly the limited appropriate commercial use that helps the neighborhood thrive, supporting residential life, adding vitality, and serving the community without changing its character. So my request is straightforward that You approve this addition. Thank You.
08:57:57PM Thank you very much. Good evening. Next speaker. Just for planning purposes, at 9:30, We will take another short break. We have 30 more minutes and then take another short break.
Martin Shelby
08:58:08PM Thank you. One name, Susan Shobe.
Alan Clendenin
08:58:18PM Susan, are you in the house?
Martin Shelby
08:58:21PM She sure is. Right there. One additional minute with total of four.
Alan Clendenin
08:58:27PM You have four minutes. I know your jobs are hard, and these meetings go long. And I -- I just want to you know thank you. My name is Davis Shobe. My wife is Susan Spoto Shobe. We moved to adalia in 1972, and we lived there now into our 80s for 54 years. IT has been a great neighborhood. I moved there on the recommendation of Cody Fowler who lived at 83 Adalia Avenue, because I got put in the office -- actually a file room that he had next door to him. And cody, if you havent heard of him, has a plaque down on the riverwalk. He was president of the American Bar in the 1950s. Helen Gordon Davis lived on adalia during my time there. I think you Renamed Davis Boulevard, but at least got a sign giving IT is Helen Gordon Davis Boulevard. IT has been a great neighborhood, and im here to tell you IT always has been area where children played in the streets often, people knew their neighbors. And where there were neighborhood parties, and IT is only recently that the streets have become crowded with people from Tampa General, mainly the employees who -- who I guess find IT cheaper to park On Our Street than they to do park in the parking lot at Tampa General. I dont know that for a fact, but there has got to be some reason, because often with construction and the police from Tampa General, The Street turns into a one-lane Street. And that is really what worries me today about the land use amendment. I know a lot of people seem to be talking about something other than the land use amendment. But im here to talk of the land use amendment. IT is an unfortunate circumstance that -- that traffic generated by this change in land use, I, at least, from the web site that the people who are here have set up, might increase the traffic up to as much as 4900%. Wow, that is a lot. We already have too much traffic, and the a streets and the b streets will be alternate routes for construction trucks for the first three years of the project they project. And the -- the -- the problems create by that traffic and then the parking really Make The Street a Very Different Place than IT has been for my 54 years. Kids dont -- even though they try now, they dont often get to throw the ball In The Street. They dont often get to do basketball games In The Street like they used to. And IT will get a lot worse where the streets are crowded with parking. And with construction going on of the magnitude of this proposal before you generates. There are a number of things in our web site under the heading of myths. And I would refer to you those. They are important. We are here for ask you to deny the request of the people who own the property at the Mirasol. IT seems to me that the most likely outcome is that the Mirasol will get torn down because they will sell the property once they get your land use change.
09:02:31PM Thank you very much. Have a wonderful evening. Next Speaker, please.
Martin Shelby
09:02:35PM Is John Mcduffie here? Jan Banker. Two additional minutes for a total of five.
Alan Clendenin
09:02:55PM Thank You. Start with your name. You have five minutes. Good evening. John Murray, 122 Adalia Avenue, two properties west of 84 davis. My wife and I have been homeowners at this address for 30 years. We chose Davis Islands for unique family character. We value the small town feel and its proximity to exciting developments. Professionally, I am the chief executive of a major Florida seaport. I commuted from the Davis Islands to the port and is a testament 09:03:32pm of quality of life of Davis Islands. At port canaveral, I manage comparable land use that have cruise, cargo, aerospace operations, public Parks, marinas, restaurants and 100 general use tenants spread over 1100 acres. We are responsible for policies set by our board and task of due diligence and thoughtful decision making. In respect to the councils decision on August 11, the Hillsborough County Planning Commission unanimously voted IT inconsistent with the City Of Tampa comprehensive plan, and based on unanimous 7-0 resolution of the staff recommendation alone, the City Council should deny this request. The applicant looks to change the land use from r-50 to cmu-35 that allow its Owner for site development and convert residential properties to commercial use. Cmu-35 with future entitlements on the property. Surrounded by single-family and multifamily homes under the commercial intensity of cmu-35 is incompatible with our residential neighborhoods. Specific concerns with the cmu-35 include intensity and entitlement. Higher intensity on the cmu-35 will add entitlements to change for current and subsequent Owners. Introduction of transient population as evidence with short-term travel, noise, alcohol consumption, and inappropriate behavior, and increased intensity in the flood zone. A change in land use of density in the coastal high hazard area prone to significant flooding during storm events. Of course, parking and traffic. Increased entitlement of the cmu-35 elevates intense traffic and parking requirements. Current traffic and parking at the proposed location is already bad, and a change to cmu-35 would make IT worse. Davis Boulevard, as You dont know, lack bike lanes and Prevents Golf Court safety, building viability. We talked a lot about that tonight. There is a reasonable risk that restoration of the building May not be viable. Without preservation protections, the cmu-35 designation could put the Mirasol at a high risk of demolition than IT is today because the land use entitlement will be more than the building structure. The Owners risky business proposal and financial situation does not overrule the citys responsibility to ensure that the land use is compatible with the neighborhood. Owners financial shall not force a radical land use change to the surrounding neighborhood properties. In conclusion, the land use of this property is unsuitable and unwanted in the heart of our north davis island residential neighborhood and gives full for City and county planning recommendations and deny this proposal. Just briefly, to show what You we live with today, this is -- these are some of parking issues. This is coming up Adalia getting ready to make a left-hand turn on to davis going north. You cant see to the right. You have no choice many times to make a right-hand turn and find a way to u-turn to the North Davis Boulevard because of inappropriate traffic in front of the Mirasol. This is also right in front of the Mirasol. This is their Landscape Service that just Parks there at the stop sign. I could do this all night long, but I promise You, I wont. Here is another view You have of the same vehicle as You can see right at the stop sign. And, of course, the Fire Department should be out more often than they are to see where we are with fire hydrants. That is a vehicle on one day. Here is one another day. And just for notice, they are blocking the fire hydrants but all the vehicles are parked in wrong direction On The Street every day. I can go and take pictures like this. Thank You for your time this evening, and please deny this request.
09:07:54PM Thank you, Mr. Murray. Next speaker. I know you have a speaker waiver form. I bet a paycheck on IT.
Martin Shelby
09:08:09PM Seven names. Sandy Sanchez. I see you. Pam Canella. I see you. Michael -- thank you. Scott Defrates, thank you. Michael Mcnabb. Thank you. Joanne Mcnabb, thank you. And Anna Alina.
09:08:43PM Seven names plus three with a total of ten. South Tampa, and before I get into IT, I want to address some of the things I heard said here today. A lot of people think that You are voting on whether or not to save the Mirasol. You are not. You can not. You do not have the power to save the Mirasol. That is not in your purview. No matter how You vote tonight, the Mirasol might be saved. No matter how You vote tonight, the Mirasol might get torn down. You have no control over that. If the goal was really saving the Mirasol, why havent they asked for historical designation? Because that actually will save IT. That actually is the only thing that will save IT. But reality is, the practicality of IT is, if the Mirasol had historic designation, that property would be worth less money. They said themselves the value is in the land. If they get historic preservation on IT, they will -- they and future owners will be so restricted on what they can do, the value will go down. Real Estate Professionals will tell You all the time The Quickest Way to make money on -- on land is to get the land use or zoning changed. That is an instant increase in profit. By not getting historical designation they kept their flexibility. I would also like to address this whole scare tactics and worse-case scenarios. Stephanie Poynor and I can speak with more authority than anybody about this sort of thing. And around 2005, the owners of the property on rattlesnake point came to City Council and said we want the land use change. Councilman Harry Cohen said, I dont know, I got a lot of concerns about this. Gina Grimes -- I watched the video and seen the transcript. Oh, You dont have to worry about IT. She said basically the same thing that Mr. Hudson said. All those things can be addressed at the rezoning. City Council wont approve all those horrible things You are afraid of. You dont have to worry. Go ahead and approve IT. 15 years later, rezoning started and You know what, gina and tyler were right. You said no. You said no on the first one, the second one, the third one. You said no, no, no, no. Those are bad plans. Guess what, those were Quasi-Judicial rulings where rules are different. What did all those properties owners do? They all filed lawsuits. They went to Fluedra. I dont know how many hours, Stephanie Poynor after more Fluedra meeting after Fluedra meeting. The city caved and gave into the demand and nobody on City Council wanted IT. You were overruled, and all those apartments got built on rattlesnake point. The whole theory that there is a PD -- first, dont worry of the boogie man behind the window because those horrible uses will not happen. Not true. They will happen because You will go from a legislative issue at your discretion to a Quasi-Judicial issue. Other thing they say, the pds will control IT. Nothing can be built other than on a PD. How many rezonings where the zoning is being rezoned because IT changed minds or changed hands. All that they will do with this PD coming up before You. You can approve IT, and they dont have to build IT ever. IT can sit vacant. IT can sit not vacant but not be done. Or someone can rezone IT again to something completely different. So the PD does not protect IT. So now I am getting ready to get to my presentation and my powerpoint if they bring IT up. Planning Commission Staff, land Development Coordination Staff and Planning Department Staff all opposed this amendment. Planning Commission board found IT inconsistent by unanimous vote in my eight years of experience is a very rare occurrence. Staff said IT is inconsistent because IT will double -- I repeat, double the allowable size of anything built on this property. Staff said inconsistent because anything that is allowed in commercial general could be built here. That would allow a lot more new uses. Staff said IT could also cause problems of massing, scale, and compatibility, and that violates the comp plan. They said no because this new land use could change the fabric of the existing residential neighborhood. Staff warned, there are no guarantees the Mirasol will be preserved or even that is a hotel will be built. IT could become anything that commercial general allows. They can build a restaurant, cafe, retail and other amenities today under the current land use. Nothing stopping those things right now. Staff said the current land use allows many wonderful things that are compatible. Cmu-35 will allow an increase in density that violates the comp plan. No increased density in a chha, period. City Planning Staff cites plan review criteria to be compatible with the neighborhood, there should be a similar land use adjacent to this property. Criteria also says because there are r-6 adjacent to the property. A transit corridor or transit station within 660 feet. City Planning said those criteria have not been met, and since they are not met, You May deny this. City Planning Department objects to this amendment because IT could significantly increase the dwelling units in the chha, which is inconsistent with the comp plan. Tampas land Development Coordination Staff objects to in amendment because doubling the far. With change the fabric of existing single-family and multifamily residential in the area and no cmu-35 near this development. No guarantees. No requirement to build a PD if You approve IT. The rezoning they want is not worth the paper IT is printed on. They do not have to do IT. If You approve this amendment, You are improving a massive increase in entitlements that run with the land. You will create extensive new property rights that You dont even understand. You create a legal vulnerability that will not exist if You deny this amendment. The plan amendment to change the land use is legislative. IT is at your discretion. That is a completely different animal than Quasi-Judicial. State does not say that and will owners have a right to changes in land auto US. State has no reliability. No legal downside of denying this. But the opposite is true if You approve this legislative change. You move into Quasi-Judicial territory, which has a different requirement. If You think doubling the requirements are okay, if You think changing the fabric of the neighborhood is okay, if You think incompatible massing and scale is okay, if You know every use allowed in this ten pages of commercial general, if You know what they all are, and You think all of them are okay, if You think significantly increasing the residential density in the ch-ha is okay, then You should vote yes. But if even one of those things is not okay, then You must vote no. You must vote no because this is a pandoras box. If You open IT, You better be okay with letting every single thing out You have IT, because You cant put IT back in the box. Thank You.
Alan Clendenin
09:17:29PM Thank you. [Applause] no, no, no, no. Any more outbursts like that, I will ask you to leave chamber. Next speak. You have three minutes. Please start with your name. If you are here to speak, the next ten speakers can line up against the wall, please. Never mind. Two or three is good because we will break in a few minutes. Start with your name. Three minutes. I am from Tampa Bay and currently a junior at Harvard University studying environmental science and public policy. First, the plan would increase density in the coastal high hazard area according to page 6 of the staff report. The site is within the coastal high hazard area evacuation zone a, management 1.1 Directs future populations away from this coastal high hazard area to achieve a no net increase of residential within the coastal high hazard area. They state that the proposal could significantly increase the number of dwelling units on the property hence the staff reports conclusion of inconsistency with the comp plan. This proposal is inconsistent with Florida statute 16331-78 number one that states the intent of the legislature that local government comprehensive plans restrict development activities where such activities could damage or destroy coastal resources and that such plans protect human life and limit public expenditures in areas subject to destruction by natural disasters. This will harm public welfare by a natural disaster. Tampas location in southern Florida and low elevation with my hurricane probability and high flood susceptibility. 355% Of the citys population reside in the hurricane number one and number two evacuation zones. Models project that hurricanes will pose coastal flood risks unfortunately with higher frequency in the north atlantic. Several residents with the intensity storms such as hurricane helene destroying their private homes and causing them in the mirasol. Mirasols location which is the narrow low point with little buffer between the adalia baltic canal terminuses to marjory park marina will cause flooding impacts to be disproportionately magnified opposed to other parts of Tampa. In times of evacuation, are the potential doubling of intensity On Davis Boulevard will exacerbate public safety concerns. Policy 7.1.5 Already prohibits intensity increases for land identified on the coastal development areas map in the region around the MacDill Air Force Base. Finally the mirasol is a source of affordable housing for many people on Davis Islands. Working at bostons home ownership agency, there are land use plans that have the opposite effect of affordability. Thank you. And I appreciate the opportunity to share why the amendment to change the land use designation from residential 50 to cmu-35 is a public safety hazard.
09:20:59PM Thank you very much. Have a wonderful evening.
09:21:01PM Next speaker. We all know your name but state your name. For nine years, the City Of Tampa Comprehensive Plan and land development code which is not always the process in the past. I have not only advocated for Davis Islands, but for many other Tampa neighborhoods. I show up with facts and specific references to the comp plan and the city code. This is request is unlike anything I have seen on Davis Islands as there is a strong push to have in based on media campaigns, preferences and other avenues in conflict with the Tampa Comprehensive Plan. Please do not let this happen. Reached a point where I need to trust the process, trust that you will hear the facts, and trust that you, as a body, will vote accordingly. Historically, Davis Islands residents have always performed within the process of surrounding land development patterns. Two examples, the Davis Islands island community plan, which was in the making and which was years in the making and approved by City Council and is incorporated within the Tampa Comprehensive Plan. I worked for years on that. And number two, most recently, closes to 100 people showed up at our comp plan town hall this summer. Turnout was huge given the fact that many in attendance including myself where I was recovering from the 2024 hurricanes. Davis Islands residents expect the established process to be followed. With my close to 15 years of land use advocacy, I cant tell you how many times I approached by residents I barely knew expressing their appreciation that someone is keeping an eye on development matters that impact our neighborhoods. 40-plus real estate years and 30 years focused on complex affordable housing transactions. I know how important for decision in compliance with the applicable ordinances, regulations, and compliance. To depart from that process compromises the integrity of the framework and unintended consequences. I respectfully request denial of this and IT is inconsistent with the comprehensive planned and incompatible with the surrounding neighborhood. Not my opinion but demonstrated by a finding of inconsistency of unanimous vote of the city-county Planning Commission. Findings in the Planning Commission staff report and finding within the City Of Tampa city department planning report showing inconsistency of the Land Development Department. The preponderance from multiple levels, difficult to understand a scenario where this request can be found consistent with the comprehensive plan or the citys code. I respectfully request denial of this request. And thank you so much for your time.
09:24:24PM Thank you, Debbie, have a good night. Next speaker, please. Start with your name. You have three minutes. I live on Davis Islands. I have for 15 years. My wife and I have a business on the island on the davis island village. We belong to the Davis Island Village Association. We sent a letter of support letting you know that obviously this becoming a hotel would very much help US in the village and businesses that are there. As many business owners have come up tonight and mentioned the stress that we have gone through with -- I mean, the whole island really with the storms of a couple of years ago. And a lot of businesses went out you have business because of IT. And I see, you know, looking at obviously visiting the Mirasol, the toll IT has taken on that. The toll IT has taken on the whole island. I understand peoples fears, I really do. Change -- change is tough, but I dont want to see the island that I love, that I lived on for 15 years just the crown jewel being destroyed. And when IT comes down to IT, everything that I am hearing tonight, you are either for cmu-35 or for the wrecking ball. And I know people dont want to hear that. And that just seems to be the direction we are going. We have people, residents that live on the island, our neighbors. My kids go to school with them. I buy coffee at the same coffee shop as them on the island. This isnt some nameless, faceless corporation from Flagstaff, Arizona trying to move in and destroy this island. These are people who love this island just like I do. Just like we all do in here. And IT is a contentious evening, that is for sure, but I want to see the Mirasol, and I want to see IT stay there for a long time. And we have a family that is willing to invest their resources and keep this thing alive. And I hope -- I hope you see to IT That Way. I hope that I can continue to give my family when they visit town rides around on the golf CART and say this is the Mirasol. This has been here since 1926. I hope you will consider that with cmu-35. Thank you.
09:27:04PM Thank You. We have one more speaker. The next speaker, please come to the podium. After this speaker, we will take a break so You guys can relax a little bit. Start with your name. You have three minutes. Thank You for taking time and consideration for this proposal. I do not live on davis island. I do reside in another neighborhood with strong community known as Beach Park. Over the last few years, our neighborhood has had at least four different Developers pursue redevelopment of what was once a single-story office park surrounded by single-family homes, and our home is one of them. These Developers wanted to build eight- to ten-story apartments within a few feet of our property lines. The building will significantly offer our neighborhood character, impact our living, change our privacy and reduce the life. These were be considered by some neighbors as highly intrusive, the current allowable future land use for the Mirasol allows for the same type of invasive future development to do the exact same thing to immediate neighbors. A new high-rise residential development could impact the neighborhood significantly. I have seen IT first hand. The building or buildings would be bigger, higher and denser. Overshadowing the neighbors, more cars, less privacy and what is worse, not characteristically fit in. All under current future land use designation. The neighbors are not discussing that, but if IT comes forward, I promise they would be. Right now, the Mirasol stands as an architectural gem that defines the character of Davis Islands. And exists today as IT existed when every person and neighbor bought their house, pretending that by allowing commercial uses will forever alter their neighborhood character to try to stop a project is disingenuous. What will forever alter the neighborhood character is the 125-foot-high big box and modern structure, which is the alternative. Reviewing for plans for the Mirasol to be brought back to its original intended use. I fail to see this is an intrusive use or structure to the neighborhood. A thoughtful respectful suggestion adding value to our neighborhood and homes with values like this. Seems like a gift to those not only in the neighborhood but the whole Davis Islands community. You commend the care and thought that went into this plan, and I ask that You vote on the submitted plans.
09:29:49PM IT came to my attention, the gentleman in the orange, were you wanting to speak? In the orange vest, you May have gotten skipped over. We will let you speak and then break after you. Start with your name. You have three minutes. Class ballet enterprise. The Mirasol hotel creates jobs, generates consistent tax revenue, and attract higher value investors. The same strangers, transients that would come into the hotel for two days might fall in love with Davis Islands or want to invest in Tampa so you never know. I am a firm believer of dont sweep your problems under the rug. The Mirasol is already here. Why build something else and figure out another parking situation or, you know, so -- my thing is, lets focus on investing in the Mirasol. A parking lot. Parking garage. The hotel might not close at 7:00, but most residents have to go to work at 7:00, so still transportation moving in and out of city. So they speak on noise ordinance because of the Mirasol. I definitely can ask for report on how many claims the Mirasol had for noise ordinance. I doubt IT hasnt been many. Like was mentioned before, many of you have even lodged at the Mirasol during disasters. Thank you for your time.
09:31:33PM Thank you very much. Okay, so Council, we are going to break. IT is 9:33. If I ask Council to be back in Council chambers at 9:55. Please. 955. Back in chambers. So we are in recess. Thank you. [Gavel sounding] 9:55.
09:55:46PM Good evening, Everybody. Welcome to Tampa City Council again.
Lynn Hurtak
09:55:51PM After dark.
Alan Clendenin
09:55:52PM Tampa City Council. The real Tampa City Council. If You were in the building downstairs in the overflow room, if You were planning on speaking on item one, please come to the third floor. We have seats for You. If You were planning on speaking on item one and You have not spoken and not given your time away, please come to the third floor. I would like to call this City Council meeting to order. Roll call, please.
Charlie Miranda
09:56:22PM Here.
Guido Maniscalco
09:56:23PM Here.
Lynn Hurtak
09:56:24PM Here.
Naya Young
09:56:25PM Here.
Clerk
09:56:29PM Is She here? Oh, I am sorry.
Alan Clendenin
09:56:31PM Had her mouthful.
Bill Carlson
09:56:35PM Here.
Alan Clendenin
09:56:38PM Here.
Clerk
09:56:39PM We have a physical quorum.
Alan Clendenin
09:56:41PM Thank you. Thank you for your patience. Start on the wall. Next speaker. Start with your name, three minutes and stay silent in the room. I own technology companies. Im here to support this amendment to improve the Mirasol. But I am not going to tell you the facts and the conjectures that others have been saying. I look at two stories and go back to history. First, villa deleon is the historic apartment building, pink palace as you enter the island. Tampa declined the request to raise the building seven feet for hurricane damage. IT was denied and for months IT is boarded up, rat-infested and every Day We Drive by that and the future of the destiny of what we face with the Mirasol. That is story number one. I think we can learn from history. Second, I would like to learn from other history from the Tampa Bay area. Lets go back to 1984 where there was a common question. St. Petersburg had to decide what to do with the Vinoy hotel. A hotel, fallen on financial hard times, turned into a boarding house and closed and deteriorated. Residents around IT liked the peaceful neighborhood and didnt like the property values that will decline because of the transient nature not of the people coming there but the people on the ground as IT wasnt maintained. City Leaders voted -- City Leaders and voters chose a different path to keep IT shuttered. They saw history and character as assets and not liability and chose adaptive use. Chose long-term value over short term caution and fear. And today, its Vinoy is an icon, major economic engine. The advantage for its residential neighbors, and IT is proof that their decision was right. You now face similar choice with the Mirasol. Like the Vinoy then, the Mirasol is a historic waterfront hotel that has fallen on hard times and Finding Its Way. There are many voices saying, wait, do nothing, IT will stay the same. But the lesson from the Vinoy is that historic places need flexibility to survive, not stagnation, not inaction. Rezoning is not reckless development. About giving historic property a viable future. Without modernization, historic buildings do not stay frozen in time. The Vinoy was saved because leaders understood one thing. Preservation only works when the economics works too. Mirasol zoning applies to that same lesson, lets keep IT alive. Support this rezoning. History teaches US that cities regret the landmarks they lose, not the ones they thoughtfully adapt. Council has the opportunity to make the right decision where everyone will say this got this decision right. Thank you for managing that decision and hearing US tonight.
09:59:54PM Thank you. Next speaker, please. Start with your name. Dont forget to leave your numbers if you leave the building. And I have been in the Hotel Capital Markets business for 12 years now. I worked on a variety of properties around the region. Some near and dear to my heart. As you know the vinoy as was just mentioned, a iconic Hotel In St. Pete. Worked in the grand hyatt in west shore. Hilton downtown, Renaissance International Plaza and through financing, through sales over the last 12 years. I have given the hotel market update of the West Shore Development Forum the last three years. I am a student of this industry. What I dedicated my career too. And trying to bring some perspective from that background to the case of this map amendment tonight. The Way I think about, you know, where this property -- this building is today and what the future May hold for something that is approaching 100 years old. And IT is a crown jewel of the island. IT is a beautiful building. Something that should be preserved. I think the goal is to maintain this building and allow IT to be restored after all of the damage that the hurricanes brought in 2024. Now when we think of what IT is today or what IT was as a multifamily building, to get the rents that you need to allow the owner to viably restore IT, IT is just -- IT is cost prohibitive. IT doesnt make economic sense. In the current zoning, you know, rm-50, that density would allow a much more intense project. As the hotel, given its waterfront nature and its history, that is what guests look for. That is the experiences when you think about someone travelling to Tampa and wanting to understand what its like to live here and the history of the city, you are creating that experience, you are creating that memory that allows them to maybe come back to want to move here some day to invest in our community. And this is such a special building that when this is restored, IT is going to create those memories for the next generation. And that is what happened with the vinoy. IT was saved, and now IT is one of the most special iconic properties in Tampa Bay. So why is IT only viable if IT is a hotel? Well, with the cost to restore, the revenue potential that you can have as a boutique hotel, and there are plenty of comps. I dont go into detail what those are, but the performance associated with the hotel once IT is renovated makes IT viable and otherwise IT will probably get demolished. If IT gets demolished, IT will be an erasure of a historic piece of our city. You think of the ramifications of that. Rodney Kite-Powell speaking earlier how this won planning awards. I wont speak to the surrounding neighbors and everything. IT has been exhaustive. I am in support of this because I think IT is important to retain a piece of history and hospitality that the city was built on in The First Place.
10:03:07PM Thank you very much. Next speaker. My name is Natasha. And my address is 84 West Davis Boulevard known as the Mirasol. I have been living there for three years. Kind of feels like forever. When we first entered the Mirasol to look at the premise for our rental, we were bowled over by the historic nature, the beautiful design of the building, and we went up to the sixth floor which was overlooking the marina out toward Bayshore and the water. We were blown away, completely blown away. We wanted to sign our lease right then and there. We were very, very happy. And as the days went on, we became acquainted with our neighbors. And we actually, you know, made a family there. And I want to apologize for the neighbors, because the pool parties were a little loud. Apologize, but we really had such a great, great time living there. But sometimes when you see something beautiful, you dont look past that until later on, and IT started to lose the luster. And you got to see the things that were going on, really. IT is 100-year-old building. IT needs to be maintained. That hasnt been happening, okay. Termites. I was told there was moisture in the walls. That is mold. Mosquitoes, because the basements flood. I have photos here from 2004 -- May I? Not sure if you can see with the glare on IT. Where is IT? Okay. So this is parts of the basement. Okay, this is 2004. Those issues. So this is something that is not new. I had gone to a few of the Mirasol events, and one of things I asked when I was there, I see what you are doing. Beautiful plans. Beautiful. But what are you doing now? There was no answer. So when they say we want to preserve the Mirasol, I think about my favorite quote from the "Princess Bride" you keep using that word but I dont think you mean IT The Way -- excuse me, I dont think you use IT The Way IT is supposed to be meant, okay. So if they are going to preserve IT, they need to do IT The Right Way and the boutique hotel later on is not going to be the best idea. Thank you.
10:06:08PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Thank you for having US here tonight. Heard from some to be in support of this petition like I am, you must be friends of the owner. I do not know them. I heard that you must have some kind of financial interest. I have none. I have heard if you are a davis island resident and your support this, you must live so far south IT is not even going to bother you. I am on the a street. I live closer than 50% of those on adalia to do the Mirasol. I am a mom on the island. I have two young small children, and we would love to see this first step in getting Mirasol returned into a hotel. Give the island and our residents another amenity, something to bring the community together. And I can complete empathize with people to live next door. Change is scary. But I advocate not to be scared of this change but to welcome IT. Welcome the urbanity, the revitalization of the island. Bring IT back to where IT was supposed to be. Reason we are not seeing kids Playing In Street is not because of traffic, but because young families usually cant even afford to get on the island and live on island. Minimal amenities. The village has been dying especially at hurricanes. Not families around anymore. Help US bring this island back because IT is dying on the vine. Thank you.
10:07:45PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. I also live on davis island. And sticking just to the land use amendment issue, IT is important to look at davis island as an enclosed community. One of the things in reading through all of the letters and all of actions and filings, seeing that the People talk about how IT is nice to be in a neighborhood where you can walk to a restaurant. You can do that with this, and do this with that. Everything you need on an island, other than an actual grocery store. Having a hotel in the island will fill a niche that is not currently filled. People come to visit and stay for the holidays, having a place to walk home too after they have dinner at your house is great. If the Mirasol is not there and commercial mixed use zoning, IT would certainly be a business target to davis island residents. Having a waterfront trader joes wouldnt make a lot of sense. A business that targets the community. Something that is going to serve the community. People want davis island to be several sufficient. And while IT is not bordering on another mixed use lot, the mixed use lot is -- as the staff put IT -- very far. .3 Miles away. IT makes sense when they built IT as a hotel and when they zone IT as a mixed use before zoning even existed. And had IT as a hotel and makes use to rezone IT to make IT a mixed use lot. IT will serve that part of the island and have necessary amenities for residents and visitors of Tampa General Hospital and other places around the island. IT is important to take a look at island as a whole entity and look at IT as a complete picture, and I think that the commercial mixed use makes sense to that point. Thank you.
10:09:45PM Thank You. Next speaker, please. You have been patient. You have been trying to get up to speak for quite a while.
10:09:56PM Okay. My name is Richard Blou. Im here in two capacities really. First, as a lifetime resident of davis island. I lived on the island since I was born in Tampa General Hospital 68 years ago. My family has grown up on davis island. One of the myths I would like to dispel is the notion to that only people who are living close to the Mirasol are opposed to IT. My family lives at 545 Ladrone Avenue which is almost on the other side of the island, and im here to oppose the change to the land use plan. I think IT would be a material impact, a negative impact on what davis island is, which is a neighborhood, a residential neighborhood. I think that IT would turn that neighborhood into something much different for a lot of the reasons that you heard this evening. And I am not going to repeat what has been said so eloquently by experts, by residents, by Developers, by people that I believe all have sincere interests in davis island. But what I do want to emphasize is the -- is the irrefutable truth that this is a neighborhood, and changing the land use plan to allow for greater development on the island will work a material negative impact on the island. I am also here in my capacity as the trustee for the Theodore H. Blou and Lily R. Blou trusts that own 211 and 213 East Davis Boulevard, part of the davis island village. You May be surprised that part of the village is opposed to the land use plan based on some of comments that you heard today. But I take on behalf of the Trust and on behalf of beneficiaries of the Trust, which include Me, the position that for the long view and for the sake of the neighborhood that is davis island, we should not sacrifice that continuity, that residential nature for unnecessary commercial profit. I am all for commercial profit, but I think that what is most important is the residential nature of davis island. And toward that end, one last thing. I dont think this has been raised by anybody, so IT May be new information. IT is in my submission. This shows the exact residential nature of davis island and why traffic will be a problem. Three pedestrian crosswalks, five major artery intersections, and ten residential outlets. These all come together to make traffic unbearable. I am out of time. Thank you.
10:13:25PM Thank you very much. Next speaker. You have a speaker waiver form? Mr. Shelby? Back into your box. Somebody unleashed -- yeah, exactly. Who gave him the key to that.
Martin Shelby
10:13:50PM I see four names. Melanie Valberg. Thank you. Christopher. Thank you. Grant Chungo. Thank you. Madison Baptista. Four plus three equals seven minutes. Its been a long night for everyone.
Alan Clendenin
10:14:17PM Were just getting started. Im not here for either side. I have no financial interest in either side. I have not been contracted by the other side. Im not paid by either side. What I do bring to this occasion is a unique expertise in Hotel parking trends. Both sides have conducted traffic studies that, quite frankly, I dont agree with either of them. I actually think they are both missing the boat to the high side. I sat here for the last five hours, IT is my first time coming into a council meeting. I did not expect IT to take this long. What I can tell you is this notion of the 4900 -- excuse me, 4,900 percent increase in traffic is not what is actually being proposed for the Hotel. I live in Tampa. The company I work for only works with hotels. We work with hotels coast to coast. Ive worked with different ownership groups, Management Companies and Development Companies. When I did first speak to the owners of the Mirasol, I was a little bit surprised at the reaction. Usually when IT comes to this point in the approval stage, everyone is looking to check a box. When I brought what I thought needed to be addressed, IT was quickly addressed. I want to actually come with some concrete stats, not hypotheticals on what this redevelopment or a restoration might look like. These are real statistics from Tampa. All within a five-mile radius of this current proposal. So the statistic im going to be using, IT Is Called Drive in rate. What percentage of Hotel guests bring a vehicle with them. In other words, for every ten occupied Hotel rooms, how many cars. If there are five cars for ten occupied rooms, Your Drive-in rate would be 50%. In Tampa, the average driving rate is 35%. The highest we have seen in the last seven years in a given month for any Hotel is 39%. I live in data. I love to stress test things and see where things would look like steady state or on the high end. If we suppose every Hotel room is occupied, all 118 keys, if The Average Drive-in rate holds strictly for the Hotel -- I know there have been a lot of things brought up about The Davis Boulevard garage versus the north garage. If we were to cut -- if this proceeded as planned and lets imagine that the property is restored and exactly what is proposed happens, then we cut the development in half. The residential side and the residential parking, stay on one side and we just look at the Hotel and the traffic that brings. If every Hotel room was occupied, IT would have 41 cars if the statistics from all major hotels in Tampa hold true. The Davis Boulevard garage holds 48 vehicles without jamming any additional cars. We like to call them stacking. Ive looked at both sides, both websites, both plans, I give a lot of credit for some of the creativity in a Positive Way. Tampa doesnt have a lot of vehicle lifts, but they are very common in south Florida and other major cities. Thats where Essentially You Drive a car on a glorified elevator, lifts IT up and gives space to park another vehicle underneath them. Very commonly used in areas where keeping a narrow footprint is paramount. Even under the most stressful of environments, I dont see the Hotel generating the vehicle traffic sufficient to be concerned. If we look at strictly the busiest times, average Hotel, the busiest time for guests arriving are on Friday, between 5 pm. And 7 pm. Typically from our data in a given hour during that window, the most stressful period well observe 20% of the total base traffic arriving within that one-hour window. What that would mean here with the average driving statistics is about eight cars during the busiest hour that we would see for the Hotel. In other words, that would be one car every seven and a half minutes. The other thing I was surprised with was the size of the front driveway, walking through downtown Tampa, the closest Hotel to US I believe is the Hyatt. I just paced IT off while walking around. The inside curb there is 55 feet. IT has 345 Hotel rooms. This proposal, the inside curb is 85 feet for 118 rooms. There is plenty of room that if all of those vehicles arrived at the same time, in other words, its a valets dream. Theres so much room to maneuver to make sure that guests are having a good experience while preventing backups. And then the last thing I want to leave you with, we have a lot of Tampa data, but nationally, we also have data as IT relates to hotels within a two-mile radius of a major medical center. Interesting phenomena occurs, actually. When you are within two miles of a major hospital, drive-in patterns change drastically. They drop by seven to ten points. In that scenario, the average driving rate of 35% drops to 28 and the most stressful day or the average day instead of 41 cars, you have 33 cars. There is not a lot of event space. Sitting in here, One Of The First Speakers mentioned that there are a lot of weddings and a lot of bar mitzvahs and gatherings. We run Valet for many of the major hotels in Tampa, most of the Ones In St. Pete, clearwater, sarasota, this is not a significant meeting space or event space unless your idea of a major gathering is ten of your closest friends. Again, I have no affiliation with either side. Ive just been monitoring developments --
10:21:00PM Hey, no. [ sounding gavel seriously. If you are disruptive in the proceeding, I will remove you from chamber. Go ahead. Ive spoken against developments before. This one makes sense statistically. Thats all im here trying to make a point on. Thank you for your time.
10:21:17PM Thank you very much. Once again, well be respectful for everybody. Same for the other side. Next speaker, three minutes, please. 127 Adalia directly north of the north parking lot, the Mirasol. Ive heard a lot of testimony tonight and different people talking about how love driving past the property. I do IT, enjoy looking at IT. I live next to IT day to day. So I see the impact of what IT does right now. I want to give you a flavor of that. Driving safety-wise, the traffic, I have taught my teenage drivers, they have to take a right turn out of there. IT is too dangerous as IT is with the traffic to go left. I can sit and wait for 10, 15 minutes, mornings, afternoons, to take a left turn. Taking a right turn can even be dangerous because of all the cars parked in front of the Mirasol at times. I heard another person talk about the hospital parking, thats not on Adalia, not where I live on Adalia, but maybe up north. Where I live, I watch people get out of the cars, cars with boats attached to them in front of the hydrants. And walk into the Mirasol. They live there or Airbnb. I stopped my daughter, she comes back, she cant walk the dog by herself anymore. The Airbnb people are smoking cigarettes out by the wall. She doesnt feel safe. Or take a brother or walk west down where we know the neighbors, everybody knows their names. I know Frank. I know Ana. I know John. I know Tracy. We all know each other. The airbnbs have introduced a piece where we do not know our neighbors. If you take that to a hotel -- little background, I did a little over 20 years in the navy. Did IT overseas, fought in lots of wars, all sorts of things like that. Generally keep IT simple guy. Common sense. Im missing a lot here. I dont have a good comprehension of whats happening, really. I see like the Council says they disapprove of IT 7-0. City Planners say they disapprove IT. We keep talking about this Mirasol. Im not talking about the Mirasol. Whatever. I want to preserve the neighborhood and that neighborhood feel. I thought thats what a land use is for. Change this to commercial mixed use, IT completely and forever change the character of that neighborhood. Ive been called as a neighbor somebody there, ive been called exhaustive. Ive been called scared of change. Im not scared of many things at all, except the safety of my family and the kids and the neighborhood and how that remains. Thats about all that scares me. For that, ID like you to preserve the neighborhood and not change that land use and make me live downtown where I didnt want to move. Thank you. I appreciate your patience. My name is Megan Moore. Based on what the nice gentleman said, I would like to say I, too, would like to preserve our neighborhood. Instead of having a big box, Ikea apartment complex, because at the end of the day we heard every side, but to be very simplistic, I value our history and the historical building that IT is, whether IT is deemed historical or not. Everybody can agree that is the gem of the island. These people are willing to keep IT and keep IT in the tact that IT was preserved and supposed to be. I know at the end of the day, if this doesnt pass, its probably going to be bulldozed and another Ikea apartment building. Ive been a member of 20 years of the Davis Island Community and I dont have a job here. I have no affiliation. Im just speaking from the heart. I would really love to see IT restored and in the historical setting IT is meant to be. Indeed, we all love IT and want to keep IT as a community as the person before US just talked about, the community that I love. Thats what ID like to have stay. Thank you.
10:25:31PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. My name is Steve Gianfilippo. Im up here to talk a little bit of common sense. Thats what im in favor of and the evolution of our city. To give you a little context on me, ive spent probably the last ten years of my life owning, operating, restoring, and investing in historical buildings. Ive owned or have owned in the past seven commercial structures. To give you an idea of the structures, hotel cabana on clearwater beach, 1947 Hotel Cordova St. Pete, 1921 station house, st. Pete 1911. Lafayette arcade situated next to the University of Tampa which ironically used to be a hotel. IT is the big Black-And-White building that sits next to ut. Station house arcade 1924, and a few others that are pre-1930s. Understand a little bit about that. Its really been a passion of mine. I think sometimes we forget about the history and IT comes down to a little bit of common sense in looking at our history and really studying some of the pictures youve been presented with. Some of those things relate to a very common sense question, where else would you build a hotel? Where else would we build a hotel, right? When you look at the pictures of the Mirasol, if you look around IT, theres nothing around IT, because you have to build a hotel to get the people here. And then the houses are built. So I think there is an importance and I think theres relevance looking back at the true history of the building, which IT is part of the neighborhood. The hotel in my world equals convenience. Its not just by chance IT happens to be next to residential. Its because its a necessity. Its either a necessity because of the size of the neighborhood already or IT actually builds the neighborhood, which in our case, IT was used to build the neighborhoods, right. If you look at the pictures, they dont lie. The hotels were there first, and the residential was there after that. Ill give you an example of that, right, go down a list. I think some people before me had mentioned this. We heard about the vinoy, surrounded by residential. Breakers in palm beach, surrounded by residential. Don Cesar, surrounded by residential. Mirasol obviously surrounded by residential. University of Tampa used to be a hotel, right? Barefoot Beach Club which I own, surrounded by residential. Hotel cabana, surrounded by residential. Epicurean, surrounded by residential. Last but not least, to throw this in if I have time, which is ironically I did research. Probably 130 airbnbs on davis island. Probably operating illegally. There are people using davis island and staying on davis island. Theres just no hotel there.
10:28:45PM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Christian Leone, 2010 East Palm Avenue. Im speaking personally and also on behalf of the Tampa Bay community design center. A lot of our board members have been championing historic preservation for years. I wouldnt be up here supporting with a clean conscience if they didnt go through everything and go through the analysis and want to support. But what I just want to say is, a lot of you guys know me, but on a personal note, im an only child and raised by a mom who had a complete fear of me doing anything. Im used to getting my moms input that I am not supposed to do order pizza because they might kill me at the door. Im not supposed to go out and ever have fun, even though they are in their 80s and still going out to clubs. Im kind of used to hearing the horrible hypotheticals that might happen. I understand the Residents' concerns but I think some of them are outlandish. Earlier, a traffic engineer said the traffic would go from 263 trips to 13,000. I was looking at the plans, okay, you have 110 rooms and 10 condos. If you divide IT, IT would mean basically that everyone going there would be in a car with multiple friends in other cars going in loops daily to get to 13,000. I dont know how that number came up. Also, ive been very privileged as a person. Ive been to very high-end boutique hotels. I have rarely been in a situation in one of those where you can misbehave because IT is very quickly called to your attention and you get kicked out. Im not worried about misbehaving. I think Residents have a fear that the backyard of the mirasol will turn into the Undertow In St. Pete or something crazy will happen. I dont think they provide that type of outlook for the guests staying there. I would just encourage you to, a, of course, preserve a beautiful building. I think thats so important. I know a lot of you guys really passionately love tampas history. I think this is a moment to preserve something thats very special for Tampa. But on top of that, also think long term, I think that the fears that a lot of Residents have will subside. I think this is a real nice asset. People on the team that are putting this together are known entities in our community, and I dont think we have to worry about their credibility if they say they will do something, I think they made every effort to engage the community and make sure to address peoples concerns. I encourage you to support IT.
10:31:38PM Thank you. We look forward to listening off-line about the stories of how you got kicked out of the hotels. Im Ana Murray. 122 Adalia Avenue. Were at a land use hearing, correct? I keep hearing a lot of rezoning stuff as well. I live two doors down from the Mirasol. I request that you deny tacpa 24-18. City Planning staff recommended denial of the land use change concluding IT would change the fabric of the existing residential area. This could not be more accurate. We have raised our family, lived here 31 years. Until the last few years, IT was a peaceful coexistence of neighbors with the Mirasol. IT evolved from quiet residential apartment building to residential with addition of approximately eight short-term rentals. One point in time there was a party boat rental off the dock. Shift to commercial short-term rental use, increased party atmosphere, escalating noise, increased chaotic parking On The Street and boat traffic. Small dose of short-term rentals is already incompatible. We can only imagine the exponential impact of a full-scale, commercial development on the property, doubling the amount allowed on the site today and allowing businesses such as bars, hotel, commercial marina and others with incompatible uses that are too many to name, which is exactly what you will grant the investors of the Mirasol with CMU 35. There were 270 petitions. IT makes IT clear that the people living near the Mirasol do not want the land use change. The land use request is not for the lesser -- but CMU 35 with additional waivers. Density and intensity would overwhelm our neighborhood. Our neighborhood should not bear the burden financially or otherwise for the decision of the investors of the Mirasol. They paid $20 million for residential property in hopes of a massive land use change. This would encourage isolated intense commercial use in a very uniquely residential Davis Islands. IT can be restored with other less intense dense means. Further, there is a public policy to ensure affordable housing options are maintained. The Mirasol Apartments can house over 50 apartments for our community. Many people move there while their homes were being redone after the hurricanes. Additionally, not everyone moving to Tampa area wants to live in a high density, mixed use community. They choose to live on Davis Islands. They want to be close to work and the night life but not in the fray of the activity. Last month on two separate occasions I have met people who tell me how thrilled they were to be able to afford to live in our neighborhood. Everyone refers to the Mirasol Apartments as gem of Davis Islands. The true gem of Davis Islands are the people and the people here tonight in opposition do not want a land use change that would destroy the very fabric of our neighborhood. I respectfully ask you to deny the land use change.
10:34:32PM Thank you. Good to see you again. Next speaker.
10:34:42PM State your full name.
Martin Shelby
10:34:52PM Five names. Sandra Valenzuela. Thank you. Nancy Fosnaught. Thank you. Kella Mccaskill. Thank you. Tarah Bluma. Alison Hewitt. Thank you. Thats five and three make eight.
Alan Clendenin
10:35:21PM State your name. You have eight minutes. You know, the one thing about legislative stuff is people can come up here and tell a story. Sometimes we tell stories on purpose. Sometimes we tell stories and then we change our minds. Like I had a discussion with somebody yesterday and told them I let Carroll Ann write my speech and then I changed my mind. In my opinion, this is putting the CART before the horse. If you truly want to keep the Mirasol safe, this should be a historical designation meeting. I told Linda Saul-Sena that earlier this evening and agreed. IT should have been done first. You cant save anything if you approve this land use change. You can save nothing. Theres absolutely nothing you can do from them taking a bulldozer to IT tomorrow because IT is not historically designated. 2022, Sog was sold a CMU 35, a flu change for a coffee shop. We were sold a bill of goods. But we had concerns, but we supported IT, because that gentleman got up, he swore up and down SIX ways from Sunday that he was going to build a coffee shop. Well, let me show you where we are at now. Neighborhoods make for better neighborhoods. Place for people to go meet after work or after school and get a cup of coffee. Michael has told me and Tyler have told me this is not going to be residential. Nobody is going to put apartments in. But we still have that apprehension because of that, and I completely believe that this gentleman is telling me the truth. But if he got hit by a bus On The Way home, his wife would be smart to sell the property. Intensification of the CMU 35. Im going to vote for this hesitantly because community mixed use 35, the site scares me. So I understand that the PD thats coming could solve that. As ms. Hurtak said, dont make me regret this. Should this be approved and within 12, 24 months, hopefully the neighborhood will have walking golf CART, biking distance to coffee and ice cream. Thank you for your time. I believe he was telling US the truth. But, the problem is, thats not the only example I can give you. Me personally, in 2005, our former city attorney, Gina Grimes, came up here and told that City Council over and over again in 2005, we can do this land use change. We can do this land use change. If you have concerns, specifically Councilman Cohen at the time had big concerns about the residential on rattlesnake point. Said no, no, its not the time to say stop. IT is not the time to say stop. Thats at the rezoning. Guess what happened, every single solitary one of those plan amendments came before this council and asked for a rezoning. And City Council told them no, and then They filed suit. I will be damned. They filed suit. This is the time when They cannot file suit. And if you really and truly want to save the Mirasol, you give them a pat on the butt, tell them to go to Historical Preservation like They should have to start with, and get IT preserved. They can tear IT down tomorrow and do whatever They please with this property if you change the zoning on IT. I have personally seen IT more than anybody else in the city. Ive been to more fluedras than anybody else in the city. Tonight, we are witnessing what happens when you put the CART before the horse. The horse should have been -- the horse should be the Historic Preservation because theres nothing to keep this from happening. Insurability doesnt mean squat. What really gets me, people have gotten up here during public comment to speak on behalf of the Applicant and told US the Applicant is almost broke. They dont have any money. This Place is breaking them off. The very next breath we have the people who will talk about how much money They are going to make. First of all, none of that is relevant. If They bought a piece of property, just like if I buy a piece of property and IT is a crap piece of property, who is that on? Its on me. What really stands out to me personally is the number of people who were long-term residents in that property and say They were very happy there for many, many years. And these people have decided thats not The Best Place for them, and now They should all be airbnbs. They are already running a hotel. Youre not taking any rights away from them by not approving a huge hotel because They are already running a hotel. They are already doing what They are asking to do without a PD change, without putting a historic structure at risk because there is nobody here thats under oath. They can get up here and tell you anything They want because there is nothing to hold US to what They are saying to you. Nothing. They made a choice to buy a property. They owned IT plenty long enough to have the historic designation. Why not? If you want to save this historic property, the very first thing you do is go and have IT historically registered, but yet here we are with no historic registration. The hyperbole coming here tonight has been -- I dont have any money. Were going to lose money on this deal, but everybody has t-shirts. They paid a lot of money for the land use change. They got PR people in here working the crowd, feeding everybody who showed up for their side. Its really kind of interesting to me. I have to say this, and you guys all know this, everybody who works for the city knows that I am not a fan of the Planning Commission board. I like the Planning Commission people who work there, but the board, im not a fan of. But They unanimously turned this down. They unanimously -- not like one or two, but all of them said this is a really, really bad idea. Those people who embrace development, who talk smack about how -- oh, wait, wait. This isnt chha, which I dont even have in my notes. Why would we increase density in the coastal high hazard area? Why would we do that? Oh, wait. Everybody has said They are not supposed to. And we really dont want IT with the new comp plan. Thank you very much. Have a good evening.
10:43:28PM Thank you. Next speaker, please. Start with your name, please and you have three minutes. Greg Wilkerson. I will try and keep this short out of respect for everybody here and the many speakers weve had in front of US. Im a 40-year resident of Davis Islands. I grew up two doors down from the Mirasol. I volunteer on the island in many organizations. Coached my kids in softball, volunteered for numerous cleanups. I care deeply about the island. Theres nothing that I would do more for my company than to help out. I wanted to speak on behalf of the applicants themselves because a lot of times as communities we do not get to have a say as to who the developers are. I think in this case, we have a family that lives on the island, and we should consider that when we have the opportunity to because they have so much to lose in the situation. They have done all the right things. I think in the situation, what were seeing is they will execute, they have to execute. They have been telling everybody they will do the right things and I truly believe that as opposed to having somebody coming in from miami, New York, where maybe they dont consider the best use in the surrounding communities. One of the things they mentioned, too, and I heard before the PD does not matter. In this scenario, the PD isnt approved at the next hearing. They have been willing to relinquish their comp plan amendment if IT is approved. In short, I want to say I do believe in the Applicant. I think they have the best interest of the island and I would hope that all of you can see that and will approve this comp plan amendment. Thank you.
10:45:26PM Thank you very much. Is there anybody else in the audience that wishes to speak to this item this evening? Going once .. Going twice. Okay. Were going to open the discussion for Council questions. Does Council have any questions of staff? Or the applicant before we go to rebuttal. Councilman Viera.
Luis Viera
10:45:52PM Its for Mr. Hudson, if I May. I have a question. I dont know how determinative this is or whatnot, there have been comments made about potential events at the hotel and event space. Could you respond to that? Are there known plans for that? Is there a large capacity for that? Strike that. IT is a late evening. Question withdrawn. Youre right. Sorry. Disregard.
Alan Clendenin
10:46:25PM I have a question for staff. Theres been conflicting reinterpretation of what was said. I would like to talk about the current future land use and what -- with or without that building, what could potentially by right with the future land use designation, what could be constructed on that site today without US making a change today? And theres been comparisons to the Ritz-Carlton on Bayshore. Is that an accurate description?
Danny Collins
10:47:02PM Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. I looked up the Ritz-Carlton on Bayshore. That is designated as residential 50. IT would allow for the same density that would be allowed today on the site.
Alan Clendenin
10:47:18PM So I understand that and other people, if for some reason this property was demolished, they would not have to come before Tampa City Council to get approval to build to that density.
Danny Collins
10:47:36PM IT May require a rezoning.
Alan Clendenin
10:47:38PM Im just talking about the future land use. For what were dealing with right now, item number 1, if for some reason this building was destroyed or was demolished, whoever owns that land at the time could go and use that future land use to build something equivalent to what we see in the Ritz-Carlton on Bayshore, by right.
Danny Collins
10:47:59PM Thats a zoning question.
Alan Clendenin
10:48:03PM Future land use. For the density of development.
Danny Collins
10:48:06PM Yes, future land use would allow the same density --
Alan Clendenin
10:48:10PM I kept hearing the same argument from both sides. I thought I understood IT, but I wanted to make sure I truly understood IT because I kept hearing from the other side, so I want to make sure I had that right. Very good. Thank you very much.
Danny Collins
10:48:23PM Did you want your second question?
Alan Clendenin
10:48:27PM Sure, go.
Danny Collins
10:48:27PM Residential 50 today would allow 80 dwelling units, maximum of 80 dwelling units for residential.
Alan Clendenin
10:48:35PM Thank you very much. I appreciate that. The proposal is how many dwelling units?
Danny Collins
10:48:40PM So the number of dwelling units, if you use the density calculation, would be reduced from 80 to 56 under the CMU 35. However, the CMU 35 allows the utilization of far. For residential, to calculate residential. So there is approximately 139,372 square feet of residential uses could be considered on the site under the CMU 35.
Alan Clendenin
10:49:07PM But doesnt translate directly to units, just square footage.
Danny Collins
10:49:11PM Square footage.
Alan Clendenin
10:49:12PM Any other questions? This is your opportunity because what will happen now, after this question time, the Applicant will have an opportunity for rebuttal and that will be the end of this particular item. Everybody understands. Very good. Hearing no other questions, Applicant, would You like a rebuttal? Tyler Hudson, for the record. Im going to share some of my time with Frank. A lot of fatigue tonight. I dont think its really just the hour either. I think there is a lot of fatigue from the fighting. I think there is a lot of fatigue from what is clearly an acute lack of trust in the city. The city has a real trust problem. We live in a very low-trust, high-regulation environment and the built environment around US reflects that. So much of the opposition and the support to really came down to conversations really about trust. You heard a lot of fear tonight. You heard some hope tonight, too. Neither fear nor hope are certain. I dont think You should make your decision tonight based on fear or hope. I think You need to base IT on certainties. So lets talk about some of the certainties. I think the Mirasol building deserves a future. Made IT through a hundred years and the greatest threat its ever faced I think is the lack of trust in this community. Somehow Frank who has done everything he said he would do, along with Lindsey, the entire time, last three years of community outreach, that all of a sudden that is going to stop. The Mirasol doesnt have a future without hotel use. People who know the building best know that The Only Way to justify the capital investment in that building is to restore the original hotel use. Another certainty, the current entitlements allow US to put a large residential building on the property. That building has zero legal protection right now. And IT needs a lot of help. You could easily put, massed out by right, talking about permits, 50 units. Those units can be four, five thousand square feet. Do the math. Another certainty, the status quo will not hold. This building will not stand and remain as an apartment complex. I want You to really understand that. There is no solution where this just goes back to normal and we take our licks here and IT just goes back to renting units again. That will not happen. So the decision before You tonight is a momentous one. Another certainty, if You approve the comp plan amendment You have the complete control and reserve the control on what zoning is. That means what uses are allowed. Whether IT is a 200,000 square foot shopping center like their traffic study speciously assumed. What the parking looks like, setbacks look like. You have control over all that. The notion this is being foisted upon You, massive sea change in entitlements, to believe that, You have to believe that youll abdicate your own zoning capability which You exercise once, twice a month here. Ive said this earlier and emphasize IT again on this withdrawal. We cant condition comprehensive plan amendments. The Whole Way this works is messed up because You are forced all to make your decisions based on the worst-case scenario. Thats what Planning Staff reviewed and Planning Commission reviewed. Kind of the early warning sign. That is the worst-case scenario they are saying. You base your decision based on a worst-case scenario I think is irresponsible because IT abdicates your role as the head of the zoning authority that this city grants. If You advance this comprehensive plan amendment tonight to a second reading and our zoning is denied, we will withdraw the comprehensive plan amendment. Thats another certainty. Zero risk this comp plan amendment gets approved without an accompanying rezoning because well withdraw that. With that, ill close this out. Thanks. Frank Carriera. A lot has been said tonight, obviously. This is my first experience. As You guys know, im not a developer. Im a resident of davis island. Ill try to make this really brief. I could spend a lot of time here. I have five or SIX pages of rebuttals to everything that everybody has said. The one thing that I think is incredibly important is that we realize -- let me step back for a second. I have a day job. My day job is in capital markets. Been doing that 20 years. Theres no viable solution and financeable solution unless we have the additional entitlements. So what I ask You tonight is to allow Our Team in this next step to present what we are proposing. And I think a lot of the questions and the uncertainties and the fear will be squashed because IT has been a very, very well thought out plan. Thank You for your time.
10:55:07PM Thank you very much.
Lynn Hurtak
10:55:10PM Motion to close.
Alan Clendenin
10:55:11PM Hold on. Councilwoman Young.
Naya Young
10:55:14PM So one of the questions that I have -- and ive been hearing a lot about the purpose. One of the purposes of wanting to do this is to preserve the mirasol. My question is, is there a reason why you did not do the historic preservation before -- im sorry. What time is IT? The comp plan? Ill take the first crack and Frank May want to add something. Its about certainty. Were willing to seek -- we cant make IT a landmark ourselves. The Historic Preservation Commission has to do that. We can make the application. Frank and Lindsey are willing to make the application once IT has been fixed and improved. If we dont do that, if we were to landmark IT now -- if we just landmark IT now without having any improvements, all of those improvements would have to go before another board that decides whether they are approvable or not. Wed have to get from a body like this that would have the opportunity for a lot of folks to weigh in on their opinions about how every intricacy of the design would look. Thats simply a risk we cant take. IT might be done earlier depending on whether historic preservation tax credits are used, but thats the reason. Frank, do you have anything else? I think you covered IT.
Alan Clendenin
10:56:53PM Any other questions?
Naya Young
10:56:56PM But if -- so the mirasol is about a hundred years old. If the significance of this space, assuming those you are going before to get the historic preservation would know that, right? IT would not necessarily be this, you know, fight as to what should or should not or how IT should look. If we know the building is old, its a hundred years old and the people who give the historic designations know of the historic spaces in Tampa, are you saying that if you were to go that route, IT May or May not get the historic designation? Ive been hearing a lot about preserving, preserving, preserving. If that is the main focus, why not go that route first? Im trying to figure out why go this route instead of the historic preservation route first, then if there are other changes. Historic Preservation Commission who you dont hear about as much. If they granted that then, any changes to the building would have to go before the Architectural Review Commission. Thats a risk that that gets denied. The process you sort of saw unfold today could mean the design improvements are never approved because youre going three, four, five, SIX times perpetually before an Architectural Review Commission, and that is a huge uncertainty. We dont feel like we can commit to seeking that until we have the certainty that we can do the Hotel. Thats the honest answer. We dont have certainty whether we can do a Hotel. Thats why were here.
Alan Clendenin
10:59:04PM Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
10:59:05PM So what youre saying is You would want to fix the hotel up and then apply for Historic Preservation.
10:59:14PM You wouldnt actually have to do any of the work to make IT historic, to preserve its actual historic-ness? We would do the work. There is a condition to getting a certificate of occupancy --
10:59:27PM But You wouldnt do IT according to the ARC, is what youre saying. You dont want to have to go through the hoops of doing IT to actually restore IT historically. Landmark, so we do have standards to meet, of course, to keep IT as a landmark.
10:59:43PM But youre not willing to do that through the ARC.
Alan Clendenin
10:59:49PM Mr. Hudson, what I hear you, which I think im missing, do I understand this correctly? If you were to seek Historical Preservation, the Owner would end up having a property, if you were not able to get this reclassified that would not be financially viable to repair to that historical standard, is that what im hearing? In other words, theres no -- if you sought Historical Preservation now and we still denied a hotel application, the Owner would be with a property that he could not financially viably renovate or maintain in that stance, correct? Before we restrict -- making a property a landmark is a huge restriction. IT means you have to get permission to tear IT down. Thats not something that we can afford to do unless we have the certainty that we can do the hotel use.
11:00:48PM Thats what I was missing in the rebuttal is that part. Right now we cant do a Hotel. Only the Hotel use justifies the investment.
Lynn Hurtak
11:01:00PM But the financial thing is not our problem.
Alan Clendenin
11:01:03PM Councilman Miranda.
Charlie Miranda
11:01:07PM Just a couple of questions. I kept hearing Tampa General, Tampa General. Tampa General has nothing to do with the zoning. Tampa General when they had the rezoning to build, came here and they had no one speak. You know why? Tampa General has no neighbors on that side, not one neighbor is on that northern side where the building is going up. Im not speaking for Tampa General. Just what I know and heard. The second one is, when you look at historical preservation, I remember doing some historical stuff here years back in Hyde Park. And when something came that was out of line, put that structure back to historical, had to be put back just like IT was, not one inch greater. If IT did have a porte-cochere, the photograph showed a porte-cochere, then you had to build the porte-cochere before you applied for the certification. Im caught between a rock and a Hard Place. I look at this, I tell myself, what am I doing. One side says existing use, residential, CMU residential, then when you get to the other part, IT says residential units, 58 residential units, 80, and CMU, 109. Then I get to the floor ratio, 57,000 -- 141,134 feet. I dont quite understand the presentation. I dont quite understand whats happening here. I dont believe that the historical preservation will be done no matter what I do after hearing all the comments. Thats just me from hearing. Im not an analyst, but I can tell you about less than 3% of the time ive been here in 31 years did the Planning Commission, the City, both do the same thing for rejection, not approval. Maybe 40% one or the other and the other percentage both together. And this is one that they both together on. Im not here to cast any stars or say anything about anybody or do what they got to do. Each one make an investment, dont care what IT is, automobile, car, should understand what the ramifications are when they make an error. Maybe this was an error. Im not saying IT is. Im just saying maybe. Im not responsible for what either side wants or doesnt want. My responsibility is make my choice, what I see Black-And-White.
Alan Clendenin
11:03:50PM We are at questions now. We can pontificate after we close. Any further questions? Councilman Viera.
Luis Viera
11:03:58PM Councilman Miranda brought up a good point, which is, Mr. Hudson, with the Planning Commission and their finding I guess, I mean, You responded throughout numerous remarks, but succinctly and narrowly tailored to the Planning Commission decision, how would You respond to that, in terms of convincing US hes not to be weighed. Im not saying You should ignore IT. You shouldnt ignore the neighbors either. You are the legislative branch of the City Of Tampa. You have the obligation under the charter to set policy. When You get a lot of different opinions from staff and from neighbors, staff, when IT comes to the comp plan, the Planning Commission, and your planning staff analyzes things based on the maximum scenario. As the opponents, the worst-case scenario. But IT is simply not true that if You vote yes on this item that 200,000 square feet of development are automatically approved on the site. That is not true. IT is also not true that all CG uses are allowed like that. Also not true. The site is RM 35. If You approve this, nothing changes in terms of what You can do on the site. So I think You should take IT into consideration like everything You heard, but its really important to bear in mind that the structure of the system, when IT comes to comp plan is only presenting the maximum, as if You all have no role at all in determining how those potential rights are used. Its a menu. Its not an order. There is a really big difference between those things and really critical that You all bear that in mind in your vote.
11:05:45PM Thank you, Sir.
Alan Clendenin
11:05:46PM Can I get a motion to close? Motion to close from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Viera. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Anybody like to discuss this? Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
11:06:01PM This was a long night and this was very interesting. I really wish that our approval of this would save this building, but I dont think IT will because I think somebody said something earlier tonight that really hit home for me is that We dont control saving this building. We just dont do IT. You can tear IT down tomorrow. You could tear IT down after the CMU. Theres nothing that protects IT. If you had gotten the historic designation, different story, but you didnt. So I cant approve this because I dont know what will happen. Im very concerned about that. To me, the historic preservation part is -- I would venture to guess We all want to restore this. But there is no historic designation. This can be torn down tomorrow. And nothing We do here tonight will change that.
Alan Clendenin
11:07:06PM Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson
11:07:17PM First of all, I want to say I love the building. I remember this building in like the '80s or '90s when everybody wanted to live in IT. The people that lived in IT, they would live there for years and when a better unit would open, they would move. The view from the back, got to see from the houses just now but the view from the back is one of the most beautiful views in Tampa. Its where you can show off Tampa how really beautiful IT is. This is a legislative matter, and I think IT is the duty of the Applicant -- the comprehensive plan is a process that takes years. Were going through updating IT right now. Its taken two or three years already. Lots and lots of public meetings. Thousands of people come out. The Planning Commission goes to great lengths to listen to The Public, try to negotiate, find compromise. So when somebody wants to change the comprehensive plan, we have to keep in mind that its not just some simple document thats standing In The Way of a developer. Its something that was built over years of planning by the Planning Commission and ultimately Council and Planning Commission have to vote on IT, but with lots and lots of community input from developers, interested parties, and neighborhoods and others. Its a really important document, kind of a sacred document that we should not just easily change. If were going to change IT, then its up to the Applicant to get The Public to support IT. Im really offended by the comment that the lack of trust is on the city. The lack of trust is not on the city. Its on the Applicant. They dont trust the Applicant, its not the city. Im not blaming the people that own IT. Somehow your team failed. If you know that you have hundreds of e-mails coming in, you guys see the quasi-box, if you have hundreds of e-mails, stop the process, back up, talk to The Public, try to get public approval. Thats what developers do. This Council approves 99% of projects that go through. The for you that we dont approve, we dont like not approving them. And we get criticized as if we turn down a lot of things, but we really dont. The Business Journal has criticized in the past when we go against the Staff recommendation or if we go against the Planning Commission's recommendation. The Planning Commission is very, very prodevelopment. Im shocked that they voted against this. The Staff argued against IT. Now well probably get criticized if we vote against IT, well get criticized if we voted with the Staff and with the Planning Commission's recommendation. But there are so many big developments, important developments that we approve with these comprehensive plan changes because the team that the owner hired did a great job of winning over The Public. Its not our duty to win over The Public. This is not our request. Were not asking to change years of negotiation with The Public. The Applicant is doing that. Somebody mentioned the vinoy, as I recall, early '90s, there was a huge investment, Indonesian Investors, others were involved. The Next Owner, I think maybe somebody here remembers, IT was the general manager of the hotel and others, a big delta between the original investment and next investment. Investing in historic preservation is expensive and a lot of times the first investor loses money. You have to have deep pockets and a long horizon. I love this building. I would love to vote for this. I think that the owners in earnest are trying to do something right. On a legislative manner, I dont understand why the Consultants didnt stop and say The Public is against US and why dont we stop and talk to The Public and find out what they want. When a developer says we dont care what The Public thinks, lets just roll forward, thats the wrong attitude.
Alan Clendenin
11:11:22PM Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco
11:11:22PM Thank you very much. I wish that the Mirasol would have stayed a hotel since the beginning because IT would have been a simple hotel restoration. But IT didnt. IT became residential and then when the zoning classifications came in, IT was residential. So we are where we are at today. Someone asked a question, how would you feel if you lived next to this? Me, I would be walking to the coffee shop every day. I would enjoy IT. However -- however, you have something that I didnt expect. I thought IT was going to be one or two neighbors that would have objected to this, but IT is such a large amount of individuals. Its not just the people that live next door. I wasnt expecting SIX hours of public comment, number one. In regards to taking IT from the r 50 to the CMU 35, the intensity is significant. Its not just a simple hotel restoration. There is a lot more to IT. There is a lot more you can do with that because IT allows you to. And then the fact that IT was a unanimous denial from the Planning Commission -- unanimous, not even one vote going The Other Way, that is concerning because IT can be a very flexible -- IT can be a flexible board. But unanimous is one thing. Then the city. I mean, there are too many things that I cant bring myself to a yes on this. Thanks.
Alan Clendenin
11:12:54PM Councilman Miranda, did you want to speak?
Charlie Miranda
11:12:58PM No, no more.
Alan Clendenin
11:12:59PM Councilman Viera.
Luis Viera
11:13:00PM I want to throw some things out, im thinking through this in my head to Council Members. We have three people who have so far potentially said no to this. Some things to throw out. Again, im working this through, so to speak. Right now, correct me if im wrong, they have the right to do 80 dwelling units on this, correct?
Alan Clendenin
11:13:20PM Its closed.
Luis Viera
11:13:23PM Ill state that as my understanding. With this comp plan amendment, how do you all feel about the presentation of the idea that this is a way in which We have some movement or some discretion on the preservation of the hotel, that is, were not locked in, were between first and second reading. We have a rezoning after this where We would have some discretion. Im working this stuff in my head --
Alan Clendenin
11:13:56PM In my pontification, ill respond to that.
Luis Viera
11:14:00PM Im putting that out there because im working through this, just thinking about that, which is, this is a way in which we can balance out having a lot of limitations, restrictions, et cetera, potentially. Again, im -- By The Way, a lot of good points. I asked Mr. Hudson the issue on the Planning Commission for a reason, right, because thats certainly something that weighs on me as well. These are other points, again, I want to bring up to discuss. Chairman, I dont know if you want to discuss or whoever.
Alan Clendenin
11:14:27PM Well go the rounds. Councilwoman young, did you want to speak?
Naya Young
11:14:33PM Yes. Im still kind of wrapping my head around this, too. Just a couple of things I wanted to point out. I think one of US already said IT. I definitely think there is something to be said that our Planning Commission, our Land Development Staff and our Planning Department voted against this. I truly believe that we all have our expertise and we play our parts in making sure the city is run smoothly and planned smoothly. To hear that those who we have either appointed or whose expertise has said no, I think that is something we should definitely take into consideration. Also, again, weve been hearing tonight a lot about we need to preserve this piece of history. This hundred-year-old space, and yet as im listening, to me, im not sure if the will or the want to do the work to make this historic designation is there. Even just asking the question, IT seemed as though that process would be too much. But if youre wanting to go the extra route to preserve something and you know IT has a cultural significance, going through that process would not necessarily be something like end all, be all. We need to preserve this or do what we have to do, and I dont feel like thats there. Also, to hear from someone that lives there that the -- you have people living there now. If the interest is to preserve the space, why is that not happening? I think also, again, there are no protections. IT could be torn down tomorrow. We dont know that. Im not saying yes or a no, its just my initial thoughts im having based off of conversation and comments.
Alan Clendenin
11:16:52PM Thank you. Its interesting that seven people can listen to arguments and hear different things. I heard so many different things. I heard Councilman Carlson and someone else talk about the public. But I heard a split crowd. I heard 50-50. I did not hear an overwhelming public Outcry One Way or the other. There were heartfelt sentiments, especially from people that lived in close proximity. Loud objection, the people on those two streets. I know my in-box is filled with yeses and noes as well as this. I dont know if that was a compelling argument. Weve heard a lot about the vinoy, and weve heard a lot about these properties that are saved. I think we also have to talk about the properties that werent saved. Those of you old enough In Downtown St. Petersburg, we had the serena hotel in 1992 that was demolished. We had the maas brothers building in downtown Tampa that was demolished through neglect and decay. I think in a very similar type of situation were talking about today, IT wasnt that the building couldnt be saved but the economics of the building prevented IT from being saved because they didnt have a champion to go in there and do that. The Lykes Brothers building we lost. We lost these amazing, historical structures. That is the worst-case scenario. That if this council ignores the fact, economic viability is economic viability. You can either make IT work in reference to the question about historic preservation, its not at any cost. You cant expect a property owner to just throw buckets and buckets of money at something. So if they found a hook to be able to save this and still make IT economically viable, which is the hotel application, the hotel use, that gives them the economic viability to save this property. I think what weve heard and didnt hear anything refuting this, I dont think anybody argued that this is not economically viable as an apartment building. If its not economically viable as an apartment building, IT is going to be torn down. That was very clear in all the testimony we heard tonight. Nobody opposed that from both sides. The sacrifice that were going to see in the city, and I think IT will be a sad day in the City Of Tampa if this council allowed that to happen. But I look around the country, and IT was pointed out, the proximity of the great neighborhood hotels, you look in beverly hills, beautiful hotel, palm beach, the grove park inn in asheville. Beautiful hotels right smack in the middle of neighborhoods. I think IT was Linda Saul-Sena talked about this urban oasis. Davis island is this really eclectic -- I love Davis Islands. I stare at IT every morning. I live Across The Way. I dont live there. Im walking dance from IT. You have the funky, mixed use kind of uses on this island and thats part of what the charm is. If IT was all residential and you didnt have any commercial, nobody would want to live there. My God, you guys would get flooded every ten years. You have all of these other things to do which makes IT really an attractive and very unique and very Distinctive Tampa Place to be. Of course, very distinctive in Tampa, nobody can look at the building and not look at the building architecturally and say, instantly identify that thats a Tampa building. IT yearns of what Tampa is and was during the Florida land boom, and running the risk, I think the risk of losing this architectural gem and the economic benefit, thats something weve missed as well. We also are not going to -- im a big neighborhood advocate. I ran on a platform, South Tampa is full. But I also do not believe this proposal will increase density. Were not adding people to schools. In South Tampa, our schools are full. They are full. We cant have any more people. We saw the other competent evidence about the driving issue. That Gentleman, I dont know what his background was, I found his testimony -- of course, we all like to reconfirm what our notions are, but he felt like what he said reconfirmed what I thought already about the driving patterns of these types of developments. But the economic impact, we cant turn Tampa into hundred percent residential city. We have to have jobs. We have to have people that work. We have to have paychecks. I will tell you right now, hotels, that is big business for the City Of Tampa. Hotel taxes pay for a lot of crap that you guys dont want to pay property taxes for. Just saying right now. We cant forget that. IT really is a relatively clean industry. Charlie talked about the hospital not talking, but I also know from my experience that hospitals need hotels. I know weve all had family members where we had to travel where weve had patients in critical condition. My Grandmother, you have to stay in a hospital, you want a hotel close to a hospital. Its important. I love living in a mixed city. I live in Hyde Park. I love being able to walk to things. I wouldnt live anywhere else because I can walk out of my house and turn right and go to someplace interesting. I can turn left and grab a cup of coffee. Walk Down The Street and go to a movie theater. When my family comes to town and I dont like them, I can put them in a hotel. Put me in the hotel. I know. I got IT. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
11:22:55PM Just want to remind this is the comp plan amendment. This is not US trying to save somebody from doing stuff. To answer Mr. Viera's question, going to CMU 35 to see what could happen, IT is not our job to go to the next step to see what could be. Our job is to look and see, is CMU 35 appropriate for this location? Like, is IT right? I happen to disagree with you. I know we have a very mix, but owe a little bit more to the neighbors who are actually going to be affected by this. The fact that you got so many people that just dont see the added density as a bonus, and then I agree a lot with what Councilman Maniscalco said. The sad part of this is that IT failed as a hotel after like three years. But IT succeeded as an apartment complex for 75. So IT is residential. IT is not a hotel. IT might have been built as a hotel, but its not a hotel. Youre creating a whole new use. Im sorry that the land bust happened, but that is Not The Way this was developed. Even though the island May have been developed a Certain Way, thats not how IT was built. Look at harbour island, IT was built to be super high density. That didnt pan out either because of another bust. I appreciate what youre trying to do, but thats not what were doing here. Im not asking for a response. We are not in the business of saving people from what They bought. Im sorry, if They bought IT, They need to maintain IT. If They didnt want to maintain IT -- if you dont want to go for historic preservation because its too expensive to maintain, then I dont know how youre going to do as a hotel. This is just too much. Its not quite -- I think I would be -- no. Its too intense for this area because of what IT could be. Youre right. They could tear IT down tomorrow. And They could build a whole Ritz-Carlton. Thats totally true. But if we give IT the CMU 35, They could tear IT down and build something twice that size.
Alan Clendenin
11:25:46PM No.
Lynn Hurtak
11:25:47PM Yeah, they could. Im not making a question for you. I know Mr. Carlson is next. Im just saying, yes, they can build.
Alan Clendenin
11:26:02PM One, ill say im surprised because were usually simpatico on these. Talking about urban village, compatibility, mixed use. This should ring so true to You and your values.
Lynn Hurtak
11:26:18PM IT should, but its not the right thing. And when the Planning Commission agrees that its not the right thing, IT is not the right thing. IT is not the right density for this part of a residential community.
Alan Clendenin
11:26:32PM Now we like the Planning Commission. [ laughter again, its one of those interesting things that this is such an urban environment. You cant separate the Davis Islands from the urban nature of the area. Its part of our core. Love ya. I have so many friends on both sides of the argument.
Lynn Hurtak
11:27:00PM This is surrounded by the least dense land use we have in the city.
Alan Clendenin
11:27:04PM Catty-corner to this is the exact same land use. Like four blocks away. And a Major Regional Hospital with high intensity development. Again, I think that the exaggeration of what can be built and you cannot lose sight of this Council control zoning. With the zoning, and I think IT was very generous that the Applicant came through and said if we pass this through this time, we will -- well control what gets built here on zoning. Well have that bite of the apple. Well get a second bite at the apple. Already committed on the record, sworn testimony that they will rescind this approval.
Lynn Hurtak
11:27:51PM But IT doesnt matter. Thats happened before. Thats happened before and theyll go to Fluedra. No.
Alan Clendenin
11:27:59PM He would rescind IT tonight.
Lynn Hurtak
11:28:01PM No, you cant do that. This is why I dont like land use and comp plan on the same night. Rezonings and Comp Plans do not deserve to be on the same night. Comp Plans really need to be debated and discussed.
Bill Carlson
11:28:18PM Thats part of what I was going to say, too. We should not know that this is going to be a hotel. We should not know what the plans are for IT. If you just looked at CMU 35 by itself and looked at what they can do with that, and theres no historic preservation on IT, so that means they could tear down the building, if we looked at that by itself without knowing what they would apply for, we probably wouldnt approve this. Also, there is a different test. This is legislative. That is quasi-judicial in code. When were doing quasi-judicial changing the code, its a different thing. IT doesnt matter if a thousand people show up for or against something. You dont have to count heads, but with so many e-mails and so many people out here, what IT means is that the Applicant did not engage the public in An Effective Way. The first thing that you should do is go meet, whatever your project is, go meet with the people around and talk with them and find out what their concerns are and try to work out -- can we have them removed please?
Alan Clendenin
11:29:26PM No more talking. I dont care which side You are on. Even if You agree with me and think I am the best chair in the world --
Bill Carlson
11:29:39PM Its disrespectful for the public for the applicants Consultants to do that, frankly.
Alan Clendenin
11:29:47PM Its everybody. Its not just one side.
Bill Carlson
11:29:51PM If your team did not engage The Public correctly, youre going to blame US for Voting The Way we think we need to vote. If you all had gone door to door and talked to The Public and asked them what they want, the people that laugh like that are the developers who dont care at all about what The Public thinks. And thats why you end up in trouble. You end up either losing money or having to come back here. Its not our responsibility, not The Public's responsibility to do that. If you guys cared about historic preservation, you would have asked for IT already. You would have applied for that and we wouldnt be having concerns about IT. I dont know what the return time is if we turn this down tonight, but what the Developer should do now is stand up and say -- cant talk now, but after we vote, whatever the answer is, if its no, what the Developer should say, look, im committed to go work with The Public for however long IT takes and come back with a different answer. There are projects that should have been very, very, very controversial in our community that had no controversy because the Developer didnt have an attitude like that.
Charlie Miranda
11:31:03PM Ill go back to my original numbers, from the existing to the r 50, its about 70. From 70 to 141 is double. From r 50 to CMU 35, IT doubles the square footage. What am I to think? Im left with nothing.
Alan Clendenin
11:31:30PM Any other discussion? Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
11:31:32PM If nobody else wants to, ill make a motion.
Alan Clendenin
11:31:36PM Okay.
Lynn Hurtak
11:31:37PM I make a motion denying tacpa 24-18.
11:31:45PM Based on the competent and substantial evidence of the denial of the Planning Commission staff, the unanimous denial Planning Commission staff, and both Planning Commission and City Staff reports.
Alan Clendenin
11:32:02PM We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. We have a second from Councilman Maniscalco. Roll call vote, please.
Luis Viera
11:32:11PM Nay.
Bill Carlson
11:32:14PM Yes.
Charlie Miranda
11:32:14PM Yes.
Guido Maniscalco
11:32:16PM Yes.
Lynn Hurtak
11:32:17PM Yes.
Naya Young
11:32:22PM Yes.
Alan Clendenin
11:32:24PM Nay.
The Clerk
11:32:26PM The motion carried with Viera and Clendenin voting no.
Alan Clendenin
11:32:43PM Well have a ten-minute break. IT is 11:34. Actually lets come back at 11:55. [Recess]
11:56:17PM Roll call, please.
Charlie Miranda
11:56:19PM Here. Hurtak?
Lynn Hurtak
11:56:23PM Here. Viera? Carlson?
Bill Carlson
11:56:26PM Here.
Alan Clendenin
11:56:28PM Here.
The Clerk
11:56:28PM We have a physical quorum.
Alan Clendenin
11:56:31PM Thank you. IT is not morning yet. We still have four minutes of evening. Its still good evening. Mr. Chris, would you like to speak. For the record, Christopher Demanche with Development Coordination. Getting back to our agenda here relating to agenda item number 2, no further action is needed on this particular item pursuant to section 27-150, letter d of the land development regulations. The title of item d is withdrawal of zoning application when related to comprehensive plan amendment application. A rezoning application that is contingent on a request to amend the comprehensive plan shall be deemed withdrawn and no further effect where the requested amendment to the comprehensive plan is denied by City Council, no further proceeding of action by shall be required.
11:57:20PM Can I get a motion to withdraw item 2? Motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Very good. Staff, item number 3. We are going to a public hearing. Why do want we do the swearing in. If you are here tonight to testify on the remaining business, stand, raise your right hand and be sworn by the clerk [oath administered]
11:57:50PM Thank you. Proceed.
Christopher Demanche
11:57:52PM Thank you, mr. Chairman. Again, for the record, Christopher Demanche, Development Coordination. Agenda item number 3, rez 25-90, request to rezone 2539 West Cherry Street from planned development to planned development for residential single-family semi detached uses. Ill turn IT over to the Planning Commission.
Alan Clendenin
11:58:18PM Thank you.
Danny Collins
11:58:23PM Good evening. Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. I was sworn in. Our first rezoning case tonight is within the central Tampa planning district and specifically in the West Tampa urban village. IT is in evacuation zone e. This is an aerial map of the subject site and surrounding properties. As you can see, the surrounding area is predominantly residential with single-family and semi detached homes in the surrounding area. This is West Tampa elementary school for reference, and IT is about a block west of North Armenia Avenue. Subject site is designated as residential 20. That surrounds the subject site on all properties. This here is the public, semi-public designation. Again, West Tampa elementary. We do have cc-35 along North Armenia Avenue. Planning Commission staff reviewed the application and found no adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood which is primarily single-family, semi detached with few semi detached to the north and west of the site. Applicant entered into a bonus provision agreement for one additional unit. The request is consistent with the density anticipated under the residential 20 designation, which is 20 dwelling units per acre. The site is located within the West Tampa urban village which encourages pedestrian oriented design and densities that support transit use. The design meets these policies. The unit entrances are oriented towards the public sidewalk. Overall, the Planning Commission staff found the request consistent with the goals, objectives, and policies of the Tampa comprehensive plan. That concludes my presentation. Im available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin
12:00:16AM Council have any questions? Hearing none, yes, sir. With this particular rezoning request, well start with an aerial of the subject site. The subject property is outlined in red. IT is located on the north side of West Cherry Street. IT is located on a block that is to the east of North Tampania Avenue and west of North Armenia Avenue. Zoning surrounding the site to the north, south, east, and west is RM 16. There is a mix of uses in terms of the fact that there is single-family detached and semi detached uses to the north, east, and west of the subject site. South of the subject site is a parking lot that is associated with the West Tampa elementary school which is located southwest of the subject site. Property is also located in the West Tampa overlay. IT has been reviewed for compliance with the West Tampa overlay district development design standards. Also, Council, this site May look familiar to you as IT was before you in 2024 requesting PD rezoning with a bonus provision agreement. IT is back before you this evening as the Applicant is proposing structural dwelling redesign, which is resulting in a reduction to the rear and side yard setbacks. IT also still requires a bonus provision agreement to allow for two units. We do have a site plan. The site plan here shows the site that is approximately 4,769 square feet in area where the Applicant is proposing the construction of single-family semi detached dwelling units. The PD Plan proposes a two unit, three-story structure. Each unit provides a two-car garage, providing rear entry access off the 14-foot alleyway. There is a covered entryway for each unit with three-foot-wide sidewalks entering out onto an existing sidewalk that runs east to west on West Cherry Street. The setback reductions proposed through this planned development rezoning application include a reduction to the rear yard from previously approved 37 feet now proposed to be 15 feet as well as a reduction in the side yards on the east and west sides of the property from the approved SIX feet to five feet. Given the size of the site 4,769 square feet, a maximum of one unit is allowed by right or a total of two units are permitted with the bonus provision agreement. Next we have the aerials -- not as I recall. Elevations. These elevations depict a single structure with three-story units. There is one waiver requested with this application to allow a minimum roof pitch of 3/12 in lieu of the required roof pitch of 4/12. Next we have some photos, this is a photo of the subject site. This is the view from West Cherry Street. Next photo is the subject site. This is looking south from the alleyway that is to the north of the subject site. This is a view looking east on that alleyway that is north of the subject site. North of the subject site we have single-family detached. Looking south, we have the parking lot associated with the West Tampa elementary school. East of the subject site, west of the subject site, and then, of course, looking southwest you can see the school there. Development Coordination compliance staff has reviewed this application. We do find the request consistent with the land development regulations. Should IT be the pleasure of City Council to approve this application, modifications to the site plan as shown on the submitted revision sheet must be completed between first and second readings. Im available for any questions.
12:05:00AM Does Council have any questions? Hearing none, applicant. My name is Alex Rios with rios architecture. I am presenting on behalf of the petitioner for rez 25-90. This request is to rezone from PD to PD. The previously approved PD allows for two semi detached townhomes. What is being presented today is very limited in scope with three specific modifications. First is the rear setback. This proposed PD does reduce the rear setback compared to the prior approved PD but still maintains the 15-foot required setback required by the West Tampa overlay. Secondly, the garage dimensions. We are reducing the side setback from SIX feet to five feet, but to allow for -- that also allows for a more functional garage. Lastly is the roof pitch. That is the only waiver on the application. If I May here, just to present -- let me go to the elevations. We have tried really hard to try to maintain a roof pitch at all because being a three-story structure. You can see here on the elevations, We are basically at nine feet, less than nine feet on the first floor with shallow floor trusses. 312 pitch does take up five feet in total height. And We are trying to still maintain the 35-foot height requirement. If IT be the pleasure of Council, We do not mind maintaining the presentation as shown with, again, We do have less than nine -- We are maintaining 35 feet, but if IT be the pleasure of Council, We would be open to going with a 4/12 pitch as long as We can get the added height to account for IT, which We would request 38 feet to do so. We did make some minor tweaks to the front elevation. This is the latest rendering We have of the front. With that, that concludes my presentation. Thank you.
12:07:19AM So I have questions. Can You put the new proposed elevation that You have on the front. The picture. Im going to hold to You a picture. Honest with You, when I first -- generally when You come up before US, You know I am a big fan of your projects and can almost approve things with my eyes closed whenever You present. The first elevations I was questioning. The porch on this one looks more substantial than your sketch drawings. I felt that You were missing the West Tampa overlay intent with the front porch on your original drawings. Im a little bit more comfortable with how You have that depicted on this particular drawing. I do have a question. The second floor balcony, is that just a design element? Because youre losing square footage there? What is your thought there? Garage, there is limited greenspace. So were making up for that by having a front balcony on the second level.
12:08:28AM I dont know how Council feels, but I would be willing to entertain the variance on the height to get the roof pitch in line with the West Tampa overlay. I dont know the sentiment of everybody else, I would rather see the roof pitch. Again, if this is your intent to build this, im much more comfortable with this than the first go-around. This is better.
Lynn Hurtak
12:08:54AM Its a Waiver One Way or the other.
Alan Clendenin
12:08:59AM At least its in line --
Lynn Hurtak
12:09:01AM I just wanted to point out that the fact IT is a Waiver One Way or the other. I agree. I think the West Tampa overlay, I think being able to approve that would be more important. Not involve a waiver. They only need the waiver if pursue 3/12.
Alan Clendenin
12:09:26AM They would go 35 to 38.
12:09:34AM Between first and second reading on the PD.
Christopher Demanche
12:09:38AM Update the revision sheet to where they update the elevations with the height. Strike the waiver language from the site plan and then update the new height under the site data table. Three very minor changes. If the Applicant is fine with that, if IT is the pleasure of Council, were happy to proceed. We came into the zoning trying to stay within the 35 feet. We definitely would be gracious for the 38. That is the preference.
Lynn Hurtak
12:10:17AM Weve done this recently and again We really appreciate, You always bring excellent designs, but We have started asking if You would be willing to commit to building this exact facade. Thank You. Im sorry. Its 12:00. Yeah, that facade, would IT look like this?
Alan Clendenin
12:10:50AM With the modifications, anybody else -- anything else you wanted to add to this? Anybody in the public wishing to speak to this item. Motion to close from Miranda, second from Maniscalco. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Who would like to make a motion with the amendments?
Guido Maniscalco
12:11:15AM I have an ordinance rezoning the property in the general vicinity of 2539 West Cherry Street in the City of Tampa, Florida, more particularly described in section 1 from zoning district classification PD planned development to PD planned development, residential, single-family, semi detached, providing an effective date with the revision.
Alan Clendenin
12:11:34AM With the height revision and site and stipulation to build to the facade.
Guido Maniscalco
12:11:40AM Yes.
Alan Clendenin
12:11:42AM We have a motion from Councilman Maniscalco. A second from Councilwoman Hurtak.
Martin Shelby
12:11:46AM Do you need that written or stated more clearly?
Christopher Demanche
12:11:51AM I think the three things we mentioned, which would be updated elevations, updated site data table, and striking of the waiver on the site plan.
Martin Shelby
12:12:00AM And the facade or no?
Christopher Demanche
12:12:02AM And we would use the elevations the -- replace the elevations with the ones shown tonight showing the revised building height of 38 feet.
Martin Shelby
12:12:14AM If that can be incorporated as part of the motion, please.
Guido Maniscalco
12:12:17AM I accept what the Gentleman just said and incorporate that into my motion.
Alan Clendenin
12:12:20AM Motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. Sorry. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak.
12:12:36AM All those in favor say Aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Thank you.
The Clerk
12:12:50AM Motion carried unanimously. Second reading and adoption will be held on February 5, 2026 at 10 am. At old city hall, located at 315 East Kennedy Boulevard, third floor, Tampa, Florida, 33602.
Alan Clendenin
12:13:06AM Now we get 2.0.
Christopher Demanche
12:13:10AM For the record, Christopher Demanche. Development Coordination. Agenda item number 4 is rez 25-91. This is a request to rezone 2704 West Palmetto Street from planned development to planned development for residential single-family semi detached uses. Ill turn IT over now to the Planning Commission.
Danny Collins
12:13:30AM Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. I was sworn in. Our next rezoning case is located in the central Tampa planning district, specifically West Tampa urban village. Evacuation zone e.
Alan Clendenin
12:13:48AM Im either having a stroke or thats not --
Danny Collins
12:13:56AM Is that better? The site is actually just to the northwest of IT of the previous amendment -- sorry, the previous rezoning. Just Across The Street from North Tampania Avenue. Again, this is West Tampa elementary school to the south, and IT is just about a block off of Armenia, which is by the frame here. The subject site is designated as residential 20. That designation surrounds the subject site on all sides. Again, psp to the south. R-10 one block to the west and cc-35 Along Armenia Avenue here. Planning Commission staff reviewed the application and found no adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood. Again, surrounding area is predominantly single-family residential in character. There has been a modification to the previous bonus provision agreement. Included in this application. Staff finds the request comparable and compatible with the development along this portion of West Palmetto Street. The site is located in West Tampa urban village, which encourages pedestrian oriented design and density that supports transit use. Proposed design orients both units towards the public sidewalk, which is consistent with lu policy 9.2.6 Regarding orientation of front doors for attached units. Based on those considerations, the Planning Commission staff finds the request consistent with the City Of Tampa comprehensive plan, and that concludes my presentation.
Alan Clendenin
12:15:34AM Thank you. Council have any questions for Planning Staff? Hearing none. Coordination. Well start with an aerial of the subject site outlined in red is the subject property. IT is located on the south side of west palm -- West Palmetto Street. The subject block is located east of North Habana Avenue, and west of North Tampania Avenue. To the north, south, east, and west of the subject site, we have RS 50 zoning. The surrounding uses are single-family detached dwelling units. Just further east of the subject site, across North Tampania Avenue, the zoning changes over to RM 16. The property is located in the West Tampa overlay, and IT has been reviewed for compliance with the West Tampa overlay district development design standards. Much like the application you just heard before this one, this was before you in 2024, and The Applicant, due to proposed structural dwelling redesign is seeking a reduction in the rear yard and side yard setbacks, and there is also still a need for a bonus provision agreement. I will also note before jumping into the site plan that the application we just heard is located southeast from the application that is under consideration now. They are basically in the same neighborhood. Next we have the proposed site plan. The subject property is approximately 4,769 square feet in area. The Applicant is proposing the construction of single-family semi detached units. The site plan shows a single structure containing two units. Each unit has a two-car garage providing rear entry to each unit from the 14-foot alleyway that is located to the south of the proposed structure. There is a covered entryway for each unit and three foot sidewalk from each unit leading out to the existing five foot concrete sidewalk. Front doors are oriented to West Palmetto Street. The specific setback reductions proposed to this PD application include a rear yard setback reduction from 28 feet to 15 and a reduction in the side yard setbacks on the east and west side from 6 feet to 5 feet. Given the size of the site at 4,769 square feet, maximum of one dwelling unit is permitted by right or two are permitted with a bonus provision agreement. The proposed elevations show what was provided with this application, but much like the last application, im sure The Applicant will talk about the elevations and any changes that he May seek at this hearing. Im also going to read into record the waiver requested through this application but much like the last one, The Applicant will talk about changing the roof pitch. There is one waiver requested with the application to allow a minimum roof pitch of 3/12 in lieu of the required roof pitch of 4/12. Next we have photos, this is a photo of the subject site from West Palmetto Street looking north across West Palmetto Street, immediately south of the subject site we have the 14-foot alleyway. Further south of the subject site on West Cherry Street, you can see single-family detached dwelling units. East of the subject site and west of the subject site. Development Coordination and compliance staff has reviewed the application and find the request consistent with the City Of Tampa land development regulations. Should IT be the pleasure of City Council to approve this application, modifications to the site plan as shown on the submitted revision sheet must be completed between first and second reading. Im available for any questions.
12:20:09AM Does Council have any questions? Councilman Miranda.
Charlie Miranda
12:20:12AM If I May, im looking at this and IT leaves me a little perplexed about three stories high West Tampa. Theres no neighborhood like that in West Tampa. None. I dont particularly care for IT. Im going to vote for this one, but I will not be supporting any future ones.
Alan Clendenin
12:20:37AM Any other questions? Hearing none, applicant. Alex Rios, with rios architecture presenting on behalf of the petitioner for rez 25-91. This presentation is exact -- exactly like the prior presentation. The same three changes are being made. If anything, the only minor change which is only a site constraint is that the Build-To line in the West Tampa overlay is a little bit more restrictive here. Here is the overall building footprint, and IT happens to be a little bit smaller compared to the prior presentation. But the presentation is the same. The requested changes would be the same. If IT be the pleasure of council, we would love to continue with the 4/12 pitch and go with the additional height.
12:21:29AM And build the same facade. We can add those to the correction sheet.
12:21:35AM Any other questions from Council? Hearing none, motion to close? Sorry, anybody in the public that wishes to speak to this item? Anybody in the public wishing to speak to the item? Hearing none, motion to close from Maniscalco. Second from Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT.
Luis Viera
12:21:56AM Ill move an ordinance presented for first reading consideration, ordinance rezoning property in the general vicinity of 2704 West Palmetto Street, City of Tampa, Florida, and particularly described in section 1 from zoning district classification, PD planned development to PD planned development, residential, single-family, semi detached, providing an effective date.
Martin Shelby
12:22:18AM Is there a revision sheet on this one? Well need to make the same exact changes to this one. Happy to state IT in the record.
12:22:27AM Why dont We. Revised elevations between first and second reading. We will strike the waiver requests thats also on the site plan, and there will be an update to the site data table reflecting a revised building height using the 4/12 roof pitch. Same exact items that We discussed with rez 25-90.
Alan Clendenin
12:22:57AM We have a motion from Councilman Viera. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT.
The Clerk
12:23:06AM Motion carried unanimously. Second reading and adoption will be held on February 5, 2026 at 10 am. At old city hall, located at 315 East Kennedy Boulevard, third floor, Tampa, Florida, 33602.
Alan Clendenin
12:23:23AM Go ahead.
LaChone Dock
12:23:25AM LaChone Dock, Development Coordination. Item 5 is rez 25-99 for the property located at 5250 and 5242 East Broadway Avenue. The request is to rezone the property currently zoned PD, approved in 2021 under rez 21-99. IT allows for residential multifamily strip shopping center and all CI uses. The request is to rezone the PD planned development to allow for all commercial intensive uses. Ill turn IT over to Planning Commission.
Danny Collins
12:24:00AM Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. I was sworn in. Our next rezoning case is in the central Tampa planning district. IT is in evacuation zone d. This is an aerial map of the subject site and surrounding property. The subject site is just has frontage along East Broadway Avenue and is just south of east 14th street. This area is interesting. Theres generally, south of broadway, we have some industrial uses as shown here on the aerial. And then to the north and west of the subject site, we have some single-family homes, and then we also have a park just north of 14th street. Here is the adopted future land use map. The subject site has two future land use designations. Southern portion of the site along broadway is designated transitional use 24. That category allows a range of uses, anything from light industrial to residential. The northern portion of the subject site is designated as residential 20. That residential 20 is to the north, west, and east of the subject site. South of broadway as we get off the corridor, we have light industrial. The applicant is utilizing lu policy 5.1.6, Entitlements across the entire site. Policy allows floor area ratio calculated across the entire site and permits uses from the applicable land use categories to be located anywhere on the site through an approved PD. And that is what the applicant is seeking today. Proposed intensity can be considered in the CI uses can be considered anywhere on the subject site. The Planning Commission staff found the request and found is comparable and compatible with the surrounding area, which includes a diverse mix of uses as mentioned, residential, commercial, industrial, and public, quasi-public uses. The proposed eastern building is set back approximately 87 feet and the proposed western building is approximately 145 feet from single-family homes to the north. Additional setbacks are provided to the east and west. With building setbacks approximately 94 feet from single-family homes across north -- im sorry. North 54th street and 96 feet from single-family attached sites to the west. 8-foot solid vinyl fence and landscape proposed along the northern, eastern, western property lines to further screen residential uses. Staff has determined that the request is sensitive to the surrounding area. The project also enhances pedestrian connectivity by providing tree-lined sidewalks along East Broadway Avenue, north 54th street, and east 14th avenue as well as the sidewalk connection from the building entrances on East Broadway Avenue. Based on the considerations, Planning Commission staff finds the request consistent with the City Of Tampa comprehensive plan and that concludes my presentation.
Alan Clendenin
12:27:16AM I have a question. Leave that up there for a second. IT seems odd -- you see the consistency of the future land use as IT sits, and understanding that all these parcels around here are single-family detached and a park. I mean, obviously along broadway, you can see where that would have higher intensive usage. So what was the Planning Commission's discussion when they found consistency to encroach into the single-family neighborhood?
Danny Collins
12:27:50AM So as I mentioned, They are utilizing the blending provision, lu policy 5.1.6 Which allows the blending of, in this case, the CI uses onto the residential 20. As far as compatibility, They provide ample setbacks to the residential homes. They have also are meeting buffering and landscaping requirements. And They located, for the most part, the buildings close to broadway, as far as the entrance, so the access would be from broadway. So that is what factored into our finding. Also, Tu 24 Category kind of is a category, like I said that allows a range of uses. IT should be -- development should be -- there are -- the comprehensive plan has policy that says the category has -- trying to say, the ability to create development that is not necessarily compatible with the surrounding area. Thats language for the Tu 24 Category. So these -- IT kind of -- the development needs to trend to what the development is in the surrounding area. In this case, there is that industrial to the south of the subject site --
Alan Clendenin
12:29:21AM This looks like what were doing if We approve this, We are -- were claiming usage in an area that doesnt currently exist. Kind of redefining what the usage would be. Is that what im seeing here?
Danny Collins
12:29:36AM Well, like I said, we found that if They did provide adequate setbacks, They are meeting their landscaping and buffering and screening requirements.
Alan Clendenin
12:29:48AM Appreciate IT. Thank you. Next.
LaChone Dock
12:29:54AM LaChone Dock, Development Coordination. This rezoning request, which is rez 25-99, IT would allow for commercial development of 60,000 square feet. There are two buildings proposed on the site, maximum building height of 35 feet. You will see the subject property thats located here on broadway. Its outlined in red. For orientation, this is 56th street. This is 54th street, and you can see Along Broadway Avenue to the west, you have the IG zoning along broadway. To the east, just along the boundary of the site and then further east you have the CI commercial intensive zoning, and you have those uses along broadway, which are consistent with the zoning, the open storage, the vehicle repair, uses along broadway. And then as you head further north, you have your residential, the RM 16 zoning and the spot of RM 18 to the northeast. I have pictures of the surrounding uses, so ill show you some of the uses surrounding like the single-family, semi detached, the residential that exists to the north and the west. But the site has 473 feet of frontage on broadway and 466 feet along north 54th street. There are 12 parking spaces required and 23 parking spaces are provided. And this is the site plan provided. Try to fit IT all on. The site is fairly large. A little over seven acres. The site contains 314,672 square feet. Let me zoom out a little more. This is 54th street. This is broadway. This is 14th avenue. So the two buildings proposed are in red. They are each 30,000 square feet. These buildings are identical. So building one and building two, both buildings have vehicular access from the south along broadway. So there is a point of ingress and egress, two points here for building one and then for building two, the same. There are two points. The site has surface parking thats located in the front and on the side of each building. There is a space that is dedicated, if there is open storage on the site, IT is near the rear of the site on both of these -- for both buildings on-site. As I mentioned, ill show you pictures of the surrounding uses with the property. Both buildings are the same. Ill show you the one set of elevations. At the top, you have the east elevation. At the bottom is the west. Then you have the north elevation at the top and then this is the south elevation. There are photos of the site. I understand the hour. This is looking west on broadway. Subject site is on the right. This is the southwest boundary of the site. So well start at broadway west, head east. This is another view of the site. Now were on 54th street, the east boundary. You can see the site is vacant. More pictures of the eastern boundary. This is the north portion of the site. Now were at the surrounding uses. This is west of the site. This is at the corner of 52nd and broadway. On 52nd, this is a view if youre looking north on 52nd. This is some of the uses single family semi detached. This is the park located north of the site thats on 14th avenue. This is north of the site. That is the residential single-family detached. This is also north of the site, semi detached. This is east of the site at the corner, 14th and 54th. This is east. We swing back around. That is the commercial east of the site. There are five waivers with this request. There is one waiver to 27282 and that is the request to install solid vinyl fence in lieu of the required SIX foot masonry wall on 1th avenue and 54th street. There are four natural resources waivers. One to remove two non-hazardous grand live oaks, one request to reduce the required 50% tree retention on non-wooded lot over an acre to 21%. There is a request to install a solid vinyl fence in lieu of the SIX foot masonry wall on the west boundary of the property. Final waiver is to plant type three trees in the 15-foot use landscape buffer from the required type one -- or type two trees. This is where overhead wires are located. With that the DRC staff found the request inconsistent. If youll see the findings in staff report from natural resources and Development Coordination. Site plan changes are required to be made between first and second reading. Erin is going to go over quickly her comments and her finding. Im available if there are any questions.
Alan Clendenin
12:35:51AM I do have a question. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
12:35:55AM First of all, are we missing a light somewhere?
LaChone Dock
12:35:58AM I think so.
Lynn Hurtak
12:35:59AM The shadow is really, really awful.
LaChone Dock
12:36:03AM There is no light up here.
Lynn Hurtak
12:36:06AM Usually there is a light somewhere. There must be a lamp out.
Alan Clendenin
12:36:12AM And The Lord said ..
Lynn Hurtak
12:36:15AM Wow, you fix everything. Thank you. Im so glad I said something. First of all, thanks. Thats number one. Number two, for the life of me, I do not understand why this is a previously approved PD and they get to keep previously approved waivers if were going for a new PD. Is that what were doing or previously approved waivers dont apply?
LaChone Dock
12:36:50AM Development Coordination. Since they are coming through with this new use, those waivers do not apply. This is the new waivers request. What I read into the record are the new waivers.
Lynn Hurtak
12:37:03AM Previously approved waivers are not applicable.
LaChone Dock
12:37:06AM Like the parking previously approved was from 235 to 222 is not --
Lynn Hurtak
12:37:12AM I wanted to double check on that. I have questions about the trees but --
Alan Clendenin
12:37:18AM I have questions before we get to the trees. The existing use of this is residential. IT was a Mobile Home Park, is that right? Residential?
LaChone Dock
12:37:27AM That is what IT started as. Thats what you see in the aerial.
Alan Clendenin
12:37:31AM Previously approved PD was also residential.
LaChone Dock
12:37:34AM Then IT went to PD. And this is the current PD. That allows for the residential along with the commercial. So The Way the site was designed, you had your residential buildings here and then commercial here along broadway.
Alan Clendenin
12:38:01AM Thank you. Any other questions for Lachone?
LaChone Dock
12:38:13AM Thank you, Council.
Alan Clendenin
12:38:14AM Lets talk trees. Lets talk a tree.
Erin maehr
12:38:20AM Erin Maehr, Development Coordination. Ill speak on Natural Resources finding of inconsistency. There were, as we talked about a couple of waivers that are requested. On this site here, there are four preservation quality grand live oaks on the site. The green circles are the two grand trees that are being preserved that are preservation quality. The two red are the waivers that are being requested to remove these two preservation quality grand live oaks. So as we talked about, the site is just over seven acres. In addition to removing the grand trees, the two grand trees requiring waivers, they do need a waiver for the tree retention down to 21%. So theres 38 trees that count towards the tree retention. And 8 of those are to be retained on the site. Just in comparison, the prior rezoning that is the certified site plan had a waiver, which allowed the tree retention to go down to 30%. Im just going to show you here, this is the landscape plan, and this is also grand tree number 70, which is located between the two buildings, like between These Two Drive aisles, and IT is -- its tree number 70. IT has a 58-inch diameter live oak rated c-4, and its worth 23 mitigation trees. This tree was actually preserved in rez 21-99. That is just a bigger photo of IT. IT has a really nice high canopy. Really good attachments for these codominant trunks. IT would have been with a more thoughtful design, pavement could have gone around this in some manner. This is just showing the site plan before. This was tree 70 here, and IT was preserved in the prior rezoning. But that said, I do just want to speak that The Applicant has worked with Natural Resources, and they can provide all the code required trees on the site. They have also provided the landscape buffers, so they have 15 feet to the west and eight foot high pvc fence. They have the five-foot landscape buffer to the north across from -- across the right-of-way from the single-family home, and there you can provide 8-foot vua landscape buffer to the east. The site requires 98 trees. The Applicant is proposing to plant three-quarters of them as type one shade trees. Given the waivers for the grand tree and the tree retention, we found the application inconsistent.
Alan Clendenin
12:41:17AM Thank you. Any questions? Hearing none, Applicant. Petitioner. Janu Sivanesan is online, if we can bring her up and swear her in. She is online.
12:41:39AM You need to turn your camera on and unmute yourself.
12:41:48AM We need to swear you in, please. Can you raise your right hand to be sworn in. To provide is the truth and nothing but the truth? I appreciate your time to consider this application. The Owner has purchased this property recently. The previous site plan, The Developer prior to Her was not able to get that to work with the residential and Commercial The Way IT was. IT wasnt viable. Couldnt make IT work, so She bought IT and She has done work in the area for similar kind of property for doing commercial intensive in this case where this will be Delivery Type Place where like if -- how shall I say? Equipment Rental Place. You come and pull your semi through, load the equipment on, and use IT on your site, return IT however long its supposed to be done. Could be equipment. Could be materials, whatever they are selling. Her intention was to have two buildings to rent two different tenants. The idea of the driveways was to preserve existing driveways and use those, two buildings operating two rental spaces. Similar, obviously, they are the same building footprint. But the intention is to take heavy deliveries, those kinds of things and have to make movements in a counterclockwise manner to get in through the building, load, unload, going through. They were talking about that being the primary use of the commercial buildings. We dont know which tenants youll get, but the example of like a rental would be something like that to give a general sense of the business. Regarding the two blended uses, the reason we asked for the blending is because the transitional use was only about 90 feet deep, which is barely enough to even get a 60-foot parking lot in a 30-foot wide building on strip retail that works. But retail doesnt work in that area. As you can see, theres mostly commercial intensive going on Across The Street. So when we approached IT with that perspective, the intention was to bring those buildings as far forward as we could and still make the movements work with the trucks that we intended to serve in these buildings. So with that, I wanted to address by just going over some of the highlights. Its two commercial buildings with multiple pull-through bays. The idea is that they could either rent those as separate bays or tenant could take all SIX bays in each building. Site configurations rented for two different tenants or multiple and be able to take deliveries as pulling through. Were expecting the largest semis here because were expecting heavier equipment. And then the proposed use is consistent with the other uses along broadway which is similar. Mostly auto centric. The Applicant is willing to make most of these changes that were brought up in the staff report with maybe one or two exceptions of trying to make IT work for the circulation. Open to any questions you have.
12:45:30AM Does Council have any questions? I have a question for staff. Properties to the east, west, north, could you identify which ones are residential?
LaChone Dock
12:45:45AM Yes, absolutely. Ill put up the aerial map. Then I can show you pictures if you want me to access the pictures. These to the west, this is your single-family, semi detached.
Alan Clendenin
12:46:00AM Those butt up right against the property.
LaChone Dock
12:46:03AM Thats adjacent to the property. Along broadway IT starts commercial. Commercial. Then IT goes to the residential. The park is here, and then there are a couple of residential single-family detached along with semi detached to the north. And then to the east, this portion of the block is residential. Detached.
Alan Clendenin
12:46:25AM Am I assessing this correctly, the areas that are residential align with the future land use designation?
LaChone Dock
12:46:32AM Yes, as they currently exist, yes.
Alan Clendenin
12:46:40AM Does Council have any further questions? Appropriate?
12:46:51AM Yes, if You would like to add something, the Owner. You --
12:46:59AM Start with your name again, please. This property, I think somebody asked a question earlier what the history of this was, was IT a mobile home park. IT was a mobile home park over 30 years ago, and IT went into bankruptcy and has been vacant since and continues to be vacant today. And has been for the entire period. The Prior Owner went through a lot of trouble to get the PD that exists today, blended use of CI and residential and ultimately did not develop IT because IT was not economical viable to make the residential use work there. We had to roll up our sleeves and figure out what the best use and how to best use this piece of land. Having done a lot of diligence on the market, the need, this idea of warehouse space thats either able to use by a National Company or even a Regional Company weve had anywhere from Swimming Pool Manufacturers that need storage and sales people that need a lot of space in order to store their equipment and store their items to Original Landscaper to whole number of uses. IT is an incredibly growing market and particularly attractive in Tampa and particularly in this area because its kind of an industrial corridor in large parts of IT. So thats sort of why today we think this makes sense and why IT hasnt been developed up to now. IT actually presents pretty large problems for the community locally, undeveloped. IT attracts Homeless People. I know anecdotally some of the neighbors are happy to see something happen to IT because the vacancy has really attracted not the right element for everybody to enjoy the community well. So were excited about bringing that to something thats been dormant for decades. And then in terms of just specifying a little more clarity on some of the surrounding uses, on the western side, one portion is commercial and then towards the back, IT is duplexes that are there. But there is a creek, IT is actually a drainage ditch, but fairly wide that separates those properties from this development, we would additionally have the buffer as well, 15-foot buffer. Then on the northern side, there would be a road that separates from the other homes there, and then to the east, there is a portion thats commercial and then towards the back, there is a portion thats residential.
12:49:52AM Okay. Thank you very much. Any further questions? Anything else for your presentation? Regulated ditch that the City manages and we made commitments to provide the additional easement space they requested during this process. Its well over 25 feet wide, so theres that plus our distance. To the nearest house from the edge of our buffer is 40 feet. Between that, were putting our stormwater system on that side, too, so you wont directly have materials and that kind of stuff up against the western side of the residential.
12:50:35AM Anybody in the public that wishes to speak to this item? Motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. Councilwoman Young -- sorry, all those in favor to close, aye. Ayes have IT. Councilwoman Young.
Naya Young
12:50:51AM So I would just -- understanding there are a mix of uses in this space, but also recognizing that there is some residential and there is a park nearby, I just would have liked to see a different activation of the space. Its so much space and so much opportunity there. IT would have just been -- and I dont know exactly what that would look like. But something to really activate that space for the Community and the residents that are in the area that kind of serves both purposes. And then also, theres been a lot of discussion around trees, even if IT is one tree or two trees, its still a tree. I think with a thoughtful design we could have found a way to continue to preserve that tree. Thats my comments.
Alan Clendenin
12:51:54AM Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
12:51:55AM Im agreeing with you on this. I dont think IT is the right use for this piece of property. Im particularly concerned with five waivers on a seven acre parcel that only has two buildings. I just dont think thats appropriate. There is a lot of room to fix what needed to be fixed. I also believe that if we were to approve this, I would not want to approve the waivers of the fences because I believe that -- I mean, really having the residential next to three sides should be a masonry wall, especially with the heavy duty type of intensity that they are looking for. I dont think this is appropriate. I cant vote for IT. But if Council is inclined to, I would just say not to approve the waivers or at least quite a few -- well, no, theres none of the waivers that I like here.
Alan Clendenin
12:53:04AM I wanted to get to yes on this, I really did. I get the economic viability argument, but the problem is housing is a big issue in the City Of Tampa and so much of this parcel, future land use anticipated this is two-thirds of this shooting from my hip should be redeveloped as housing. Of course, the broadway portion would be different. But I dont see using that blending option to sacrifice what is a strategic goal for the City Of Tampa, and that is the construction of missing middle and workforce housing. And missing that opportunity with our land use code to be able to facilitate that goal. Im also uncomfortable -- this gets into the difference, the cases we heard earlier in South Tampa versus we get to the areas where people do not show up because they May not be as informed or not as activated but still people living in this neighborhood that are impacted by this. Just because they are not here, I feel like as an Elected Official I have to be their voice and speak on their defense of how this impacts their neighborhood. The one tree, I think more thoughtful design we could have saved the tree. Im not the biggest tree lover in the world, but, man, that is a nice tree. That is a tough one. The hearing is closed, fyi. Anybody else? Council have anything to say to this? Who would like to take a shot at this one?
Martin Shelby
12:54:36AM Just a reminder, Council, Martin Shelby, City Council attorney. This is a request for a planned development. As you know, I have given out in the past and you have IT before you now, if you dont, ill give you a copy, the criteria for a planned development is in section 27-130 -- excuse me, 27-136 is the purpose, and there are seven criteria there for which you can judge the evidence against. And with regard, as Councilwoman Hurtak mentioned, the waivers, the following criteria for consideration of a waiver are listed on that sheet under 27-139. So my request is, again, you base your decision on the competent and substantial evidence, and you apply the facts as you find them to be to the criteria in the code and please cite the sections and subsections when you base your decision. I thank you. If you feel the need to make a record.
Alan Clendenin
12:55:44AM Who is going for IT?
Lynn Hurtak
12:55:50AM I move to deny rez 25-99 for the property located at 5250 and 5242 East Broadway Avenue due to the failure of the Applicant to meet its burden of proof to provide competent and substantial evidence that the development as conditioned and shown on the site plan is consistent with the comprehensive plan and City Code and the applicants failure to meet its burden of proof with respect to the requested waivers. Excuse me. I do feel that -- gosh, I apologize -- section 27-136, the purpose does not promote and encourage development where appropriate in location, character and compatibility with the surrounding impacted neighborhood, built environment and existing geography. IT does not promote the careful -- the efficient and sustainable use of land, subsection one, promote sufficient and sustainable use of land and infrastructure with careful consideration, potential adverse impacts to on-site natural elements surrounding impacted neighborhoods and cultural resources, furthermore, that the waivers are voluminous and, quite frankly, based on the design of the PD should not be as voluminous as they are. Basically, theres a lot of room for fixing those, so there wouldnt need to be waivers.
Martin Shelby
12:57:32AM With regard to 27-139, thats what youre making reference to.
Lynn Hurtak
12:57:37AM 136. Im sorry, for the waivers, yes. Im sorry. For the waiver, section 27-139 subsection 4.
Alan Clendenin
12:57:45AM We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco
12:57:48AM Second. And in regards to the waivers, the ones that I have issues with are 27-282.12-a-2. And 27-284.3.3a Regarding the solid vinyl fence in lieu of the six-foot masonry wall. IT was already mentioned as to why masonry wall would be more appropriate but also in regards to the tree, specifically section 27-284.2.5-f-1 Specifically on tree number 7, 50-inch -- the real big tree. With more creativity, IT could have been reconfigured and protected. That to me, IT would be a shame to lose that.
Lynn Hurtak
12:58:38AM I accept your amendment.
Alan Clendenin
12:58:40AM We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. Roll call, please.
Bill Carlson
12:58:46AM Yes.
Charlie Miranda
12:58:48AM Yes.
Guido Maniscalco
12:58:49AM Yes.
Lynn Hurtak
12:58:49AM Yes.
Naya Young
12:58:50AM Yes.
Luis Viera
12:58:52AM [Inaudible]
Alan Clendenin
12:58:54AM Yes.
The Clerk
12:58:55AM Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin
12:58:58AM Thank you. Item number 6, please. Stephanie Pope, Development Coordination. Agenda item number 6 is rez 25-100, request to rezone 2707 North Armenia Avenue and 2334 West Saint Louis Street from RS 50 and CI to PD for storefront residential, commercial office and all CG uses. Ill turn IT over to Planning Commission.
Danny Collins
12:59:35AM Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. I was sworn in. Our next item is in the central Tampa planning district, specifically in West Tampa urban village. Evacuation zone d. IT is located at the southeast corner of North Armenia Avenue and West Saint Louis Street. North Armenia Avenue is a transit emphasis corridor so the plan identifies transit emphasis corridors as areas suitable for redevelopment intensification. The subject site is designated as cc-35 and residential 35. To the east, North Armenia Avenue is cc-35 and transition to r 35 as you move east. We have North Howard Avenue, one block to the east is CMU 35. The request would provide infill development and underutilized site as most of the parcel remains underdeveloped. Existing development consists of small single story auto sales building that does not fully utilize the sites development potential. The comprehensive plan encourages new housing on vacant and underutilized lands to meet tampas current and future population. This request would add housing in old West Tampa neighborhood. Also consistent with the citys growth strategy which directs greatest share of growth to urban villages. Planning Commission staff found the request consistent with the overall design policies of the mixed use centers and corridors. If approved, staff requests that the Applicant provide a pedestrian connection between the commercial entrance and the elevator, such as a painted cross walk and correct the density and intensity calculations on the site data table. Applicant should revise site acreage to reflect societal tight area of .45 Acres with .11 Acres designated as residential 35 between first and second readings. Based on those considerations, the Planning Commission staff finds the request consistent with the City Of Tampa comprehensive plan. That concludes my presentation.
Alan Clendenin
1:01:44AM Council have any questions for Planning Staff? Hearing none, next.
Stephanie Pope
1:01:53AM Stephanie Pope, Development Coordination. Ill start with an aerial view of the subject site. You can see the subject site outlined in red. On the southeast corner of North Armenia Avenue and west saint louis. The development pattern in the immediate area of the subject site is comprised of single-family detached units and RS 50 zoning on this portion on the north, east, and south. And then on this portion on the north, west, and south is zoned CI and includes commercial uses that go along North Armenia Avenue. Next, ill put up the site plan provided by the applicant. The applicant proposes a single structure containing SIX residential units, which you can see here. And 2,970 square feet of commercial use there along Armenia and those residential units have a frontage here along West Saint Louis Street. Front door orientation with ground floor residential units are proposed along West Saint Louis Street and commercial proportion proposes entry from north Armenia through the alley and to the parking area, which is underneath the parking -- the commercial portion of that. Each unit proposes a one-car garage here. And also one surface parking spot. Vehicular access to the site is proposed from the 14 foot platted alley on the south for each residential unit and for parking for the commercial portion. Sidewalks are proposed along West Saint Louis Street, and there are existing sidewalks along North Armenia Avenue. There are pedestrian connections proposed internally and bicycle parking shelter is proposed right here. The proposed maximum height is 35 feet. The site is located in the West Tampa urban village. I can show you the elevations. There is the west elevation and the north elevation. And then the east elevation and the south elevation. And then I have some photos to show you. Here is a photo of the subject site. Here is another photo of the subject site on west saint louis. This is east of the subject site on west saint louis. This is, again, east of the subject site on saint louis. Again, east of the subject site on saint louis. This is the west end of the site on Armenia. This is west of the subject site on the southwest corner of Armenia and saint louis. Showing you some of the commercial. West of the site looking west on west saint louis across from Armenia. This is north of the site. Again, showing you some more of that commercial. North of the site, transplant more of the residential. Northeast of the subject site, some more of the commercial north of the site, and then south of the site. Development Coordination and Client Staff reviewed the application and find the request to be inconsistent with the land development code due to transportations findings. There are three waivers as part of this request. No waivers to the overlay. The waivers are section 27-283.7 To reduce the required parking from 18 to 14, which is a 22% reduction. 27-28433-c Request to reduce the required 15-foot wide use landscape buffer and six-foot masonry wall to 10-foot wide use landscape buffer and six-foot masonry wall to the east. 27-28433 D request to reduce required eight foot vua landscape buffer abutting the alley to the south to zero feet. If City Council approves the application, the modifications to the site plan as shown on the submitted revision sheet must be completed between first and second reading. Im available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin
1:07:00AM Is this property in the overlay district?
Stephanie Pope
1:07:03AM Yes, Sir.
Alan Clendenin
1:07:05AM So porches. Are porches not required -- are porches not required in this type of development?
Stephanie Pope
1:07:16AM Because of the mixed use -- I think its because of the commercial -- sorry, im looking through --
LaChone Dock
1:07:33AM Development Coordination. They are proposing storefront residential use. If IT was strictly residential use, the porches would be incorporated within the design. There are certain standards within the overlay that are required for the commercial use, like the transparency, the embellishments on the building that would apply. Its been reviewed for compliance.
Alan Clendenin
1:07:55AM What percentage of the property is considered commercial versus the residential?
LaChone Dock
1:08:00AM On the site plan, if shell put up the site plan. I think maybe a third is commercial. More towards the property on Armenia that has the commercial component. The rest of these are the residential units. IT really falls in line, when you look at the existing uses that are on Armenia, and when youre looking at Saint Louis Street north of the subject site, where the residential starts is where the residential starts with the proposed use. On the proposed property.
Alan Clendenin
1:08:37AM What is the setback on Saint Louis?
LaChone Dock
1:08:44AM On the north, the setback is 10 feet.
Alan Clendenin
1:08:56AM Any other questions? Applicant. Sam Aref. Im representing the Property Owner for this project. I want to put this up. This is whats out there before few months ago. The building has been demolished through permitting. But this is what was out there. And the reason for the rezoning is this barrier right here, which is zoned residential. Its about 40, 41 feet wide. And to incorporate IT into the storefront residential project, we had to rezone IT to PD. IT was mentioned earlier that we have to provide a sidewalk connection from a Public Street. IT is shown right here. This is the existing sidewalk along Armenia and were providing the connection. As far as the correction on the site data sheet, this with .46 Acres, that was taken based on the survey area. But we can certainly correct the site data sheet as we see fit or as requested. IT was mentioned earlier that were going to use the alleyway. This alleyway, currently You Cannot Drive on IT. Its heavily vegetated on each side, so the Property Owner is going to improve IT for the length of the project. There would be no traffic parked on the alleyway. So everyone would be in the driveway. Even though currently this business right here, they use IT for parking, but hopefully we can convince them not to do that. I want to admit something. This is my first public hearing for rezoning. I thought when I came up here, all those people that were here were going to object to this project. [ laughter the SIX, seven hours that I sat there, I calmed down because I realized they were not here for Me. With that, She did a good job presenting the project for Me. Im here for any questions.
1:11:50AM Any questions? Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
1:11:52AM I feel very seen because there is covered bike parking. I appreciate that.
Alan Clendenin
1:12:02AM How much do You want to bet that was intentional to be seen by You?
Lynn Hurtak
1:12:07AM I know. I know. Very impressive. Your first time and You did enough research to know I like covered bike parking. I tend to agree with You. If there could be little overhangs for the residential would be nice.
Alan Clendenin
1:12:20AM I get IT what youre trying to do and I get -- I think its interesting what you tried to accomplish here. The only thing thats missing here that really gets me to a yes is that interface on saint louis with the pedestrian, with the porches or some kind of overhang, to be able to -- Lachone, did you want to comment on this?
LaChone Dock
1:12:43AM Development Coordination. For the West Tampa overlay for residential development, a porch is not a requirement. No. The setback and orientation of the front door is what you May be thinking of. But the porch is not required. I want to clear the record for that.
Alan Clendenin
1:13:02AM Im pontificating about something that I cant require. Thank you very much. Any other questions? Hearing none, is there anybody in the public that wishes to speak to this item? They are all coming up to the front now. I dont know the Applicant or the project. Were building two houses about two blocks from here and we would be really excited to see a project like this go in just for improving the area overall. I think bringing a sense of what West Tampa really needs along Armenia. I know one of the waivers is also parking. His site lies within the West Tampa historic district which carries a reduced parking requirement for each residential unit.
1:13:57AM Thank you. Nobody else? We have a motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. A second from Councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson
1:14:17AM Like to move number 6, file rez 25-100, ordinance being presented for first reading consideration, an ordinance rezoning property in the general vicinity of 2334 West Saint Louis Street and 2707 North Armenia Avenue in the City of Tampa, Florida and more particularly described in section 1 from zoning district classification RS 50, residential, single-family, and CI, commercial intensive, to PD, planned development, storefront residential, officecommercial, all CG uses, providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin
1:14:46AM Motion from Councilman Carlson. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor.
Martin Shelby
1:14:53AM Was there a revision sheet on that? There is. Including the revision sheet.
Bill Carlson
1:14:59AM Including the revision sheet.
Alan Clendenin
1:15:01AM Motion from Carlson, second from Maniscalco. Including the revision sheet. All those in favor, Aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT.
The Clerk
1:15:12AM Motion carried unanimously. Second reading and adoption will be held on February 5, 2026 at 10 am. At old city hall, located at 315 East Kennedy Boulevard, third floor, Tampa, Florida, 33602.
Alan Clendenin
1:15:27AM Thank you. I need a ten-minute break. I can hand the gavel to Councilwoman Hurtak -- ill hand the gavel to Councilwoman Hurtak for a moment. You want to do five minutes. Executive decision, well take a five-minute break. 122. [Recess]
1:24:48AM Welcome to Tampa City Council. Roll call, please.
Charlie Miranda
1:24:53AM Here.
Guido Maniscalco
1:24:54AM Here.
Lynn Hurtak
1:24:54AM Here.
Naya Young
1:24:56AM Here.
Bill Carlson
1:24:58AM Here.
Alan Clendenin
1:25:00AM Im awake.
The Clerk
1:25:04AM We have a physical quorum.
Alan Clendenin
1:25:06AM Thank you. Item number 7, Stephanie Pope. Staff extraordinaire.
Stephanie Pope
1:25:13AM Good morning. Stephanie Pope, Development Coordination. Agenda item 7 is rez 25-107, request to rezone 3208 and 3210 North Tampa Street from RS 50 to PD for residential single-family attached. Ill turn IT over to Planning Commission. Megan Mccarthy, sworn in with your Planning Commission staff. Rez 25-107. This is located in the central Tampa planning district, Tampa Heights urban village and the Tampa Heights neighborhood. The subject site is located within evacuation zone e. Subject site is located within the r-20 designation with r-10 to the west and further to the east the cc-35 designation. Planning Commission staff has reviewed the application and found no adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood. This rezoning will allow for enhanced utilization of the land consistent with the density anticipated under the r-20 future land use designation. This PD proposes a density of 17.64 Units per acre, which is consistent with the density anticipated under the residential 20 future land use designation. The comprehensive plan recognizes the importance of single-family neighborhoods seeking to promote compatible redevelopment of neighborhoods to ensure economic health and adequate amount of land is planned for the citys growing population. Given the single-family character of the surrounding area, Planning Commission staff concludes that the request will maintain the neighborhoods character and align well with the residential character along North Tampa Street and west 26th avenue. If the rezoning is approved, the subject site has the potential to provide additional infill housing on an underutilized parcel within the Tampa Heights urban village consistent with the plan. Based on those considerations, Planning Commission staff finds the request consistent with the comprehensive plan. I am available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin
1:27:15AM Council have any questions for the Planning Commission? Hearing none, Ms. Pope.
Stephanie Pope
1:27:25AM Stephanie Pope, Development Coordination. For the record, I have a revised staff report that has changes on page 1 and page 5. Staff findings are consistent, however the report states on page 1 notwithstanding staffs finding of inconsistency. This was a typing mistake and should not have been included as staffs findings were consistent. The correction on page 5 is to the greenspace calculations provided, has been revised to show 2,813 square feet required and 5,028 square feet provided. Here is an aerial view of the subject site and the surrounding area. You can see the subject site outlined in red. On the west side of North Tampa Street, just south of west 26th street. Here is Tampa. Here is 26th. The development pattern in the immediate area of the subject site is comprised of single-family detached units with RS 50 zoning to the west, south, and east, which you can see here. There is a PD approved in 1997 for office uses to the north right here and then commercial neighborhood just north of that and for those commercial uses along Tampa. Further north is zoned RM 16 and RM 18. As you move further south, there have been some recent pds that were approved. Here is the site plan provided by the applicant. Here you have west 26th And Tampa Street there. Applicant proposes a single structure containing SIX residential units with front door orientation Along Tampa Street here. Vehicle access is through a two-way Drive aisle with access off of 26th avenue. Six-foot sidewalks are proposed adjacent to west 26th street and an existing five-foot sidewalk is along North Tampa Street. You can see those sidewalks here. There are two-car garages, and there are also two guest parking spaces. The subject site is located in the Tampa Heights overlay. I will show you some elevations. Here is the west and north elevation, and then the east and south elevation. Next ill show you some photos of the site. Here is the site looking North Down Tampa Street. This is the site looking South Down Tampa Street. This is internal to the site looking west. This is looking East Across Tampa Street, and then this is also looking East Across Tampa Street. This is looking at the PD across west 26th avenue, and this is looking south at a site across west -- at the site from across west 26th street. This is looking south down North Tampa Street and then this is just another view. Development Coordination and compliance staff reviewed the application and find the request to be consistent with the land development code. There is one waiver as part of this request. The waiver is to section 27,284.3.3 Request to reduce required eight foot vua landscape buffer to zero foot abutting the alley to the south. I am available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin
1:31:48AM Council have any questions? Hearing none, Applicant? We received resoundingly positive feedback from neighbors. The site marked in Black DOT. The neighbors that engaged with US that expressed support. I think all except one letter is in support. Those are marked in green. A lot of support from neighbors. This request supports thoughtful growth near the urban core leading straight into downtown. Excited to hear the finding of consistency. The alley, the waiver for the alley, the alley is platted as ten foot. Its not usable. Not in use. Those are photos I took actually today of the alley. Should IT be the pleasure of Council to approve this request between first and second reading, I am requesting to change the height from 35-foot to 40-foot. I would like to keep the roof pitch as part of the design. I think the Most Considerate Way to do that is to go up to 40-foot in height. Im available for any questions.
1:33:16AM Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco
1:33:18AM I see like a White vinyl fence, has that been removed from the property? IT was actually stolen throughout the course of several months somehow.
1:33:29AM Did you have issues on that property with vagrants and people -- we had to do a trespassing notice with the Police prior to US acquiring the property, the Previous Owner had about 60 vehicles parked there. Code violation about 13 years.
1:33:46AM You have the property All The Way to -- is there an abandoned home behind there, boarded up home behind there on 26th, is that home occupied or vacant? There is a primary home and kind of like a detached garage, adu thats part of IT.
Alan Clendenin
1:34:11AM Councilwoman young.
Naya Young
1:34:12AM Besides what You just showed US, do You have like any renderings or what You plan to put? That would be the view from North Tampa Street.
1:34:35AM Did you ever consider porches? I believe they are six-foot projections.
1:35:02AM I dont love the elevations, but my favorite designs are the ones by Lee Groceries. I always kind of look to see how we can make IT fit into the neighborhood.
Alan Clendenin
1:35:17AM Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
1:35:18AM Yeah, ill have to agree. The pitch of the roof is weird. IT just looks weird.
Alan Clendenin
1:35:28AM I think its because its Black.
Lynn Hurtak
1:35:32AM Maybe.
Bill Carlson
1:35:36AM I think its in relation to the lines and everything.
Martin Shelby
1:35:39AM May I ask a question, Mr. Chairman? City Council Attorney. Does this picture reflect what changes you are requesting that bring IT to 40? So there is not a pitch requirement in the Tampa Heights overlay. I would prefer -- I think the most thoughtful design for this is to have a pitched roof and to do that most effectively, that would be the request for the change to 40-foot in height.
Lynn Hurtak
1:36:09AM I tend to agree because at least its not flat.
Alan Clendenin
1:36:13AM Thats exactly IT. I have a question, and this is not a criticism, but lets go back to the alley. On the other site plan, IT didnt look like you had porches, so I was going to bring that as an issue. But now that you presented this and committed to design a porch element, im happy with that. I was curious why you werent utilizing the alley. You could do a one-way Street, push the units back a little bit, get you more space on the front to do a porch. Why -- I know its ten feet, why arent you improving the alley? We met with FDOT. Their request was that the minimum vehicle traffic that unloaded into North Tampa Street would be The Preferred Way. I also met with the Tampa Heights civic association and they share that sentiment. I will say pulling out of the site today, I almost got rear-ended by somebody doing 50 down North Tampa Street, and I pulled out from the alley. The neighborhood sentiment is vehicle ingress and egress through 26th avenue is the safest and most conforming to the neighborhood from what ive heard from neighbors.
1:37:28AM Tampa Street is going to be An Important Street for transit. So I appreciate the fact that youre bringing some density here. I like the forward-facing units. You are kind of incorporating everything else. I think as You beef this up with some porch element, I know this is your conceptual idea, hopefully when You come back the second time around well see something thats more accurate that youll build, I would appreciate that.
1:37:56AM Councilwoman young, did you want to say something else? Saw you reaching for the microphone.
Naya Young
1:38:02AM I appreciate the windows as well. I also like the front facing, because I drive past this area all the time. Thank you for putting windows.
Alan Clendenin
1:38:16AM This is one of the ones, prepping for this, I was kind of like a 50-50 on this one. I get what youre trying to do. I appreciate -- [inaudible] -- I understand the alley. Because I was concerned about the alley. Anything else? Hearing nothing, anybody in the public that wishes to speak to the item? Stephanie, you have something to add?
Stephanie Pope
1:38:41AM I just wanted to clarify that you wanted between first and second reading, hes going to add change the elevation to 40 feet, and hes going to submit this --
Alan Clendenin
1:38:59AM I understand this is very conceptual. I would appreciate you bringing back something at second reading that is in light of having activated front porch. I would look toward Rios stuff being built just south of there and his facades as inspiration because I think the porch inspiration that hes bringing is very thoughtful. Thats my thoughts. Im not here to design the project. If you want a smile and two thumbs up. Well bring that to second reading, Sir. Elevation. Front porch.
1:39:44AM We still have public comment. Ricky, you had something to add? Ive been sworn. A couple of years ago I completed an alley audit in Tampa Heights just to know and have a sense of the quality of our alleys. I agree that this is a challenging one from popping in and out of several of these alleys off of Tampa and Florida, but I would ask in other cases, where, especially in Tampa Heights, where an alley May be a design element, urban form driver that you provide or ask extra scrutiny on how we could improve the alleys to the neighborhood. Because I think they are a great asset, both from architecturally and from a tree perspective, they unlock possibilities for shade where we want IT versus -- not here. Fine.
1:40:49AM You do this for Your Firm?
1:40:56AM Okay. Very good.
1:41:00AM I do. Sam, if you are listening, make sure we get that, please.
1:41:05AM You were not going to close off that end, correct? If somebody else develops and they want to use that alley, IT still eventually in the future could be utilized? Neighbor has put up a fence, prior to me acquiring the property, there was a fence right here.
1:41:28AM Fences can come down. They can come down. On the other side of the block, which is highland, that alley is in use. About three houses as you Work Your Way east, there is a lot of overgrowth. No intention on our end to close off the alley. There are obstructions and things that Neighbors have put in. I believe that the Prior Owner -- the Prior Owner to US acquiring IT had blocked IT off and kept out I think what some Neighbors dont want. Some people passing in the night in the alley. So I think that is the reason why theres now stuff in the alley. One neighbor, this neighbor in particular, the one that lives here, wrote a letter of support encouraging our project, but she hoped that blocking out the alley would be something that could be done. I dont have the power to do that.
1:42:26AM I sit next to somebody who likes to walk through alleys. Very good. Thank you. Any other questions? Nobody else from the public that wishes to speak to the item? Motion to close. Motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Councilman Miranda, you havent read one yet. Do you want to read IT? Go ahead. Knock yourself out. Its your area.
Naya Young
1:43:13AM File rez 25-107, ordinance being -- sorry. File rez 25-107, ordinance being presented for first reading consideration, an ordinance rezoning property in the general vicinity of 3208 and 3210 North Tampa Street, in the City of Tampa, Florida, and more particularly described in section 1 from zoning district classification RS 50, residential, single-family, to PD, planned development, residential, single-family, attached, providing an effective date, including the revision sheet.
Alan Clendenin
1:43:57AM We have a motion from Councilwoman Young. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
1:44:01AM And including the 40-foot change, height change. Thats not on the revision sheet. He just asked for that.
Alan Clendenin
1:44:14AM And with the understanding well come back with another rendering.
Naya Young
1:44:18AM Yes.
Alan Clendenin
1:44:19AM Motion from Councilwoman Young, second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT.
The Clerk
1:44:25AM Motion carried unanimously. Second reading and adoption will be held on February 5, 2026 at 10 am. At old city hall, located at 315 East Kennedy Boulevard, third floor, Tampa, Florida, 33602.
Alan Clendenin
1:44:41AM Very good. Ocho.
Christopher Demanche
1:44:43AM Good morning. Christopher Demanche, Development Coordination. Agenda item 8 is rez 25-110. This is a request to rezone 3219 West Arch Street from RS 50 to planned development for residential single-family detached uses. Ill turn IT over now to Planning Commission staff. This is rez 25-110. This is located in the central Tampa planning district and the midtown Tampa neighborhood. The subject site is located within evacuation zone e. This portion of West Arch Street surrounding the subject site between North Lincoln Avenue and North Matanzas Avenue is primarily developed with single-family detached units immediately north to the subject site is interstate 275. The subject site is located within the r-10 future land use designation, and that pretty much completely surrounds the subject site. Planning Commission staff has reviewed the application and found no adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood. The rezoning will allow for enhanced utilization of the land consistent with the density anticipated under the r-10 future land use designation. The PD proposes a density of just over nine units per acre, which is consistent with the density anticipated under the residential 10 future land use designation. The comprehensive plan recognizes the importance of single-family neighborhoods seeking to promote compatible development of neighborhoods to ensure economic health and that an adequate amount of land is planned for the citys growing population. Given the single-family character of the surrounding area, Planning Commission staff concludes that the request will maintain the neighborhoods character and align well with the residential character along West Arch Street. If the rezoning is approved, the subject site has the potential to provide additional infill housing on underutilized parcel consistent with the plan. Based on those considerations, Planning Commission staff finds the request consistent with the comprehensive plan. And this concludes my presentation.
Alan Clendenin
1:46:53AM Council have any questions? Hearing none, next.
Christopher Demanche
1:47:08AM Christopher Demanche, Development Coordination. Before you is an aerial of the subject site. The subject site is outlined in red. IT is located on the north side of West Arch Street. Its located east of North Lincoln Avenue, and IT is located east of North Matanzas Avenue. The site is currently developed with a single-family detached dwelling unit. The Applicant proposes the creation of two lots for the construction of two single-family detached dwelling units. The immediate surrounding properties are comprised of single-family detached dwelling units, all zoned RS 50 to the north, south, east, and west. We have a site plan from The Applicant. Subject site is approximately 9,800 square feet in area. The Applicant is proposing, as I mentioned, two separate lots on each lot they are proposing a single-family detached dwelling unit. Each dwelling unit provides a two car garage with ingressegress along West Arch Street. Additionally, the front doors for each unit are oriented to West Arch Street. Next we have proposed elevations. These are for parcel a. There is a proposed height of 31 feet for these elevations. Next we have parcel b, proposed height here is 29 feet. There are no waivers with this application. I do have some photos to show. We have the subject site. North of the subject site. South. One additional photo for the south. East of the subject site. West. This is looking east on West Arch Street. And lastly looking West On Arch Street. Reviewed the application. We find the request consistent with the City Of Tampa land development regulations. Should IT be the pleasure of City Council to approve the application, further modification to the site plan must be completed between first and second readings of the ordinance as stated on the revision sheet. I am available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin
1:49:44AM Council have any questions? Hearing none, applicant? Fred Henry. Domain Homes, 3104 North Armenia Avenue, suite 2, Tampa, Florida, 33607. Ive been sworn. Great working with staff. They have been wonderful. Im here for any questions you May have. I appreciate your time and consideration.
1:50:09AM Hearing none, anybody in the public who wishes to speak to this item? Can I get a motion to close? Motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Councilman Miranda, do you want to read this one?
Charlie Miranda
1:50:24AM Item 8, rez 25-110, first reading consideration. An ordinance rezoning property in the general vicinity of 3219 West Arch Street in the City of Tampa, Florida, and more particularly described in section 1 from zoning district classification RS 50 residential, single-family, to PD, planned development, residential, single-family, detached, providing an effective date. Along with any other revision sheets.
Alan Clendenin
1:50:54AM Motion from Councilman Miranda. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT.
The Clerk
1:51:02AM Motion carried unanimously. Second reading and adoption will be held on February 5, 2026 at 10 am. At old city hall, located at 315 East Kennedy Boulevard, third floor, Tampa, Florida, 33602.
Alan Clendenin
1:51:17AM Were cooking now. I just want to say, where in the world did You come from to walk in at 2:00 in the morning? Are You here for tomorrow mornings meeting? [ laughter lets go.
Christopher Demanche
1:51:34AM For the record, Christopher Demanche, Development Coordination. Our next item is agenda item number 9. This is rez 25-111 request to rezone 802 and 804 East Floribraska Avenue and 3003 North Mitchell Avenue from RS 50 to commercial general. Ill turn IT over to Planning Commission staff. Our next case is rez 25-111. Located within the central Tampa planning district. The East Tampa urban village and the vm ybor neighborhood. Subject site is located within evacuation zone e. This portion of East Floribraska Avenue between North Nebraska Avenue and North Taliaferro Avenue includes a mixture of light commercial, single-family, and two family uses. Commercial uses are concentrated to the east along North Nebraska Avenue with some public, quasi-public uses to the northwest along North Taliaferro Avenue. Directly to the west is interstate 275. The subject site is located within the CMU 35 designation. You can see that to the northwest and northeast is the residential 20 designation. Planning Commission staff has reviewed the application and found no adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood. This rezoning will allow for enhanced utilization of the land consistent with the CMU 35 future land use designation. The comprehensive plan future land use category community mixed use 35 supports residential, retail, and service commercial development. Due to mixture of residential and light commercial Along Floribraska Avenue and North Nebraska Avenue, Planning Commission staff determined CG zoning district supports development both comparable and compatible to the surrounding area. If this rezoning is approved, the subject site has the potential to facilitate development of an underutilized parcel within the East Tampa urban village, consistent with the plan. Based on those considerations, Planning Commission staff find the request consistent with the comprehensive plan. That concludes my presentation.
Alan Clendenin
1:53:52AM Council have any questions for Planning Commission staff? Hearing none, next.
Christopher Demanche
1:53:58AM Development Coordination. Well start with an aerial of the subject site. Three parcels outlined in red. Subject on north side of East Floribraska Avenue, also located on the east side of North Mitchell Avenue. IT is located west of North Nebraska Avenue. Looking at the site overall, the site is undeveloped. To the north we have single-family detached dwellings zoned RS 50. To the east of subject site, commercial general zoning, along North Nebraska Avenue, south we have CG zoning comprised of single-family detached dwelling units. And we have CG zoning to the west on the west side of North Mitchell Avenue. We have multifamily dwelling units here. I did forget to mention that this property to the east of the subject site is a drive-through restaurant, checkers. Site is also located in the East Tampa overlay. Next, I have a survey. Subject site outlined in yellow. Approximately 118 Feet Of Street frontage along East Floribraska Avenue and 118 street frontage along North Mitchell Avenue. Given the surrounded uses, requested use of CG zoning is appropriate in location and does provide an appropriate transition with surrounding parcels. We do have photos of the subject site and surrounding areas. Start off first with a view of the subject property. This is the view from East Floribraska Avenue. We have an additional photo of the subject site. This is looking from North Mitchell Avenue, immediately north of the subject site, south of the subject site, looking across east floribraska. There is the checkers for the Chairman. To the east --
Alan Clendenin
1:56:09AM My car automatically drives Into That Drive-through. I try to stop IT, but IT overrides Me.
Christopher Demanche
1:56:18AM West of subject site we have the multiple family. This is across north mitchell looking at the multiple family site. This is looking north on north mitchell. South on north mitchell. And then, of course, this is southwest of the subject site. This site is zoned RM 24. I have one additional photo kind of showing the neighborhood back north of the subject site. This is northwest of the subject site itself. Since this is euclidean rezoning, there are no site plans or elevations to show you. And Development Coordination compliance staff has reviewed the application. We find IT consistent with the City Of Tampa land development regulations. Im available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin
1:57:02AM Any questions, hearing none. Next.
1:57:12AM Good morning. Im really out of practice being up this late. [ laughter Catherine Coyle, Boggs Engineering, 607 South Alexander Street, Plant City. I am here representing the property owner. Ill be as brief as possible because I know its late or early. Staff went through the comp plan and the future land use map. What I highlighted here, 13,924 square foot lot. Cc-35 -- sorry, CMU 35, that is an error on my thing. CMU 35 allows 30 units per acre and 1.0 Far. By standard, by right, not with any bonus or anything. And this is euclidean, CG. Thats nine units maximum on the site. Specifically in the CG, just as a reminder, if the applicant wanted to do residential in the future under CG, IT is still a special use one. Have to go and get administrative approval. Much like With The Drive-through next door, in order to do a drive-through restaurant, s-2, IT would come back before you anyway. And the CMU 35 allows the 1.0 Far. In this particular area is the standard rate. 13924 square feet. I did want to highlight the consistency matrix in the code. Section 27-21, this is actually in the code. What IT does IT tells you which zoning districts are actually consistent with which categories. Tells you what you can actually ask for. In the CMU 35, you can see that CG is consistent with the x and just for reference, there is a DOT here for RS 50, the current zoning district. When you read the actual footnote for that, IT discourages that zoning district in this category. Rezoning to this classification are discouraged. Its not that IT is incompatible, but its not one that is desirable essentially for CMU 35. The historical use of the site -- I promised her I would mention IT -- our old friend Gloria Moreda grew up in this building. This was her family homestead. She lived upstairs and there is a business down stairs. This building was built a long time ago. A very, very long time ago. IT was originally storefront residential is what we would call IT today. IT did have a fire and was torn down. This Is The Street view from 2021, Google Street view. IT was torn down by order, actually, in February 2022, about a year after this. The surrounding uses were mentioned, just to highlight, the buildings immediately next door to the west of those three apartment buildings, and there are actually four units in each, so there are 12 units on that site. The site is approximately just a hair bigger, 15,000 square feet, and the buildings combined are a little over 9300 square feet. There is one single-family home to the north. There are two down here. This one here, you have to go to the property appraiser records, this one is actually listed as a triplex with three units and actually has three mailboxes and Then The Drive-through next door. The pictures were shown, so I wont show them again. Just briefly, Euclidean District, obviously no site plan, obviously no waivers. Not asking for any special provisions. Not asking for any special allowances. No bonus provisions being requested. The site does lie within the East Tampa overlay, so the property will have to meet those enhanced standards as well. The historical use of the site was mixed use. Any future development must comply with the code and the East Tampa overlay. And we respectfully request your approval.
2:01:22AM Does Council have any questions? Hearing none, anybody in the public wishing to speak to this item? Yes, sir. Start with your name. I know what a journey its been. I live in the one house I guess that abuts the property. Been in my family through the years. First My Grandmother's house and now I live there with My Mother. We have seen the transition of the neighborhood. I remember when there were two houses immediately next door, which were since demolished and held by Developers. Its very hard to develop that land because those single-family homes are on sort of small plots, so we always knew IT would be a challenge given the type of development occurring in the neighborhood. Sure enough, I guess we call IT like a halfway house, the large building next to the Checkers was always quasi-commercial. The two, the residential lots that I cant sort of support rezoning those commercial and combining all of those properties into one big lot. Its quite a big piece of land. I feel like if you rezone all of that commercial, the potential type of development, without knowing what will go there, I think IT sort of opens up. I think the area needs more single-family homes. There is enough land there without those two lots to support a development. That apartment complex Across The Street has been there, I mean, My Aunt raised children in that apartment complex. Been at least 30 years. We just had a single-family home built Across The Street. So I think the compatibility, the height, without knowing what will be there, you can understand from my position, living right next door, were already dealing with a Checkers. Unfortunate to live next to Checkers. You can imagine our anxiety about another potential large commercial development. There are a lot of commercial properties on floribraska, abandoned, undeveloped. Big lot right on floribraska and Nebraska thats been for sale for years. Theres vacant storefronts. Plenty of commercial land thats not being developed. I dont see how this would be a spur for development when there are plenty of vacant empty lots being developed. The development that was just mentioned on heights, the Gentleman mentioned heights. Consulting with the neighbors. Again, no plans here. We heard zero from the owners of this land and no contact, and we live right next door. I think thats my time. Thank you.
2:04:15AM Thank you very much. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
2:04:18AM Well, that was actually going to be my question. Do you have any idea whats going to be here? Actually, no, not right now. What their intent I believe is, from my conversations with them is some small neighborhood serving use. I know He said assembling a large parcel, this actually by legal description is the original platted lot. Its lot two of that block, block three. Its really assembling the original lot that was platted. And as far as the size, this is just over what is actually allowed for CG. IT is 118 by 118. For a commercial property thats actually not very large. Once you put a building on there, although IT would allow 13,000 square feet, when you back in the parking, the parking alone just for nine spaces With The Drive aisle takes up 6,048 square feet alone. Adjacent to a single-family home, you are required to do a 15-foot buffer with SIX foot masonry wall. There will be a very large buffer in the back and masonry wall because theres no waiver requested. He has to meet code. Thats about all I can say. Its not going to be a drive-through. That market wouldnt Allow Two Drive-throughs in that particular area. Theres no intent for a drive-through from what I understand. The last thing I saw in discussing with him, He was looking at maybe a little, some type of little neighborhood restaurant is what He was looking at.
2:05:56AM I would recommend to make sure that if this passes, Either Way, make sure, get his contact information. We did have one phone call from the guy Across The Street with one of the houses in the middle that also had a fire. And he was happy to see IT come. That was the only call We got. Ill be happy to speak to him.
2:06:16AM Thats all I would request. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin
2:06:18AM Any other questions? Anybody else in the public to speak to the item? Motion to close from Maniscalco. Second from Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Ill speak to the gentleman that has the concern. The problem is we look at the land development codes and as that developing that property, kind of makes sense to go in this direction for that particular parcel. We do have enough safety measures built into the system, we get into -- special use permissions on this thing. Obviously she committed to talk to you about that as well. Maybe she can fill you in on the gaps. We have a motion and a second. Who wants to read this one? All those in favor to close, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT.
Guido Maniscalco
2:07:10AM Ordinance being presented for first reading consideration, an ordinance rezoning property in the general vicinity of 802 and 804 East Floribraska Avenue and 3003 North Mitchell Avenue in the City of Tampa, Florida, and more particularly described in section 1 from zoning district classification RS 50, residential, single-family, to CG, commercial general, providing an effective date. Was there a revision sheet with this one? No.
Alan Clendenin
2:07:36AM We have a motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Clerk.
The Clerk
2:07:44AM Motion carried unanimously. Second reading and adoption will be held on February 5th, 2026 at 10 am. At old city hall, located at 315 East Kennedy Boulevard, third floor, Tampa, Florida, 33602.
Alan Clendenin
2:08:02AM Thank you. 10.
Stephanie Pope
2:08:04AM Stephanie Pope, Development Coordination, agenda item number 10 is rez 25-117. Request to rezone 4202 West Spruce Street from RS 50 and PD to PD for residential, multifamily uses. Ill turn IT over to Planning Commission.
Danny Collins
2:08:27AM Danny Collins with the Planning Commission staff. I was sworn in. This rezoning is located within the Westshore planning district. IT is within the Westshore business center and the Carver City Lincoln gardens neighborhood. The subject site is in evacuation zone c. Here is an aerial map of the subject site and surrounding property. As you can see, southwest corner of West Spruce Street and North Lois Avenue. As you can see, this area is rather urban in character. There is a multifamily building here, which is five stories. This is a hotel here which I believe is five stories as well. We have a condominium -- we have condominiums to the north. There is immediate transition off the corridor to single-family to the south. Here is the adopted future land use map. The subject site is recognized under the rmu 100 designation. So this is the second-most intensive mixed use category in the city, second to the central business district. IT allows up to 100 dwelling units per acre, up to 3.5 Far. That is the predominant land use pattern along West Spruce Street and north lois, north of West Green Street. Directly to the south, we do have an immediate transition to the residential 10. The Planning Commission staff reviewed the request and found IT consistent with a number of policies in the comprehensive plan. The site is surrounded by a mix of office retail multifamily uses along West Spruce Street, all within the rmu 100 designation. To the south, the rmu 100 designation transitions to the r-10, which contains single-family homes to ensure sensitivity to these homes, the proposed multifamily building steps down from 7 stories along West Spruce Street to five stories along the southern facade. The height is comparable with the adjacent building to the west at 4210 West Spruce Street, which is five stories. And that was approved under rez 12-23. Additionally, a 35-foot setback along with the 6-foot concrete wall and a 15-foot landscape buffer is provided between the multifamily building and the single-family homes to the south. The comprehensive plan supports transitions in building heights within mixed use centers and corridors between high and low intensity areas. As this is an example of a transition that would be supported. The request supports comprehensive plan policies for height transitions and incorporates pedestrian oriented design through sidewalks. Sidewalks are along West Spruce Street and North Lois Avenue and walk-up units are provided. A proposed HART bus pad and shelter along North Lois Avenue will encourage future transit use, specifically within the Westshore business center. Finally, the request supports the citys planning and housing strategies by providing high density development in the Westshore business center which is supported by the plan. Based on those considerations, the Planning Commission staff finds the request consistent with the City Of Tampa comprehensive plan, and that concludes my presentation.
Lynn Hurtak
2:11:54AM Thank you very much. Ms. Pope.
Stephanie Pope
2:12:01AM Stephanie Pope, Development Coordination. Ill first provide a brief background. The subject property previously requested a rezoning perez 24-78 from residential single-family RS 50 and planned development to planned development to allow for the construction of 313 residential multifamily dwelling units. On April 10 of 2025, Tampa City Council denied the application with a roll call vote of 4-2. Rez 24-78 requested SIX waivers. On August 4, 2025, the Applicant filed a request with the Zoning Administrator for consideration to waive the 12 month requirement for the refiling of a rezoning application with submittal of a new site plan. Zoning Administrator reviewed the request and approved the waiver of the 12 month period for submittal of a new application for rezoning based upon the Applicant redesigning the project to comply with the land development code and removing all requests for any waivers. Now ill start with an aerial view of the subject site. You can see the subject site outlined here in red. That is on the southwest corner of west spruce and north lois. There is lois and spruce. The subject property is surrounded by multifamily and office to the north. Multifamily to the east and west and single-family detached homes to the south. And those are shown down here. As you can see, there are multiple pds in the area, and there are several large scale multifamily developments in the area as well. Next ill show you the site plan provided by the Applicant. The Applicant is requesting to develop the property with a single mid-rise multifamily development consisting of 345 dwelling units. The proposed massing transitions in height from north to south. And just to orient US, this is west spruce here, and this is lois. The proposed massing transitions in height from north to South Along Spruce Street, the building reaches a maximum height of 80 feet or seven stories while the southern portion that is adjacent to the single-family homes is set back 65 feet from the property line and limited to a maximum height of 50 feet or four stories. Ground floor walk-up units are proposed Along The Street frontages, here and here. Vehicular access to the structured garage is located on West Spruce Street. Two building entrances on west spruce and a building entrance On Lois Avenue with pedestrian connections from each entrance to the proposed eight foot sidewalks along West Spruce Street And Lois Avenue. A HART bus shelter is proposed on north lois, and then a small 400-foot public open space is proposed at the intersection Of Lois Avenue and West Spruce Street. The property is located within the Westshore overlay and has been reviewed for compliance. There are no waivers being requested to the overlay standards. Next ill show the elevations provided by the Applicant. This is the north elevation and the east elevation. This shows you that step down in height there. And then this is the south elevation and the west elevation which also shows you that step-down. In height. Next ill show you some photos of the site. This is looking east down west spruce Towards Lois Avenue. This is the corner of spruce and lois. Looking northeast at the intersection of lois and spruce. Looking south down lois and the site is where the concord sign is. This is looking north down lois towards spruce. This is looking at that property line right there at the west. Those single-family detached. And this is just another view there. This is looking northwest from lois. This is internal to the site, the western portion. This is looking northeast internal to the site. This is looking at the west end of the site, and then thats another picture of the site on the end. Development Coordination and compliance staff reviewed the application and find the request to be consistent with the land development code. There are no waivers as part of this request. If City Council approves the applications, the modifications to the site plan as shown on the submitted revision sheet must be completed between first and second reading. Im available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin
2:17:45AM Council have any questions? Hearing none, Applicant. Morning. Youve been able to sleep for the last SIX hours or so.
2:18:01AM We did people who came in that probably have not been sworn in. If you are planning on speaking in any case for the rest of the evening, please stand, raise your right hand, if you havent been sworn in already. [Oath administered] Alex Schaler, 400 North Ashley Drive. Stephanie kind of summarized this really well but I wanted to start out with a bit of a background. As Staff mentioned this rezoning was brought before you in April of last year. We did receive a denial, so We went back to the drawing board, sharpened our pencils. The feedback that We heard in that first reading that We had back in April is that this was a little bit too much. So We went back and kind of made some changes to the design. In that process, We were able to remove all SIX requested waivers, but, more importantly, I think We were able to make this even more compatible with the single-family residential to the south, which was talking point during the last hearing. Summary of the previously proposed waivers, We had a standard loading waiver. We had that bosque elm tree waiver thats prevalent in the overlay. We were removing a grand tree, and then We had some overlay and buffering waivers. This was the site plan associated with 24-78. This was the site plan that you all saw last time We were before you with this project. The red arrows are delineating prior arrows had. Loading berths. Grand tree By The Drive aisle, We were proposing to remove that. The biggest point are the next two. We were requesting a setback reduction adjacent to the single-family based on the building height. This has the ratios where you step back and set back for additional height. So We had a five story building before proposed there along that setback line. We were stepping down from seven to five. We were also proposing An Internal Drive aisle there just south of the building, which in full transparency We thought would serve as additional buffering from the building to the residents. But that was met with some opposition and point taken and there were concerns about some noise there. And that was also a waiver because that is something in the overlay that you cannot have vua less than 25 feet from residential. Moving on, ill switch back and forth between the plans to kind of show you. From a birds-eye view, the building looks relatively similar, but I think that the significance here is in the details, most notably being that building step-down. We are now proposing to go from seven stories down to four stories. Again, that was feedback that We received at the last hearing. On account of lowering the height there at that line, We are in full compliance with that setback. The code required setback based on the building height at four stories there is 100% compliant with code. Were preserving the grand tree that I mentioned before that was originally proposed for removal. Another point, this wasnt waiver related but in the prior plan, We had an access point off of Lois and also had an access point off spruce. IT continually came up traffic was a hot button with the neighborhood and there were specific concerns about that Lois access point being so far south of the site near the single-family residential homes. So both of the access points are now proposed along spruce. The one on the far left of the screen that is service only. Loading and trash. The other one I circled in green is the entrance and exit from the parking garage for the residents. We also shifted the pool and the courtyard area further away from the residences. That was just another design change that was made. This is a summary of the changes I discussed, again, highlighting the additional building step-down, no more setback reduction waivers. Another point that I wanted to note was that where We Removed That Drive aisle that was along the southern portion, We committed to replacing that with what were calling walkable widen greenspace. That will be a nice enhanced buffer there. Preserving the grand tree and already noted the pool relocation. I wanted to note other project highlights. This information hasnt changed but some of its been carried on through the original design. Danny mentioned this but I wanted to hit on the point again. This parcel is designated Rmu 100 which you all know is the densest future land use category outside of the CBD. Theres obviously some inherent compatibility concerns with the immediate adjacency to r-10. Thats why We believe that this design is compatible with the constraints that weve provided on the site plan. Were proposing a 2.69 Far. We are below the 3.0 Non-bonus ceiling in Rmu 100. We are providing activated streetscapes in accordance with Westshore overlay code. Eight foot sidewalks on spruce and Lois. Providing walk up units Along Spruce Street as well. I distributed at the beginning of the hearing some support letters from the Westshore Alliance. Were happy to have their support on this version of the plan. That speaks to some of the changes that We made as well as, like I said, compliance with the overlay code. We are proposing type one trees along the southern boundary. That was something We committed to in the prior rezoning, carrying that through here. Those would be the largest type one shade trees there for additional buffering. This was mentioned as well in Staff summary, but We are providing a HART bus stop and shelter located along Lois and there are direct sidewalk connections from the building and building entrances to Lois to access that as well. This was fully consistent from staffs review. With that, ill conclude the presentation. But im happy to answer any questions.
2:24:00AM Council have any questions? Hearing none, is there anybody in the public that wishes to speak to this item? Yes, sir. If you would line up on the wall. You start with your name and you have three minutes. Go ahead. Good morning. My name is Ari Ravi. Thank you for letting me speak today. Born and raised in the Tampa area and worked in Westshore for the better part of a decade. Big part of my job is hiring, training, and developing young or new people into the industry im in. Westshore has been great. Largest business district there is, but I do think this would be a benefit to the area because there is a lack of housing. A lot of the people I hire and train are young. They live in apartment buildings. Team members Have To Drive anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes every day. So having more options, especially for young people in communities like this would be beneficial. My one team member that did live in Westshore, his lease came up. Couldnt Find Another Place to live in Westshore. Had to move and now hes like 25 minutes away. I think having more residential like this here will allow and give opportunities to young people or new people in the area working in Westshore. Walkability as opposed to driving every day. Its live, work, play, which having been born and raised here, seeing the evolution has been great. I hope you guys support IT and pass IT because I think there are a lot of benefits.
2:25:40AM Thank you. Next speaker, please. Start with your name. Appreciate your time. Nathan Timmons. I want to come here today and speak on behalf in support of this. Five years ago, much like a lot of other people, I moved to the Tampa Bay area. Graduated college as young professional. I was excited to move down here. The professional office space, the two main places you would be able to work out of, either downtown here or the Westshore business district, so my initial job was in downtown. One thing that I really enjoyed about that was the ability for that live, work, play aspect, being able to work, walk around, go to lightning games. As someone who had never really been to Tampa, IT was a Great Way to really get enriched in the culture of what Tampa had to offer. And dont think if I didnt have that ability to live, work, and play, I would have been able to get acclimated as quickly. Couple of years went by, joined a new firm and ended in the Westshore business district which I also enjoy and love. Obviously, different aspects to that. Trying to find a place to live nearby my office in the Westshore business district was very difficult. Fortunately, about a year and a half ago, found a place that I was renting from, and then at the end of last year, similar to the previous gentleman that spoke, my lease came due and unable to renew. Looked and looked trying to find a place to live. Unfortunately couldnt. Ended up having to move away. Now My Drive is about 20, 25 minutes in. Not the end of the world. Being downtown, ability to walk around and tight culture of 10, 15 minute walk of where I live including where I was working. I know 20, 25 minutes isnt too bad, but I also have other people in my office that are making 45 minutes to An Hour Drive. I know if they had the opportunity, they would like the ability to live closer to the Westshore business district and continue working. Not only speaking on behalf of myself, colleagues, but important for young professionals moving to the city and professionals in general that want to dive in and become acclimated to Tampa and feel like they grew up here like I have. Appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
2:28:01AM Thank you very much. Next speaker. Good morning. My name is Christopher forward. I am a Tampa native and also a recent graduate of Morehouse College in atlanta, Georgia. After completing my studies in May of 2025, I made the intentional decision to move back here to Tampa, Florida, which is my home. Moving back I faced a lot of challenges within the job market being scarce, but also living being scarce as well. This transition however has not been easy. While I am grateful that I was able to move back home with my parents, I understand that a lot of people May not have that luxury and opportunity. I support the Spruce Apartments on 4202 West Spruce Street because IT offers meaningful relief for young professionals like myself. The proposed location further strengths the value of this development with direct access to employment opportunities, transportation, and major destinations, this site offers an ideal balance of convenience and connectivity. Expanding housing availability in a strategically located area like Westshore supports responsible growth and helps ease the pressures created by tampas ongoing housing challenges. Thank you for your time, your thoughtful consideration, and your continued commitment to responsible community centered developments across the city. I respectfully urge you to approve this development, recognizing the positive and lasting impacts IT May have on individuals trying to build their life and legacy here in the City Of Tampa. Thank you so much.
2:29:34AM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. My name is Melody Valberg. I live in Ybor City in Tampa. Im here to express my support for the proposed residential development at 4202 West Spruce Street. Tampa is experiencing real and growing pressure on the housing supply, projects that meaningfully increase housing availability and affordability, play an important role in keeping the city livable, accessible, and economically resilient. I moved to Tampa in 2021 to pursue my degree. During my first month, I decided Tampa is where I wanted to build my life postgrad and when I graduated in December of 2024, my mind hadnt changed. At the time I was finishing my lease in my half bedroom apartment, working at a coffee shop, completing freelance art and graphic design projects, and living paycheck to paycheck while trying to secure my first career-related job and figure out where I could afford to live next. 2025 brought one of the most challenging job markets in recent years with job seekers outnumbering available positions. I had to search for housing with very limited income in mind, fully supporting myself without financial help from my parents. I did not meet income requirements for most apartments, which left my options very -- or extremely limited. I checked Zillow daily trying to find something affordable in a walkable area since I do not have a car. After seeing how expensive walkable apartments were and how far away affordable ones tended to be, I began to lose hope. At this moment, had I to prepare for the possibility of moving back to my small, economically depressed hometown in upstate New York. I knew in my heart that Tampa is where I was meant to be, and I did not want to allow myself to return to an environment where I was likely to regress. That motivated Me to keep trying. I eventually toured an apartment in east ybor and shown a newly listed unit in west ybor. That better fit my needs and budget. I consider myself lucky because affordable housing in Tampa is scarce as is the case in many large cities. A month after moving in, I landed my dream job as Graphic Designer and my financial situation began to improve. I share this story because there are many others in similar positions. Recent Graduates and working individuals who are trying to build their lives without financial backing from their families. Tampas economy is only continuing to grow, if we want to support this growth, we need to expand the number of housing options available for people who are willing to contribute. The Spruce Street apartments represent an important --
2:32:29AM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Madison Baptiste. I know its been a long night. Do my best to keep this brief. Ive also lived in Tampa since 2020 when I started at the University of Tampa. And like everyone else here, I immediately fell in love with IT, and I knew I wanted to Make This Place a home. But as someone just a couple of years into my career, im finding IT harder and harder to picture a future here as prices continue to increase with the lack of availability to live. Ive even had many of my peers and best friends have to make the difficult decision to leave Tampa to go back with family in other states and find jobs that are able to support a better career. Thats why I support this rezoning, by increasing the housing supply is one of the most effective ways to make a living here more affordable and keeping young professionals like myself from being pushed out, especially as this Westshore district begins to evolve and bring in more young professionals like myself and those behind me. Approving this rezoning helps ensure Tampa remains a place that students want to continue to come here and stay here to help the economy continue to grow and blossom into the beautiful city that IT is today. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.
2:33:58AM Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is Grant Chungo. I am going to go kind of right after what Maddie said but further later in life. Im now in my young 30s. IT presents a different challenge. Im still looking for that affordable housing as student loans, as you make a little bit more money, as you get further into your career, the student loans keep increasing. The payment plan increases. So my standard of living is still pretty much the same. Im still looking for that affordable housing to get that affordable housing, of course, we need more apartments in the market. So ill keep IT brief. Im just saying even out of college into your 30s, im between that family stage versus college stage but im still looking for those affordable housing options. Thats why I am in support of Our Spruce Street project. Thank you.
2:34:53AM Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Addio Bandwell. When I was downstairs, I met a nice family that do live in Carver City. IT is Carver City, not Westshore estates. IT is a historical neighborhood in Tampa. I met a very nice family down stairs. They couldnt make IT -- I think the gentleman -- one had to go to work. They had some concerns. I stayed so late, only right I get up and express some of those. We didnt talk about the development. They obviously were in opposition of IT, but they had strong feelings about the direction of development in Carver City. They had concerns they wanted to raise. I would encourage -- I dont know about the development issues in Carver City, but I would encourage continued community outreach because I dont think all the voices are represented here today. So I would encourage the Developers and the Council to continue to outreach with the community in Carver City because I think there are still concerns.
2:36:00AM Thank you very much. Next speaker. Ana Lilaina. Unfortunately, the elderly residents of the neighborhood had to leave because of the timing. None of those people disclosed their affiliation with the project. Just a side note. I am an actual resident in the neighborhood. My property is adjacent to the site project. And while I do appreciate some of the aspects of the redesign, my familys primary concerns remain unresolved, specifically with respect to the overall building height, traffic impacts, sinkhole risks, overcrowding density, safety and overall quality of life, the residents, the single-families actually living there. This map over here is showing more of the surrounding area. And here outlined are every single multifamily units over here In The Circle is a story, is the height of the building. Only one that is adjacent to the single-family units over here on The Main Street -- im sorry. This is the one. This is no -- lois. IT is only five stories. Very little of IT as you can see over here is adjacent to single-family. So only novus is adjacent to single-family and only a few of the houses. This property over here encompasses I believe about a dozen of the single-family lots. And the sister site of this project over here was approved for seven stories. Its not adjacent to single-family, but other than that, as you can see, all the other buildings in the area, except met west is eight stories. All the other ones are shorter than that. I pulled up apartmentscom Records. Theres plenty of green marks in the area for available apartments. From apartmentscom. Plenty of available apartments. Given that Metwest is going to be about 400 units, 475, the sister site I believe, and they can correct me, 410 units. This area is overcrowded. Overcrowded to the upper limits. Residents can barely start moving the traffic on lois and spruce. I would really like to point out attention of the City Council members, as you did discuss a little bit of that last time, this site over here, partial in county and city ownership. This was the waste facility, and theres some redevelopment coming up. And I would really like for the council members to take into account the overall tendency in this area because theres no room for US to live. And we feel like were being pushed out.
2:39:23AM Thank You very much. Anybody else in the public that wishes to speak to this item? Applicant, would You like a rebuttal? This is rmu 100 site as We talked about. Smack in the middle of Westshore. Not in the coastal high hazard area. Where, according to the comprehensive plan that We had really extended conversations yesterday. The plan was very deliberately designed for this to be a high density area. I think when You have rmu 100 right next to a single-family neighborhood, thats going to always present challenges when You have the two colors in The Different Way. My Client spent an enormous amount of time to try to get this to follow every single rule. I know often waivers are not popular because they are seen by -- as developers trying to get more here and there. Its not always that. There are dimensional constraints. Tradeoffs, reasons why You just cant have a zero waiver site plan. The fact that this achieved that is a small miracle. IT is extremely difficult to comply with the land development code, particularly when You also have an overlay. I dont normally do this, but I would remind Council that this is a quasi-judicial hearing. So We are sort in the world of substantial and competent evidence. And I would submit to You, courts have found that government staff reports do constitute that competent, substantial evidence and that the record has the competent substantial evidence to support a finding of approval. The concerns raised are very valid. Since You are in the middle of rewriting the comprehensive plan, I think theres work to be done about how these r-10, rmu 100, the bookend transition areas are handled, but respectfully, this particular hearing on this particular piece of land isnt really the time for that broader discussion. We worked hard to get this to be a clean site plan, no waivers, full consistency and We respectfully ask that You approve IT this evening -- morning. Thank You.
2:41:30AM Okay. Very good. Hearing nothing else, can I get a motion to close? Oh, Staff. Ms. Pope.
Stephanie Pope
2:41:45AM Stephanie Pope, Development Coordination. We spoke with the applicant here. And in order to ensure that the development will stick to the height that they have said the Step-Downs prepared, well work with legal on a note to be added to the site plan that ensures that those heights are what they have put on the site plan. So there will be a note added.
Lynn Hurtak
2:42:17AM What youre saying is no amendment to the height. Okay.
Stephanie Pope
2:42:25AM Weve had this note before on other plans. IT essentially says We have basically five feet of wiggle room and thats for architectural elements only. We cant go and file a change to increase IT without coming back.
Alan Clendenin
2:42:38AM Anything else?
Martin Shelby
2:42:40AM Ms. Pope, does that get added to the revision sheet between first and second reading? If that could be part of the motion.
Alan Clendenin
2:42:49AM Motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Councilwoman Hurtak. Councilwoman Young, would you like to read this one? Councilman Viera.
Luis Viera
2:43:10AM Ordinance presented for first reading consideration, ordinance rezoning property in the general vicinity of 4202 West Spruce Street, City Of Tampa Florida, and more particularly described in section 1 from zoning district classification RS 50 residential, single-family, PD planned development to PD planned development, residential, multifamily, providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin
2:43:34AM With the revision sheet.
Luis Viera
2:43:36AM Yes.
Alan Clendenin
2:43:36AM Motion from Councilman Viera, second from Councilman --
Lynn Hurtak
2:43:41AM And the note on the site plan. About no changes to the height.
Alan Clendenin
2:43:46AM With a note on the site plan about no changes to the height. We have a motion and We have a second. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
2:43:54AM I just want to speak to the residents somewhat that are concerned about this. The first one was definitely concerning. The second one, They have updated with what We asked them to do. They came back with no waivers. I hear your concern about traffic and density, but this plot of land has the ability to be that dense. IT is a concern and hopefully We can work on those matches between single-family residential and multifamily. But this fits what We want IT to fit.
Luis Viera
2:44:42AM I know its late. Im glad you said that, Councilwoman Hurtak, because I know all of Council is very sensitive to this area. I think the message is this is as good as IT gets here within what is permissible under the law. Im tired. But we are very, very sensitive to some of the challenges in this area. I would be remiss when we talk about Carver City and Lincoln gardens, mention our late colleague Gwen Henderson who is watching right now. Thank you.
Charlie Miranda
2:45:14AM When you look at not Only That Road, but spruce in the beginning where IT meets with Dale Mabry and you have the entrance and exit to Home Depot, also a disaster when you want to get in and out. You just cant. The whole neighborhood is backed up, not because of you, just because of the popularity of the area. Homes are available everywhere and need more affordable housing all over the City Of Tampa, not only in your neighborhood. The last time I talked to the people who know what they were doing, planning on moving ingress and egress from Home Depot further in so more area to move out, to not bother the traffic. Thats what they told US anyway. Congratulations. You have a great neighborhood. You have a big problem in traffic. Guess what, everywhere I live and my friends live, we have the same problem you have. I live near the stadium. You cant get in and out for hour and a half before and hour and a half after. Im telling you what IT is. IT hopefully gets better. IT will take some time before we can fix the problem.
Alan Clendenin
2:46:22AM We have a motion and We have a second for approval with the site plan notation of height restriction plus five feet for architectural features. And the revision sheet. All those in favor say Aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Thank you.
The Clerk
2:46:43AM Motion carried unanimously. Second reading and adoption will be held on February 5, 2026 at 10 am. At old city hall located at 315 East Kennedy Boulevard, third floor, Tampa, Florida, 33602.
Alan Clendenin
2:46:58AM Thank you, last but not least, number 11.
LaChone Dock
2:47:02AM LaChone Dock Development Coordination. Final item of the evening -- of the morning is rez 25-127. This is for properties located On Hillsborough Avenue and on 22nd street. This is a request to rezone the property from PD, planned development, which currently allows for residential multifamily, personal services, retail sales, specialty goods and business professional office to PD. This would add the uses of retail sales shoppers and convenience goods, personal services and restaurant to those existing uses. Ill turn IT to the Planning Commission and come back and give my report.
Danny Collins
2:47:42AM Danny Collins, Planning Commission staff. I was sworn in. Our last rezoning is located in the central Tampa planning district and East Tampa urban village. IT is in evacuation zone e. Here is an aerial of the subject site and surrounding properties. Youll see IT is located Along Hillsborough Avenue, so you have a mixture of uses. There are some residential uses, especially to the northwest of the subject site. Subject site is designated as community commercial 35, and that subject site is predominantly found along this portion Of Hillsborough Avenue and this portion of north 22nd street. R-10 directly to the northwest of the subject site. As Lachone mentioned, this is a previously approved PD and their request is to allow more expansive list of permitted uses on the site. Which were not included in the original PD. The comprehensive plan policies that were found previously in support of rezoning 22-113 remain applicable. These include policies related to the allowable density and intensity, housing, pedestrian connectivity and just development along mixed use centers and corridors and development within urban villages. The proposed rezoning does not alter the surrounding development pattern and site plan continues to support these policies. Additionally, the expanded list of allowable uses shown on the site plan is consistent with the zoning districts that can be considered within the cc-35 designation. And overall aligns with the comprehensive plan policies related to planned developments. Based on the above considerations, Planning Commission staff finds the request consistent with the City Of Tampa comprehensive plan. That concludes my presentation.
Alan Clendenin
2:49:44AM Thank you. Any questions for Planning Commission? Hearing none.
LaChone Dock
2:49:50AM LaChone Dock, Development Coordination. This request, this May look familiar to you. This PD, as I mentioned earlier, IT was approved in 2022. So this is the property thats outlined in red. This is 22nd street. This Is Hillsborough Avenue. North of the subject site you see the pda zoning. This is the old gracepoint which is now ibis that development. Erwin Tech. To the south, CI zoning Along Hillsborough Avenue, and then to the east is CI zoning and thats residential multifamily. So the site plan for the site, nothing is changed. The site is developed. So elevations were submitted, but im going to show you site photos because IT is built. The residential buildings are built, but the site, this is the site. Proposes access on 22nd street, that is the main entrance. Total of 354 residential multifamily units. There is a commercial component and that is located here along the south. This Is Hillsborough Avenue. So the request before you is to add the additional, the allowance of those additional uses I mentioned within this area where the 10,000 square foot of commercial is located. So these are the residential buildings that are here. When you enter the site, the amenity center is located here. And then If You Drive to this end of the site from the internal portion, you will reach the commercial thats here. This is under construction, so I have the photos to show IT. Like I said, the residential buildings are constructed. You can see the commercial also has activated the space to the South Along Hillsborough Avenue. And you can also enter the site from hillsborough in addition. Last rezoning, Applicant did commit to providing affordable units within the development, and that still carries over. Nothing changed as far as the setbacks. Only the placement of the Solid Waste near the commercial, and then the uses in the commercial building. This is the main entrance to the site on 22nd avenue, if looking east. This shows you the amenity center near the rear of the site, other end of the site. This is when you are heading towards the commercial, Towards Hillsborough Avenue, if you are internal to the site and this is the commercial building under construction. This is another view of that commercial building. This is the view from hillsborough, the south end of that building. Now, this is surrounding uses, so this is the commercial at the northeast corner of 22nd and hillsborough. Commercial Across The Street, of course. The strip center. This is the residential multifamily thats east. And then we swing back around north, this is the ibis development. Drc Staff -- I apologize. There are three new waivers requested with this request. One is to 27-228, request to reduce the depth of the commercial dumpster enclosure from 10 feet to 9-point 4 feet. The other is for 27-283.7, Thats reducing the parking spaces for commercial use from 85 to 40. The last request is from 27-284 and thats to reduce the use landscape buffer on the east from the 15-foot with 6-foot masonry requirement with 10-foot with 6-foot pvc fence. This is for the dumpster enclosure and the dumpster area. Drc reviewed the request and finds IT inconsistent and that is relating to transportations finding with the parking waiver requested. Site plan changes to be made between first and second reading. Im available if you have any questions.
Alan Clendenin
2:53:49AM Council have questions? Hearing none, Applicant. Kami Corbett with the law firm of Hill Ward Henderson representing the Applicant. This project is known as the marquee. IT is 100% affordable housing. As you May remember, when we came in for the commercial, Richman is relocating their property management group office to that building and thats going to occupy about 5,000 square feet. At the time of the rezoning, we were talking about business owners that were within the uses that we were requesting, so there was no need to ask for additional parking waiver. Those did not materialize and weve had a lot of interest from retail, doughnut shop, kind of restaurants, neighborhood serving commercial, which is actually something the residents wanted when IT was originally coming through. So we are going ahead and asking for those uses. That is the reason for the parking waiver. This is in an area where I think a parking waiver is appropriate. IT is served by transit along 22nd. There are sidewalks connecting to a lot of the businesses, including the ibis health care. I live about two miles north on 22nd, and I see people biking and walking in this area all the time. So I think its one where people will not use their cars to get to these locations. Again, multifamily units that are there on the back and those people will be walking to get to those uses as well. With that, im here to answer any questions and respectfully request your approval this evening. And thank you very much for being here at this hour.
2:55:22AM Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
2:55:25AM When I looked at the site plan, I could have sworn there was a Dog Park before. What happened to the Dog Park? I would be happy to find that answer for you between first and second reading.
LaChone Dock
2:55:45AM Let me take a look.
Lynn Hurtak
2:55:50AM For some reason I thought IT was in the southern part by the Business. I remember that being a neat amenity because you dont generally see that in 100% affordable housing.
2:56:16AM I really want to make sure that hasnt changed. Because I do think that is an amenity people want.
LaChone Dock
2:56:25AM Development Coordination. So I believe IT was in this area. I think IT was here. What we can do is add the label between first and second reading.
Lynn Hurtak
2:56:37AM That is a change I would like to make sure that I see IT is still there. Again, that was --
Alan Clendenin
2:56:45AM I would just like to have you address the audacity of coming before this Council and asking for reduction in the dumpster from 10 to 9.84. [ laughter
2:57:01AM Little bit of levity at 2:58 am.
2:57:11AM Any other questions for the applicant? Hearing none, anybody in the audience that wishes to speak to this item? We have a motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. A second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Councilman Carlson, would you read this one?
Bill Carlson
2:57:32AM Move number 11, file rez 25-127, ordinance being presented for first reading consideration, an ordinance rezoning property in the general vicinity of 5501, 5511, 5531, 5551, 5561, units 101-319, 5571 units 101-328, 5521 and 5541 north 22nd street and 2302 and 2236 East Hillsborough Avenue in the City of Tampa, Florida, and more particularly described in section 1 from zoning district classification PD, planned development, to PD, planned development, residential, multifamily, retail sales, specialty, convenience, shoppers goods, personal services, business professional office and restaurant, providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin
2:58:24AM We have a motion from Councilman Carlson. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. Including the notation on the dog park. Anything else? And a revision sheet. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? The ayes have IT. That --
The Clerk
2:58:42AM Motion carried unanimously. Second reading and adoption will be held on February 5, 2026 at 10 am. At old city hall located at 315 East Kennedy Boulevard, third floor, Tampa, Florida, 33602.
Alan Clendenin
2:58:57AM That concludes our regularly scheduled program. Staff, thank you so much for sticking with US to 3 am. We appreciate IT. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Lynn Hurtak
2:59:05AM I did want to say, I said IT privately but I wanted to say how impressed I was with Staff tonight and just how great. I really appreciate adding the waivers. Its really nice. I just want to say you all were super well prepared. Thank you so much.
LaChone Dock
2:59:22AM Thank you, Council. Thank you. We appreciate IT.
Alan Clendenin
2:59:24AM Tough night. Good morning. That concludes our regular business.
Bill Carlson
2:59:29AM Thank you to the Av People and all the people who cant be seen.
Alan Clendenin
2:59:33AM And Security. Thank you for Security for today. We appreciate that as well. And our clerk everybody but our attorney. [ laughter New Business, Councilman Carlson. Councilman Viera?
Luis Viera
2:59:52AM If I May, just two quick ones. We had talked about doing a veterans advisory citizens board for the City Of Tampa. Ive been in talks with Staff on IT. I think The Best Way forward is to do an ordinance. I move for Staff -- or legal Staff to come back March 5 for an ordinance for a City Of Tampa Committee on Veterans Affairs to be formed, if they need more time, fine.
Alan Clendenin
3:00:20AM Motion from Councilman Viera. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT.
Luis Viera
3:00:26AM Also on same day, March 5, Staff to report back on $100,000 council allocation to the Portico Housing solutions from housing funds written report just on the status of that.
Alan Clendenin
3:00:37AM Motion for written report from Councilman Viera. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All in favor, aye. Ayes have IT. Councilwoman Young, any new business?
Naya Young
3:00:48AM Yes. Recently weve had some community concerns that have come up regarding some stores in the area that have some items on display, the community has addressed they have some concerns with. Already been working with our Legal Department and Administration to figure out what we could possibly do. I move to request the Administration to work with the Legal Department to explore options to address community concerns about sex paraphernalia being displayed where children can readily see and access IT in retail markets in East Tampa and return in person with a recommendation to City Council on February 19, 2026 under staff reports and new business. Originally, I had a February 5 date, but once looking at the agenda, IT was already full, so we had to move IT to the 19th. This has been something -- its been a concern, and ive gone myself to just kind of see whats happening. Ultimately, we want to have a place that our kids and families can go into. So we just want to kind of explore and see what we can do as a city to kind of fix IT.
Alan Clendenin
3:02:09AM Motion from Councilwoman Young. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. Motion from Councilwoman Young and second from Councilman Maniscalco. Ayes had IT. Thank you.
Naya Young
3:02:24AM Thats IT.
Alan Clendenin
3:02:25AM Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak
3:02:26AM Yes. I motion that the February 5th land development code reform update by Abbye Feeley, administrator for development and economic opportunity be moved to February 19 and to be provided as a written staff report.
Alan Clendenin
3:02:45AM We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT.
Lynn Hurtak
3:02:51AM In lieu of Abbye Feeley's monthly update on the land development code, Clarion be requested to present at the next monthly report scheduled for March 5, 2026, under commendations andor presentations. IT says 30 minutes. I dont know if that -- I think the idea was IT was supposed to be a specific time. If I can get this to pass, I will find out. Yeah, we have time to fix IT.
Alan Clendenin
3:03:29AM Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT.
Lynn Hurtak
3:03:35AM And because I was able to move the February 5th code reform update, I move to schedule a City Council discussion about the FY '25 budget surplus for February 5, 2026 at the regular meeting under staff reports and unfinished business.
Alan Clendenin
3:03:52AM We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Viera. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT.
Lynn Hurtak
3:03:59AM We found out what money is left, and We need to talk about IT.
Alan Clendenin
3:04:04AM Remember, im not going to be here. You will be chair during that meeting.
Lynn Hurtak
3:04:07AM Yes, theres not much left but We still have a whole list. We will take up your list as well.
Martin Shelby
3:04:14AM If I can, Mr. Chairman. Just when you give thought to the clarion presentation, just know if IT is under commendations and presentations, 30 minutes pushes your public comment back.
Alan Clendenin
3:04:25AM Shes going to fix that. She took the iou to fix that. Noted that we had concerns. Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco
3:04:35AM Good night.
Alan Clendenin
3:04:36AM Councilman Miranda?
Charlie Miranda
3:04:40AM I apologize. I believe I have something. The contest they have, oratorical. I dont know what ive done with IT. Ill give you the date next week. Sometime in March.
Alan Clendenin
3:04:56AM Well look forward to the new business at the next meeting. Very good. I do not have any new business. I wish you all a good morning, Friday morning. Going to the waffle house? Motion to receive and file from Councilman Maniscalco. A second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have IT. [ sounding gavel disclaimer: this file represents an unedited version of realtime captioning which should neither be relied upon for complete accuracy nor used as a verbatim transcript. Any person who needs a verbatim transcript of the proceedings May need to hire a court reporter. © - City Of Tampa (813) 274-8211