Naples City Council sends Four Seasons porte cochere plan back to city manager to decide

The fate of a proposed porte cochere at the Four Seasons' Naples Beach Club is back in the hands of City Manager Jay Boodheshwar after City Council couldn't agree on what to do.

For the third time in as many months, Naples City Council heard proposals from Beach Club architect Hart Howerton for creating a covered shelter for entering and exiting the five-star hotel. The 216-room hotel is under construction by The Athens Group on Gulf Shore Boulevard where the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club stood for 70 years.

The problem, aside from the fear of the structure being an eyesore to the residential neighborhood, is the encroachment on setbacks – minimum distances required around a building set forth in the city's Land Use Ordinance. Another issue is how to make sure that a five-star hotel that will attract many people to Naples can take care of its guests properly.

Naples Code says city manager may decide

Under Naples code, the city manager can make a decision about a porte cochere, but Boodheshwar, who started with Naples in May 2022 – years after discussions about the hotel construction began – asked City Council to make the decision or give him guidance.

During a special city council meeting Thursday, Hart Howerton, represented by partner Tim McCarthy, surprised council members with a fourth proposal that combined one presented in October and another one presented Thursday. City Council rejected one proposal after another since October and asked for smaller porte cochere designs each time.

A fourth combination proposal

Thursday's first proposal was for a small one-car porte cochere with a shorter roof than the one-car covering presented to City Council in December. “While we do not feel it will suffice, we offer it openly in response to your request,” McCarthy said. He called the latest one-car porte cochere design "functionally inept" and said "the development and design team does not in any way endorse it."

His fourth idea was a two-car coverage but with the shorter, flatter roof of the one-car proposal presented Thursday.Four Seasons, which signed on to operate the hotel in 2021, wanted a three-car porte cochere. McCarthy said they should ask for a two-car covering, which is what Hart Howerton presented in October.

While council members mostly agreed that Four Seasons should have an appropriate porte cochere for the stateliness of the hotel, they couldn't agree on whether they should allow setback encroachment and, if so, by how much.

City Council members heard presentations, testimony and comments from the architects, the builders, the Four Seasons regional vice president and neighbors, many of whom expressed support for a two-lane porte cochere. They also had a letter of support for a porte cochere from the chairman of the Naples Planning Advisory Board.

"It is absolutely expected that if you come to a resort and get out and it's raining that you don't get wet," Thomas Steinhauer of Four Seasons told the council. He asked the council to approve a two-lane porte cochere.

"We are the operators who have to deal with this forever," Steinhauer said.

"You should have had a two- or three-car pc, " said Vice Mayor Terry Hutchison. "You do not feel the pc to suffice, and I get that. It is so disappointing. … I’ve said we have the right people operating and developing that project. And I still believe that."

Three motions were made to give the city manager authorization to approve specific porte cochere proposals. Two were voted down. The third died for lack of a second. Mayor Teresa Heitmann tried to abstain on the first vote and was told by the city attorney she had to vote yes or no. Since the council couldn't decide, the decision falls to the city manager.

Boodheshwar didn't immediately respond to an email asking when he would make a decision.

Laura Layden contributed to this story.

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This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Naples Four Seasons Resort, former Beach Club, wants porte cochere