Pinellas commissioners approve John’s Pass Village density increase
Pinellas County commissioners on Tuesday approved a designation that formally allows higher-density development in John’s Pass Village, one of the county’s biggest tourist draws.
The plan calls for 27 acres at John’s Pass — styled as a quaint fishing village, with souvenir shops, restaurants and charter boats — to become an activity center, an area where the county allows higher density and intensity than usual.
The activity center designation still has to get a final vote of approval from the city of Madeira Beach, which has been working for years to rectify a discrepancy between its land-use rules and the county’s. The conflict, which began when the barrier island city changed its growth plan in 2008, has meant that many of the tightly packed multistory buildings that characterize the village couldn’t be rebuilt in the event of a disaster such as a fire or hurricane.
City officials and Forward Pinellas, the county’s land-use and transportation planning agency, have said designating it as an activity center would allow the city to come in line with county standards while maintaining the village’s character. But critics have argued that the change is also a gift to developers, who they fear will take advantage of the new standards to blanket the area with high-rise hotels.
Among those critics Tuesday was County Commissioner Janet Long, the lone dissenting vote in the commission’s 6-1 approval of the activity center. Given the village’s location on a barrier island and the threat it faces from storms, she said, she couldn’t condone the measure.
“These folks on the barrier islands are some of the most vulnerable in our entire county, and I would not vote for anything that increases the density to the extent that we’ve got here,” she said. “I think it’s dangerous.”
Commissioner Dave Eggers countered that the city would have to handle granular local planning measures in the future, and that the county now had an opportunity to make sure the two would be on the same page.
“I would suggest that a lot of the efforts, on redevelopment of any kind, are going to be in the hands of the city on land use and zoning, and I would suggest that those residents continue to let their elected officials know what they want to accept,” he said. “I think what we’re doing is providing an opportunity to rebuild if there’s a problem.”
If Madeira Beach gives its final approval, the village will become a “neighborhood” center — the lowest of the county’s four activity-center levels, on par with downtown Palm Harbor. Madeira Beach originally pursued it as a “community” center, the second-lowest level, but reduced it at Forward Pinellas’ recommendation.
Rodney Chatman, the planning division manager at Forward Pinellas, noted in Tuesday’s meeting that, based on proposed standards within the activity center, the average density in the village would be well below the maximum allowed by the activity center, and would be close to what the city’s comprehensive plan already allows.
“What the city is requesting is much, much less than the maximums that we have set in the rules,” he said.
