Sarasota County Commission set to revisit controversial Siesta Key hotel proposals

The Sarasota County Commission is expected to discuss three developers' proposals that could pave the way for major Siesta Key hotels at its next board meeting on Nov. 28.

The proposals come just one month after the County Commission directed the county staff to drop a legal appeal and rescind a controversial change to the county's development code that removed a cap on hotel density throughout the county with the approval of a 170-room hotel in Siesta Key Village in 2021.

At a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Sarasota County's attorneys argued for about two years across multiple fronts involving thousands of pages of court documents that removing the density limits from room calculations for hotel developments did not violate a growth policy that prohibited the intensification of growth on Sarasota County's barrier islands.

Before the approval of two hotel projects in 2021, the maximum allowed hotel development under county rules was 26 units per acre. The 170-room hotel the commission approved in 2021 was on 0.96 acres of property, making it six times larger than what had previously been allowed.

Approval of the hotel projects galvanized residents on Siesta Key, leading to public marches, town hall meetings and an effort to incorporate the barrier island into its own municipality.

It also led to legal challenges to the hotels by Siesta Key resident Lourdes Ramirez. This year, an administrative law judge and a circuit court judge sided with Ramirez in concluding that the county's growth plan does limit development on Siesta Key and other barrier islands under a policy that's been in place for more than 30 years.

In light of the legal defeats, developers are now looking to change those growth rules, with three variations of amendments to the county's long-range growth plan, or comprehensive plan, under consideration.

Ramirez has emailed supporters to rally against the potential changes that she views as taking away key protections that has kept Siesta Key's potential growth limited to what the development code allowed in 1989.

"No matter which proposal may go forward, it opens the door to increases in density and intensity on our hurricane-prone fragile barrier island," she wrote to supporters last week. "We need to fight any change to the protections in our current Comprehensive Plan with everything we can do."

The County Commission could move forward on one or all three privately-initiated comprehensive plan amendments.

What the Siesta Key growth plan changes would do

Benderson Development, which had not previously been involved in hotel development on Siesta Key, has proposed to change several policies in the county's growth plan as it relates to what can be built on Siesta Key.

Benderson's proposal would remove the density caps on hotel development, but also cap the total hotel development on Siesta Key to no more than 15% of the total commercially zoned land on the island.

It also seeks to change growth policies that discourage hotel development in hurricane evacuation zones A and B, allows for mitigation of a project's impact on evacuation times and provides clear definitions for "transient accommodations," which include hotel rooms.

The proposal would also rewrite the county's growth management policy to say that hotel development is a "favored land use" on Siesta Key. The last hotel development on Siesta Key occurred in the 1970s, according to previous Herald-Tribune reporting.

The Benderson proposal notes that Siesta Key draws about 350,000 residents every year to its award winning beaches and argues that developing more hotels on the barrier island will reduce traffic by placing visitors closer to their final destination.

Benderson Development key player in hotel push

The parcels marked for development in the proposal would be along Ocean Boulevard and Calle Menorca across the road from the Siesta Key Oyster Bar. Benderson Development owns about 1.4 acres where it plans to build a 210-room, 85-foot hotel, according to the proposal.

Another proposed comprehensive plan amendment that is expected to be discussed by county commissioners was submitted by Dave Balot.

Balot received approval for his hotel project on the former Wells Fargo bank building site on Midnight Pass Road in October 2022. His project was not challenged by Siesta Key residents, but the approval relied on the development code change the courts found violated the comprehensive plan.

He has proposed doubling the density to 52-units per acre, which would allow him to build a 112-room, 59-foot hotel on his 2.15-acre property on Siesta Key.

The final proposed growth plan change was submitted by the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce and would cap hotel development at 52 units per acre. But it would allow for, at most, 75 rooms per hotel project in an attempt to allow only "boutique" hotels on Siesta Key.

The chamber's proposal also seeks to cap hotel development, depending on what the project would be built next to, with a maximum height for any hotel on Siesta Key at 45 feet.

Previous coverage: Sarasota County ends legal fight for Siesta Key hotels as opponents ready for next round

More: Hotel proposals seek reversal of Siesta Key legal victories after two-year court battle

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Siesta Key hotel proposals on next Sarasota County Commission agenda