‘Whale’ deck plans may need tweaking
Development plans for an outdoor dining deck at a restaurant in the downtown zoning district on Estero Island have been recently submitted, and a reviewal process is now underway. Prior to approval, certain modifications may be needed due to visibility issues from side streets.
On Sept. 18, officials at The Beached Whale submitted an application for a Limited Review Development Order to redesign the boulevard-facing side of its building and construct a frontage-side, outdoor dining deck where a handicap ramp, landscaped area and a portion of back-out parking spaces are currently situated.
Last Tuesday (Sept. 23), Town of Fort Myers Beach officials met neighborhood residents about visibility concerns to view the area in question, describe the details of the planned improvements on site and show physical dimensions and layout on the property. The meeting was called a “right thing to do” after many inquiry emails were received by the Fort Myers Beach Town Council and Town Manager.
“When several people have questions, we need to answer them at the staff level. What better way to do it than with interaction on site, so we all know what we are talking about,” said Town Manager Don Stilwell. “They brought up some good questions that have to be addressed. We will look at their concerns and make sure we have answers before any kind of recommendation. There are going to be some changes. We are in contact with the (applicant) to express those concerns so that he can clarify them so that we will be in a better position to make a decision.”
According to Town Planning Coordinator Josh Overmyer, a “request for additional information” was emailed to consultant David Easterbrook on Thursday to address issues that were found in the review of the LDO application. Through email, Overmyer confirmed issues such as vehicle visibility and drainage retention areas need to be addressed before the LDO can be approved.
Stilwell stated he has tried to contact Owner Marty Harrity and left a phone message.
“I told him what was going on and asked him to give me a call if he had any questions,” Stilwell said.
Overmyer reported he and fellow Town Community Development Department employee Belinda Smith met with Easterbrook, Harrity and Manager Eric Beck to discuss the request for additional information. As of Tuesday morning, no further contact has been made nor supplementary paperwork submitted.
Questions from residents centered on a safety issue involving view blockage from the egress of Primo Drive. According to Overmyer, the vehicle visibility triangle referenced in Chapter 34 of the Town Land Development Code is in effect with any intersection with Estero Boulevard. The triangle must maintain a clear viewing space between 2 feet in height and 6 feet in height for drivers, he says.
“At the intersection, you measure down the side street a distance of 10 feet, and down Estero Boulevard 150 feet. The hypotenuse of the triangle that those two measurements creates is an area within which no development may take place, regardless of the prescribed setbacks or build-to line for that zoning district,” he stated via email. “The discussion on Tuesday (Sept. 23) highlighted that the vehicle visibility triangle might be measured not only for the Primo/Estero intersection, but also the Palermo/Estero intersection.”
Town public discussions date back to early June 2013, when Council granted a special exception for the right to expand the serving capacity at The Beached Whale by permitting outdoor consumption on premises for a proposed new deck with conditions.
The proposed lower deck, which could measure up to 626 square feet, will permit the establishment the right to serve alcohol and food outdoors in an area that would support 47 seats, while offering television sets for sports viewing. Sliding doors are planned to be installed for egress and ingress to the building’s indoors. The height of the proposed deck was stated to be approximately 42 inches.
The nine conditions included alcohol consumption allowed indoors and on the upper and lower decks only, hours of consumption on the proposed deck from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., proposed roof overhangs must meet Town commercial design standards, permitting requirements for all work done, no parking spaces extending into Town right-of-way, retention area under deck to help storm water retention, seating capacity requirements and keeping the sliding doors closed except for passage while indoor music is being played. Live outdoor deck entertainment, even non-amplified, was not granted.
Prior to construction approval, all development orders and a building permit have to be presented and reviewed by Town staff.
According to Town records, The Beached Whale applied for a building permit prior to the development order last August and received denial comments from Town staff. Overmyer stated that restaurant officials did not respond within 180 days, and the permit is now considered expired.
“The LDO (Limited Review Development Order) should come first, since it is the permit that approves the required site work -drainage retention, removal of asphalt underneath the proposed deck- and then the building permit can be reviewed and issued for the vertical construction of the deck itself,” he wrote. “The special exception for expansion of their consumption on premises approval had a condition requiring an LDO and another condition required some drainage retention area to be installed underneath the proposed deck. (It) included a floodplain denial comment for proposing an improvement which would exceed the 50 percent rule for improvements to an existing structure within a 5-year period. The environmental reviewer denied the plans due to the lack of a sea turtle lighting plan, in accordance with Chapter 14 of the Land Development Code.”
The Beached Whale, whose property has frontage on three streets (Primo, Palermo Circle and Estero Boulevard), lies in the pedestrian commercial future land use district that is in a surrounding area that contains a mixture of commercial and residential zoning and uses.
The deck project requires no landscape buffers since the site lies in the downtown zoning district, and deals with the vehicle visibility triangle.
According to County records, the building was built around 1945 and has been continuously used as a restaurant or bar since.