A planned three-story, eight-unit vacation rental building on State Road A1A in Flagler Beach, south of 17th Street, is slowly moving toward approval by the City Commission, if more slowly than its owners wish.
The 7,752 square-foot building’s site plan was last before the City Commission at the end of March, when the commission didn’t like the 10 required parking spaces to be located in the back–or on the west side–of the building. That would have had traffic use the narrow dirt alley that runs in back of the lots, parallel to A1A. (See: “Flagler Beach City Commission Tables A1A Vacation Rental Project Over Alleyway Access and Design Concerns.”)
The new plan for 1708 South Ocean Shore Boulevard moved the 10-space parking lot to the east side of the building, fronting A1A, with one parking spot in the rear. It also added a concrete wall at the south end of the property, demarcating it from the residential property next door, as required by the city’s code. The air conditioning compressors were also moved to the south end of the building.
That still was not enough for the City Commission when the plan was resubmitted on June 11.
“I personally with this whole project, I’d probably like to see it come before us again, just to be safe, to make sure that nothing is missed,” Commissioner James Sherman said. Sherman referred to the Compass Hotel error, where somehow the city’s planning department approved a greater height than the commission wanted. It was irreversible, as construction was well under way. That caused a public backlash. Sherman didn’t want a repeat. He was also uncomfortable with any kind of service vehicles using a loading spot in back of the building, requiring use of the narrow alley.
The commission voted unanimously to table the plan until July 9, with the directive to build screening along the alley on the west side of the building.
“I very much tried to accommodate every recommendation that either the commission or the power board made,” a calmly exasperated Ted Barnhill, the owner of the property, told the City Commission, “and I will continue to do so.”
The screening is required if an area is to have any vehicular use. Since delivery trucks will use the rear of the building, the additional screening would be required, the city planner, Lupita McClenning, said.
The 9,100-square-foot lot is 70 feet wide. It sits one lot south of 17th Street. A resident who lives along the alley questioned why the project was required to have a separation wall with the property to the south, but not with the vacant lot to the north. In fact, the property to the north is zoned commercial, like the vacation rental property, so it would not trigger the need for a wall.
The resident was also worried about use of the alley even by delivery trucks. “My concern totally is the access with the garbage trucks coming through, delivery trucks. Have you seen the alleyway? It’s a mess,” he said. “Delivery trucks are going to get stuck back there.”
But the alleyway is used all the time by residents who live alongside it, Barnhill said. “If you drive down the alleyway between 17th and 18th street, you’re going to find there’s at least five or six houses where the parking garage accesses off of the alleyway,” he said. “So you have people traveling up and down the alleyway all the time now. Is it a great drive through? No, but it is accessed by the people who live on that area.”
Rather than require any additional major design changes, commissioners agreed to ask for additional screening on the west side of the property. There was a minor discussion about dormers that kept appearing and disappearing, and whether they could be located as high as they were. “The dormers on the east side are definitely going to be there,” Barnhill said. There won’t be any on the west side. And they’re within code.
The building itself will have a 2,558-square-foot footprint. Each apartment in the building will have a single bedroom, each with balconies facing the ocean except for the first floor, each between 544 and 638 square feet. The apartments will share dining, lounging and lobby areas. Barnhill is marketing the building as quieter than in downtown Flagler Beach, and “relatively affordable.”
The commission has no interest in rejecting the plan. It was close to approving it, along with its requirements, if the results could be brought back to the commission for a final look. But City Attorney Drew Smith said procedurally, the item should be tabled, the latest requirements incorporated in the plans, and those plans brought back for a vote. That’s what the commission approved, with the date-certain and presumably final approval scheduled for the July 9 meeting.
Barnhill, the owner of Barnhill’s Cafe, Bar and Grill in downtown Flagler Beach, bought the property half a century ago as his first investment, for $12,516, the inflation-adjusted equivalent to a still low $75,000 today.
dont park here says
Hopefully those vacay renters leave cars at home! They don’t like them in that town!!!