Cabana Club Hearing Rescheduled
A hearing concerning the building of the Cabana Club on Sand Key scheduled for December 15 was postponed and will now take place in January. Save Our Neighborhood (SON), a community action group formed to fight the building of the new Cabana Club, appealed a decision of the Clearwater Planning Department to allow building code derivations that would permit construction of the $25-million Cabana Club as a proposed 38-room high-end hotel resort at 1590 Gulf Boulevard which would be operated in conjunction with the Belleair Biltmore Hotel scheduled for a $125 million upgrade.
SON gained the support of The Clearwater Beach Association (CBA) and the Sand Key Civic Association (SKCA) and received donations from the groups for its legal battle against Legg Mason, owners of the Belleview Biltmore. SON representatives and Sand Key residents oppose the project because they feel it is not in keeping with the residential character of the neighborhood and would diminish the views of properties adjacent to the site and would create traffic and parking problems.
They oppose the Planning Commission's September 16 approval of code deviations that includes a reduction to the required lot width; a reduction to setbacks; allowance of proposed temporary cabanas and an increase to building height; a reduction to perimeter buffers and a reduction to the width of interior landscape islands. SON has opposed the granting of code variances except for safety or ecological reasons citing a reduction in quality of life and the environment that results from such variances.
SON gained the support of The Clearwater Beach Association (CBA) and the Sand Key Civic Association (SKCA) and received donations from the groups for its legal battle against Legg Mason, owners of the Belleview Biltmore. SON representatives and Sand Key residents oppose the project because they feel it is not in keeping with the residential character of the neighborhood and would diminish the views of properties adjacent to the site and would create traffic and parking problems.
They oppose the Planning Commission's September 16 approval of code deviations that includes a reduction to the required lot width; a reduction to setbacks; allowance of proposed temporary cabanas and an increase to building height; a reduction to perimeter buffers and a reduction to the width of interior landscape islands. SON has opposed the granting of code variances except for safety or ecological reasons citing a reduction in quality of life and the environment that results from such variances.
