Graphic by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Jane Smith
It had all the makings of an end-of-season cocktail party on Coquina Road.
Red and white wines, crudités and dip, flatbreads, bruschetta and cookies were served. The setting was an oceanfront patio with a built-in pool and a tremendous view.
Instead, it was a late May gathering of two unlikely pairings: Briny Breezes trailer owners and their neighbors to the south, known as “pocket people” from their ownership in an unincorporated county pocket. Their uniting cause: proposed development of the former “dog beach parcel” that sits between them.
The nearly 30 people who attended would soon find out they could be “affected parties.”
Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the nonprofit Florida Coalition for Preservation, spoke about making sure the developer plays by the rules, to ensure “responsible development compatible with the community and environment.”
An April meeting between developer Joseph Basil Sr. and the Villas at Malibu owners prodded the other nearby property owners. De Haseth would not say who invited her to speak in May, just that it was a “pocket person.”
Hostess Marlese Loveall was in Missouri when she heard about that April meeting. She cut short her trip to get back in time to attend it because her house sits south of the Villas at Malibu.
She told the gathering that Basil wants to have the stretch of Old Ocean Boulevard that lies between his property and the beach abandoned, expand the ocean access on the north side, and eliminate the south access path and part of Seaview Avenue. He would provide another access road through his property to get to the Villas at Malibu.
“Villas at Malibu residents constantly called me about kids drinking, drug use and hookers on the corner (of Old Ocean Boulevard and Seaview Avenue),” Basil said a day after the May meeting. “So I met with them to suggest making it all one community and put a road in the bottom of the property to give them access.”
It would stop “the riffraff,” and everyone would be happy, he said.
The 2005 plans allow his group to build 12, three-story units. But if he wants to change the configuration of the land by getting approval to abandon the two roads, that would trigger a “development review” process with the county, de Haseth said. The process is run by the county’s Zoning Division and allows various departments and state agencies to weigh in on the proposed changes.
A big component of that review comes from the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management, which oversees stormwater pollution prevention, on-site contamination, native vegetation and sea turtles.
“Plus, if he changed access and egress, would he have to bring the roads up to today’s code for traffic and drainage,” de Haseth told the May gathering. “Projects like this are ‘onions’ and you have to peel layer after layer off to get to the truth.”
Losing another beach access path irritated some who were gathered in May. They were told to review their property documents for easements and access ways and to take photographs of that path to prove that it’s used constantly. Property owners within 300 feet, known as “affected parties,” of the proposed road abandonment can weigh in, de Haseth told the group.
Another issue was the actual height of the buildings. Would it be 35 feet, or 35 feet on top of 12 feet that the developer might be required to raise the property so that stormwater runoff flows downhill into the ocean?
Ryan Heavyside, a third-generation pocket owner who owns the Nomad Surf Shop west of the parcel, was concerned about the height. He lives above the surf shop. “How tall will it be? That affects my view and [keeps] breezes from reaching me,” he said.
The height of a wall around the townhouses alarmed others.
“I find that wall offensive,” said Greg Esterman of Briny Breezes. “It’s popular in urban planning, but it’s like building a fort, saying I don’t want anyone to look at our buildings.”
The wall has worried Denise LeBlanc, a pocket person. “It’s like they are chipping away at paradise,” she said.
When asked whether the wall would be 8 or 10 feet high, Basil said, “It’s not a 10-foot wall, more of a landscaped wall, no higher than any other walls nearby.”
While the name of the project on the 2005 plans was Old Ocean Town Homes, Basil said they had not come up with a new name.
The units will be of different sizes to accommodate changing market demand. “Back then, bigger was better. Now people want less square feet and more amenities, such as a pool. The units will range between 2,500 and 3,500 square feet,” he said.
His company plans to sell the units at $1.6 million, unlike his Lantana project once called the Village at Ocean Walk. He rented the entire mixed-use project to the Lucida Treatment Center from California. They have eight condos where Basil said treatment can cost $120,000 a month with a chef, masseuse and acupuncture for clients — “everything you could want.” The center uses the retail space for its offices.
Basil said if the nearby property owners agree to abandon Old Ocean Boulevard, he would square off his property and “donate the parcel on the east side to the county.”
And just how many units would his company be allowed to build? That depends on who is doing the counting.
According to the property appraiser’s database, the three lots total 1.5 acres. But in a previous letter of inquiry, planning staff used a property survey that says the three lots comprise 2.07 acres and another .23 acre from the abandonment of the Old Ocean Boulevard, giving a total of 2.3 acres. The county used the 2.3-acre size for the purpose of responding to Basil’s land planner on May 8.
It could be as few as 13 units, or as many as 36 units with bonus and other credits included.
Basil said he would know more by the end of June when his land planner and architect finish their work and his partner returns from North Carolina.
De Haseth also plans to meet with the combined group again at the end of the month. They have “a laid-back funky lifestyle where beach access is important,” she said. “Putting up that wall to create exclusivity turns people off. It’s the last bit of funky Florida.”
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