Lawyers position for edge in Bight hearing
Neighbors hope to pare
down development
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
Citizen Staff
KEY WEST — Attorneys on
both sides of a controversial Key West Bight project are hoping to gain
an upper hand when they go before a local hearing judge later this
month. Both filed last-minute motions on Monday, the last day to file
motions before the Nov. 16 hearing.
Bob Goldman, who is
representing a group of Bight neighbors fighting the Watermark
development project, filed a motion for summary judgment with Key West
Special Magistrate Jefferson Overby. Goldman asked Overby to overrule
the city Historic Architectural Review Commission's approval of the
project last month. Summary judgment would allow the judge to rule
without having a hearing. Goldman says the project violates a HARC
guideline limiting construction to 2 1/2 stories above a parking area.
"The applicant's own
architect admits in a letter to the city planner under the date of Oct.
12 that the fourth floor of each of the five buildings of the project
exceeds the 'one half the floor area of the floor immediately below
it,'" Goldman wrote in his motion.
"We're using their own
figures," Goldman said. "The project is not compatible in proportion,
scale and mass with it's surroundings."
A group of developers
calling themselves the Caroline Street Partners plans to build 26 luxury
condominiums at the site of the Jabour's Campground and Trailer Court
off Elizabeth Street.
Goldman argues that the
height of the project is greater than city charter allows. The project
must be 35 feet, plus five feet for a pitched or sloped roof, Goldman
said. Some sections of the project are 40 feet high under a flat roof,
he said.
Bight residents Bill
Barry, represented by attorney Lee Rohe, and Gary Lichtenstein,
represented by Goldman, have filed separate appeals with the city. The
appeals claim that the project is too massive in scale for the
surrounding neighborhood of old, wooden, frame houses, and the floor
area ratio and height exceed HARC guidelines.
Caroline Street Partners
attorney Jim Hendrick countered with two of his own motions. Hendrick
asked that the developers be a part of the HARC appeal hearing on Nov.
16. As of now, the only two parties in the appeal are the neighbors and
the city.
Hendrick also filed a
motion seeking to limit what can be introduced at the appeal hearing,
Hendrick said Monday.
Neighbors and developers
have debated the size and height of the project for months. At several
public meetings, residents showed up with a model of the development to
show that the project is out of scale with the rest of the neighborhood.
The developers have reduced the number of units, most recently from 33
to 26 units, but have increased the size of the units. The city
initially approved 101 units on the site, but the state Department of
Community Affairs, which regulates growth in Monroe County, would not
approve more than 80.
tohara@keysnews.com |
