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RE Please Deny Rezoning Application for the Shoppes at Sand Key XXFrom: Everitt, Steven Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 3:11 PM To: 'JC Simmons' Subject: RE: Please Deny Rezoning Application for the Shoppes at Sand Key The Zoning Atlas Amendment from the Business District to the Tourist District (REZ2007-10001) at 1241, 1261 and 1281 Gulf Boulevard is scheduled for the Community Development Board meeting on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 1 pm. The public should be advised that the public hearing has been closed and that no further testimony will be forthcoming from City staff, representatives of the applicant or the public, or the public generally. It will be a matter of deliberation by the Board only as they consider a motion on the application. The case will then be before the City Council (1st Reading) on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 6 pm. On May 1, 2008, the case will be before City Council (2nd Reading) at 6 pm. Interested parties may appear and be heard at the hearing or file written notice of approval or objection with the Planning Department or City Clerk prior to the City Council meetings. Steven Everitt City of Clearwater Planning Department -----Original Message----- From: JC Simmons [mailto:judith_c_simmons@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 4:23 PM To: Hibbard, Frank; Watkins, Sherry; Everitt, Steven Subject: Please Deny Rezoning Application for the Shoppes at Sand Key Dear Honorable Mayor of Clearwater, Members of the Clearwater Development Board, and City Planning Department Thank you for your service and for your time and attention to development matters within Clearwater. I am a resident of the Clearwater Sand Key Club. I have lived there for 10 years. The purpose of this letter is to ask that you not approve the request to change the zoning on the Shoppes at Sand Key from business to Tourist. My reasons for asking you to turn this request down are as follows: ELIMINATING THE EXISTING SHOPS WILL DRAMATICALLY CHANGE THE CHARACTER OF OUR NEIGHBORHOOD The Shops provide a major convenience to residents on Sand Key. There is: 1)a full service bank complete with tellers, safety deposit boxes and an ATM.2) a grocery store where we can buy milk, bread, wine and other groceries, 3)a dentist to fix our teeth 4) a Dry cleaners to clean our clothes, 5)an ice cream parlor, 6)a donut shoppe, 7)a collectibles shoppe, 8)various clothing stores with apparel from bathing suits to ball gowns, 9)a jewelry store with a genius goldsmith and friendly talkative parrot, 10)a nail shoppe, 11)multiple full service restaurants with both inside and waterfront seating, 12)multi-use stores where you can buy collectibles, souvenirs, gifts, beach toys, etc, 13) a real estate office. Residents and tourists use these shops every day. The shops provide us with a sense of community because we meet our neighbors there and take our guests there. We know the shop owners and they know us. They tailor their inventory to what we like to buy. Even if the new hotel had shops, they would be chosen to cater to the tourists, not to us, and they would probably be much more expensive to shop in or eat in. Also, it would be years before they would be in place. We would be left with nothing but construction and a mess in the meantime. REPLACING THE SHOPS WITH A HOTEL WILL DECREASE OUR OPEN SPACE AND VIEWS The addition of a tall building on the intercoastal would make Sand Key look more like Miami. The current Shoppes are just one story and have a nice waterfront boardwalk easily accessible to everyone. That would be replaced by a 100’ building with limited or no easy access to the waterfront by residents. ELIMINATING THE SHOPS WILL INCREASE TRAFFIC CONGESTION We can walk to the Shops whenever we wish. If the Shops are replaced by a large hotel, residents would have to drive elsewhere to get the products and services provided now by walking to the Shops. Therefore the traffic on Gulf Blvd and through the roundabout would be increased dramatically. The people staying in the hotel would also add to the volume of traffic using Gulf Blvd and the roundabout. REPLACING THE SHOPS WITH A HOTEL WILL DECREASE OUR SAFETY If there were a need to evacuate Sand Key, those hotel guests would be competing with us for the 2 paths off of the island: the path north across the sand key bridge and through the roundabout then across the bridge to Clearwater or south to the Belleair bridge that is under construction. In other words, it would increase the danger to our lives in the event of an emergency because we would be competing with more people to get off of the island. ELIMINATING THE SHOPS WILL DECREASE THE VALUE OF MY HOME While I do not plan to sell, the value of my condo would go down because I could no longer point out the advantages we have with the Shops and their services just down the street. Those Shops are a major selling point for prospective buyers. For these reasons, I ask that you vote against the request to change the zoning of the Shoppes at Sand Key from business to tourist. Thank you again for your time and attention to this matter. Judy Simmons 1380 Gulf Blvd PH8 Clearwater FL 33767 727-593-1199 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping