Bradenton City Council OKs Point Pleasant Conservation District

BRADENTON -- With possible legal challenges looming, the Bradenton City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to establish the Point Pleasant Conservation District for the neighborhood near downtown.

Officials said if they faced legal action no matter what they did, then they would vote in favor of protecting Point Pleasant from infill commercial and high-density residential development.

Debate over the district has become a three-way battle between homeowners in favor of the designation, other homeowners who oppose and Westminster Communities, which owns nearby condo developments.

Westminster argued to be exempted because its properties would be non-conforming under the district's guidelines for development and create a potential legal consequence for the city.

About five Point Pleasant homeowners also sought to be exempted, including attorney Ryan Snyder, whose house at 1800 Point Pleasant Drive is partially at the heart of the renewed efforts to preserve the neighborhood given its size and design.

Robert Lincoln, a Sarasota land-use attorney representing Snyder, said the city violated its procedures in drawing the district by failing to petition all homeowners in writing and failing to provide legal property descriptions.

"The fundamental problem here in going forward with this adoption is the core problem in trying to put together something fast to address a neighborhood sense of urgency," said Lincoln.

It is the third attempt since 2004 to create a conservation district in what is considered to be the "one true downtown neighborhood," said Ward 3 Councilman Patrick Roff. "The demand for walkable downtown neigh

borhoods is up and the supply is down. I believe this is in the best interest of the city and certainly downtown property owners."

Point Pleasant resident and attorney Richard Kibbey has been fighting in favor of the district. He said he learned of yet another neighbor requesting exemption the night before Wednesday's meeting. Kibbey said Snyder's arguments was valid, but the remaining four property owners had no legal rights to be exempted.

"This is the very problem that was predicted once we opened Pandora's Box, all sorts of horrible would come out," said Kibbey. "Snyder had a reasonable investment expectation when he purchased his property under form based codes, so he has a point, but (the others) bought properties when it was zoned residential and have no reasonable investment expectations. For them to come now is improper and has no legal basis."

Kibbey said the same is true for existing Westminster buildings, but not for the two properties recently purchased while the city was working with the neighborhood to create the district.

"Westminster tried to beat the deadline and a court of law would say, 'No, you are trying to beat the system.'"

Kibbey said if those property owners asking for exemption were allowed to be excluded, it would give him the right to sue, "and I'll be forced to do it."

Vice Mayor Gene Gallo said he supports the conservation district as it was presented with no further exemptions other than all of Westminster's properties, which were removed from the district's boundaries prior to final submission. Adding properties would force a restart of the process.

"I feel like we are in a box," he said. "I'm very supportive of passing this, but I also support that we go to each one of these people after the fact and work out the bugs on a one-on-one basis."

Mark Young, Herald urban affairs reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7041 or follow him on Twitter @urbanmark2014.

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 11:55 PM with the headline "Bradenton City Council OKs Point Pleasant Conservation District ."