PANAMA CITY BEACH — Real estate agent Jason Oakes said common sense dictates parking should be in front of a beach bar and restaurant instead of the back, where people want to enjoy the scenic Gulf view.
Oakes, an agent with Counts Real Estate Group, said a decision by the Panama City Beach Planning Board earlier this month would force his client to put parking behind a proposed new restaurant at 15007 Front Beach Road, where customers should be enjoying that view.
And he’s appealed the board’s decision to the Panama City Beach City Council, who will hear the case at 1 p.m. on Oct. 23.
“It’s going to destroy the value of property,” he said. “It changes 100 years of selling real estate on the beach.”
The Planning Board, in a 3-2 vote, denied the variance request, basing their decision on the new Land Development Code adopted in July 2012 that pushes parking in the back of structures along Front Beach Road.
This is one of the first cases to come up for approval since the code has passed where the proposed development is on the beach side of Front Beach Road. Requiring parking in the back of buildings on Gulf-front property makes little sense, as it would put parking by the prime waterfront real estate, said Robert Carroll, a land planner representing the applicant.
“A beach bar should be on the beach,” he said.
On Sept. 8, the Planning Board decided to deny the request to increase the required 14-foot front-yard setback by 60 feet to allow a 74-foot front-yard setback on property at 15007 Front Beach Road. The property owner is Lawrence Family Enterprises and Susan Bell.
Carroll told the Planning Board earlier this month that the applicant is trying to get permission to build a 2,461-foot beach bar and restaurant.
Panama City Beach Planning Director Mel Leonard said the restaurant patrons could have an unobstructed Gulf view if the parking were put underneath the new restaurant. But he said Carroll didn’t like that idea of having to elevate the building.
“He thought it would discourage people from coming to their restaurant if they had to walk upstairs,” Leonard said. “They want to do a traditional type of development. They don’t want to elevate the building.”
He said the applicant has made the argument that if parking were in the back of the building, the property is so small there would not be enough area for a trash truck to get in, turn around and go out head first, forcing trucks to back out into Front Beach Road.
Carroll said putting the parking underneath the building would add to the project costs.
“When you put parking underneath, you have to raise the building up and have to add elevator shafts,” he said. “We’re not trying to do anything that is not already being done along Front Beach Road.”
Leonard said staff doesn’t object to the variance in this case because the project is so small it wouldn’t affect the general mission of the new code regulations.
“It’s not really a game changer,” he said. “If this was [a] 6-acre, 10-acre, 15-acre parcel, we would be very hard lined in making it meet the Land Development Code.
Leonard said the goal of the Land Development Code is to bring development out to Front Beach Road to make it more appealing to pedestrians. He said the development pattern is particularly important considering the city’s $400 million investment in making Front Beach Road more pedestrian and mass-transit friendly.
“You have buildings pulled forward. There are outdoor cafes,” he said. “There are windows in the front so that when people are walking along the sidewalks there is something interesting to look at and to interact with.”