Longboat planning board to hear proposal for office, parking lot

The Planning & Zoning Board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Dec. 17 in consideration of the Chiles Group’s proposal for a 300 square-foot office and 98 parking spaces on a parcel in the 6900 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive.

The hearing for the company’s site development plan is scheduled for 9:15 a.m. in the Commission Chambers of Town Hall. The public may speak on the topic.

The building, which plans show on the northern side of the property between Whitney Plaza and a vacant bank building, is intended as a satellite office for the company’s human resources operation, Chuck Wolfe, CEO of the Chiles Group hospitality company, has said. The company operates Mar Vista Dockside about a third of a mile away and its home office is in Anna Maria Island, about five miles north.

Plans for the development show a building measuring 20 feet by 15 feet with workspace and a bathroom. Plans for the 1.5 acres call for the removal of Australian pines, pepper trees, carrotwood and ficus trees and the preservation of as many palms and sea grapes on the property as possible. 

Driveways would allow access from Palm Drive and Cedar Street but not from Gulf of Mexico Drive, plans show.