Longboat landscaper gains deadline extension for new redevelopment plan

New owners of a landscaping business on Longboat Key received a six-month extension for plans to remodel their operation on Gulf Bay Road after telling town leaders Monday that the economic effects of COVID-19 stalled the original proposal.

Although no new plans have been submitted, an owner of Grant’s Gardens and a representative of the landscapers’ engineering company said intentions have changed since approvals were granted on May 26, 2020.

The Planning and Zoning Board at the time unanimously OK'd plans to erect a new 2,254-square-foot, two-story office building on the 0.6-acre property to replace the existing converted home, with the provision those changes begin within two years.

The board also in 2020 approved a special exception that would allow the business to operate in accordance with town code, though it was tied to the building changes proposed actually being accomplished.

The six-month extension allows the company until Nov. 26 to reset its plan.

The property does not meet today’s land-use policies or standards as the business evolved over the decades from a retail shop to eventually becoming an enterprise no longer permitted in the neighborhood just off Gulf of Mexico Drive but west of residential properties on the same street. Grant's Gardens has been there since 2014.

Prior to May 2020, the company successfully sought a rezoning for the land, which allowed a landscaping business to operate as a special exception, provided the redevelopment plan was executed. 

Town commissioners on Monday voted 7-0 to grant the business six months to revise its redevelopment plan. The new plan is subject to Planning and Zoning Board approval. Had the two-year deadline run out, town officials said the application process would have had to restart from scratch. And the nonconforming use would have been subject to Code Enforcement action, said Allen Parsons, the town’s director of building, planning and zoning

The new owners of the business, represented by co-owner Jeff Kelley, said the company changed hands at the end of 2021. Town rules allow for deadline extensions in cases of financial changes not of an applicant’s making.

"They were going to remove that house and build a new structure," Parsons said. "As I understand it, the additional six months would allow them the opportunity to put together a revised site-development plan. We understand they are not going to be proceeding with the same development but they do intend on making a number of improvements."

Parsons said the town staff "doesn’t have any basis to conclude that COVID-19 hasn’t been relevant to their timing" and was supportive of the extension request. He also said there were no indications of code violations at the business, and that previous complaints about business vehicles parking and staging in the street had not recurred.

No one other than Kelley and Linda Stewart of Morris Engineering and Consulting LLC spoke at the meeting, even though residents within 500 feet of the property were notified of the Monday afternoon public meeting.

"Obviously, in the last two years since 2020, when they received this approval, a lot of changes have happened to a lot of businesses within this area as well as the entire United States," Kelley said. "Some have not survived, some have hung on. Grant’s Gardens has hung on.:

She said the costs for construction have risen beyond what the company envisioned in 2020. Still, the company plans to offer a revised plan that addresses parking and buffering while remodeling the existing building "in lieu of replacing the building due to the extreme costs."

She said that by Nov. 26 a revised plan should be ready.

Mayor Ken Schneier asked why the company couldn’t have produced a revised plan by the original deadline instead of requesting the extension. Kelley said her company is now working with the new owners to proceed in a different direction.

Commissioner BJ Bishop said that she had not seen a reduction in landscaping work and related services taking place during the pandemic over the last two years.

Stewart cited the costs of work supplies, construction and availability of employees have changed since 2020. "Those numbers just don’t fit today when this was initially approved," she said. 

Kelley assured the commissioners that the property will remain as a base for Grant’s Gardens and wouldn’t be sold or converted into a different use.

"I think it’s unusual to seek an extension to not complete a plan that’s been approved, especially when a plan has been proposed for the purpose of reaction to complaints, legitimate complaints about uses that are not approved by our code," Schneier said. "I ordinarily would be a little reluctant to go forward with this, but the times are unusual. I think the fact there has been a change of ownership also militates somewhat in favor of giving the new owners an opportunity to operate under the current approvals."