City approves Caretta Dunes, Barker breaks tie (with SLIDESHOW)

It took the Destin City Council and the mayor nearly four hours to approve the addition of an extra floor and 16 units to a Crystal Beach condominium.

Monday night, The Head Companies, an Orange Beach, Ala.,-based development company, went before the City Council in a Tier Three quasi-judicial hearing to ask its approval to expand the Caretta Dunes project, an amendment to the development order received in April 2005.

Though much smaller than the 15-story harborfront projects that have come before the council for approval in the past two months, the project's density made council approval a requirement. The city's land development code prevented the developers from applying for a Tier Two development, which isn't allowed in Crystal Beach under the code.

After almost four hours of discussion, which featured speeches from Crystal Beach residents railing against the project, the council voted to approve the condominium by a 4-3 vote, with Destin Mayor Craig Barker breaking the tie. Councilor Ted Corcoran was absent from Monday night's hearing.

Before the vote, Richard Eimers, a resident of Destin East, said the five parking spaces proposed by the applicant on Tarpon Street were not a public benefit to residents in that area.

"That impact, that public benefit, is not nearly enough to offset the burden put on that street, and it's a burden this market can't handle. I've lived here since 1982, I've seen this place grow and it's gotten out of control," he said.

Greg Gibson, a John Street resident with property on Dolphin Street, said the council needed to thoroughly review the project's public benefit proposal.

"You are tasked with carefully analyzing the economic benefits of this project to make sure they weren't exaggerated and look at the various items in this proposal to ensure they are of true public benefit and not just an enhancement of the development," he said. "It's a pretty building. We know it's going to be built, but those of us who live in Crystal Beach feel that the five spots on Tarpon Street are the precursor to parking up and down every street in Crystal Beach. You will have a revolt on your hands in Crystal Beach if you think you're going to turn us into a parking space."

After hearing many of the Crystal Beach residents plead with the council to respect their property rights, David Pleat, attorney for the applicants, reminded the council that it is a right that is not mutually exclusive.

"Property rights are a two-way street," he said. "For all intents and purposes this is the same plan that you approved 7-0 in April 2005 and all the applicants are asking for is 10 more feet and a couple more units."

Councilors took umbrage with the applicants for claiming items on their almost $2 million public benefit proposal that had already been offered by the company when they applied for their original development order in 2005.

"You are trying to take credit for a $350,000 beach access easement that you've already granted the city owns that. You can't claim something as a public benefit twice," said Councilor Jim Bagby.

Pleat reminded the council that the hearing was strictly an interpretation of whether or not the project adheres to the city's land development code as it exists today.

"Nowhere in your land development code does it say that you can't count it twice. You're changing the game mid-stream and it's not legally enforceable," he said.

Councilor Cyron Marler said he thought that while the applicant shouldn't get credit for items they'd offered in the past, the development should still be considered for what it was offering this time around.

"The beach access is not the public benefit that's already been dedicated. It's the construction of the walkway that is the public benefit," he said, referring to a $49,000 dune walkover the developer pledged to build. "If we continue on this path, we are going to make developers wanting to build in our city very gun-shy. They're going to stick with Tier One and Tier Two projects and not even bother with us, and then we won't get a public benefit at all for those projects."

Councilor Sam Seevers said she didn't think it was fair that the council block this project given that it let Harbor Reflections build six additional floors with a public benefit of just over $1.3 million.

"If we did that and we're not going to allow this to go forward ... I don't think that's fair," she said. "For the community and the existing area there, I think this is a good development."

When the motion to approve the project came for a vote, the council was locked 3-3 with Dewey Destin, Larry Williges and Bagby voting against the project. Destin Mayor Craig Barker was forced to cast his vote to break the tie. He quickly cast his vote in favor of approving Caretta Dunes and the meeting adjourned.

"Going into every meeting, I always try to prepare myself like that's going to happen but I didn't expect to cast a vote last night," Barker told The Log. "It was pretty clear to me that there was not clear and substantial evidence that the project wasn't consistent with our comprehensive plan and land development code. We were sitting there to gauge whether the public benefit was extraordinary enough to warrant Tier Three.

Barker said he was swayed by a point made by Councilor Destin that the applicants could have achieved their desired density under Tier One and not produced any public benefit.

"The ordinance calls for an extraordinary level of public benefit and to me, weighing the Two Tier Three applications that we've seen so far, this is the only one that met the criteria for extraordinary public benefit."