HOLMES BEACH – The owners of the Ugly Grouper are hoping city leaders will give them the opportunity to expand their business.
On behalf of the owners, attorney Scott Rudacille appeared before city commissioners during a Jan. 12 work session. He presented a slide show demonstrating what changes the owners are proposing to the existing site plan approval, primarily utilizing golf cart parking spaces to allow for an increase in daytime and nighttime seating.
Under the current site plan approval, the Ugly Grouper can have three seats per vehicle parking space. If the restaurant’s seven six-person golf cart spaces were used to count an average of four seats per space and the six two-person golf cart spaces were allowed to count as 1.5 seats per cart, it would allow the restaurant to add 38 more seats. This would bring the number of seats in the restaurant to 270 seats plus 8 free seats for a total of 278.
Rudacille said the fire marshal has already approved the increase in the number of seats.
City Planner Bill Brisson said that while the applicant planned to increase parking to 92 spaces on the property and at adjacent properties owned by the same group, two of the spaces, which previously were occupied by a sign and mailbox couldn’t be considered parking spaces. If the parking lot, located next door to the restaurant at 5702 Marina Drive, was restriped to try and create more spaces, Brisson said that space restrictions could create too many compact vehicle-only spaces. Holmes Beach city code allows only 20% of total parking spaces to be compact spaces, which would be a maximum of 18 spaces for the Ugly Grouper.
Rudacille added that the restaurant owners may also have to seek a special exception for the outdoor speakers installed to play music after live music ends nightly at 8 p.m.
Commissioners decided after some discussion to bring the matter back to a future work session to obtain further information from the restaurant owners before taking the matter to a public hearing and formal vote.
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