HOLMES BEACH – No agreement has been reached concerning the operations of the Bali Hai Beach Resort between the hotel’s owners and the city of Holmes Beach, despite a pending court case, numerous code compliance hearings, fines and a pending site plan amendment approval.
Attorney Louis Najmy, representing the resort’s owners, including local developer Shawn Kaleta, appeared before commissioners on Sept. 15 for a site plan approval hearing. Due to issues with the site plan and a lack of compliance with city regulations, the site plan approval was postponed to the first meeting in October. This would allow the resort’s representatives additional time to work with city staff to create a site plan proposal that meets all of the city’s requirements and determine what action needs to be taken by the resort to come into compliance with city regulations until the proposed site plan for activities on the resort property.
During the Sept. 15 meeting, city commissioners agreed that they were unable to approve the site plan as presented but that they’d rather provide at least a partial approval instead of outright denying the presented site plan and risk going to mediation in the court system. Najmy argued that the site plan as presented has met all of the city’s expressed requirements. He said that his client has not complied with the code compliance order from a special magistrate to cease operations at the restaurant’s bar and lounge, obtain after-the-fact permits for construction work done and cease operations at an installed spa or cease holding special events at the resort. His reasoning for the non-compliance is that he thought his client should be able to continue with operations as-is until a site plan was approved and then the resort’s operations would have to come into compliance. City commissioners said that was not the case and that compliance has to be achieved and fines paid before the resort would be considered to be operating in good faith.
Najmy said he believes the $1,000 per day fine currently in force against the resort due to non-compliance with city codes was enacted erroneously and he is contesting it.
The issues between the city and the Bali Hai go back over a year to when work was done at the resort without permits from the Holmes Beach building department and a bar and spa were opened on the property for guest use without an approved site plan for the change in use.
The work done on the property includes installation of railings on the second floor of the resort, the demolition of an owner’s unit on the second floor of an accessory building and a storage room on the bottom floor of the same building, the conversion of those spaces into an office and bar/lounge area and the conversion of a resort laundry facility into a spa.
On behalf of his clients, Najmy argued that the resort’s owners do not need site plan approval from the city to open a bar/lounge on the property. City Planner Bill Brisson said he can find no record that a bar/lounge was ever approved for the site, meaning that a site plan approval from city commissioners is required for the amenity to operate legally within Holmes Beach city limits.
Najmy said that his client is seeking to operate in good faith with the city, though commissioners pointed out that his client is still operating the resort in violation of city regulations.
City Attorney Patricia Petruff said that there can be no approval of the site plan without the resort’s owners being willing to first come into compliance with city regulations. She added that a path forward needs to be determined to bring the issue to a conclusion before the courts truly get involved.
Though there is a court case pending in Manatee County Circuit Court, a hearing was not scheduled as of press time for The Sun.
The site plan is scheduled to come back before commissioners on Oct. 12.
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