BRADENTON BEACH – The Bridge Tender Inn & Dockside Bar has submitted plans to construct a tiki structure where a large tent-like temporary outdoor seating area has been in place since the COVID-19 pandemic.
If approved, the tiki structure would be built along Bay Drive South, just south of the existing Dockside Bar structure, where a tent-like temporary outdoor seating area is currently located.
When discussing a permit fee-related matter during the Nov. 5 city commission meeting, Building Official Ben Carr said the Bridge Tender Inn recently submitted an amendment to the plans a previous commission approved in August 2018. Due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the back-to-back hurricanes in 2024, those development plans were never fully pursued.
Representing Bridge Tender Inn owner Fred Bartizal, attorney Scott Rudacille sent a project-related letter to then-Building Official Mike Alexander on June 24.
“On behalf of our client, Fred Bartizal, we are submitting an application for an Amendment to Major Development Plan, requesting the addition of a tiki structure for outdoor dining along the sound at Bridge Tender Inn Dockside Bar and Grill with an additional 36 seats,” Rudacille’s letter said.
Rudacille’s letter stated the following permit-related items were submitted to the city:
• A land development code application
• Project narrative and review criteria
• Stormwater management and watershed analysis report
• Two copies of the boundary survey
• One copy of the prior approval
• A project site aerial
• Three copies of the proposed site development plan and seating layout
• A check for $2,025
• A thumb drive containing the documents listed above
PERMIT FEE APPLIED
During the Nov. 5 city commission meeting, Carr said the city opened the Bridge Tender Inn’s amendment application on July 1. On July 7, Bartizal’s contractor applied for a building permit to construct a permanent tiki structure.
Carr said city staff reviewed the permit request on July 8 and 9 and determined the project required major development review because the construction of a tiki structure would increase the building area, require parking and require a drainage plan.
“The city planner at the time had written review comments on July 16th, and the city recorded the $2,025 amendment fee payment on July 24th,” Carr told the commission.
On Sept. 18, the city directed Bartizal to submit a new major development plan application for the tiki structure project, Carr said.
The major development plan application fee is $4,050, and staff recommended crediting the initial $2,025 permit fee paid to the total fee.
“Staff recommends applying the $2,025 already paid fee to the $4,050 application,” Carr told the commission.
Mayor John Chappie asked whether the city had recovered the costs of reviewing the first application. Carr said he was still totaling staff hours and did not have a figure.
City Attorney Erica Augello said the process “could have gone differently on both sides.” She said the Calvin, Giordano & Associates engineering firm first reviewed the application, and then Carr and the HR Green engineering firm later provided additional comments and analyzed the plans differently. She said no one was solely at fault for the differing plan opinions.
A major development plan requires preliminary review by the city’s planning and zoning board and subsequent city commission approval.
TEMPORARY OUTDOOR SEATING
City code does not allow permanent tent structures on commercial properties.
In what was supposed to be a temporary measure, the Bridge Tender Inn expanded its outdoor seating area during the COVID-19 pandemic, in accordance with a city ordinance adopted in 2020 in response to the pandemic.
The outdoor seating allowances remained in effect in 2021 and 2022 as part of the ongoing pandemic recovery process.
In May 2022, the commission discussed setting an expiration date on the temporarily expanded outdoor seating allowances, but the commission took no action and allowed the expanded outdoor seating areas to remain in effect. To the best of The Sun’s knowledge, the city’s COVID-era outdoor seating allowances were never suspended, and they still remain in effect.
During that 2022 discussion, Chappie noted the temporary outdoor seating allowances would eventually expire, and he recommended local establishments begin the formal permitting process to make their expanded outdoor seating areas permanent and fully compliant with city code. The Wicked Cantina was the first establishment to do so, and the Drift-In bar later replaced its temporary tents with a permanent tiki structure.
(Sun reporter Joe Hendricks contributed to this story)
