Laura Layden Naples Daily News Published April 18, 2024
In a unanimous decision, city council denied plans for new hotel rooms on Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples, seeing them as the wrong fit.
The vote came Wednesday, just weeks after a city election, with three new faces on council.
Much of the campaigning in the election centered around growth and development, with the word "overdevelopment" often bantered about, as a threat to the city's small-town charm.
Two of the new councilors garnered strong support from builders and developers in their campaigns, leading some residents to fear their influence on decision-making for current and future projects.
Bill Kramer, one of those councilors, described the proposal for hotel rooms as trying to stuff 100 pounds of flour into a 50-pound bag. Others on the board agreed.
Council unilaterally saw the hotel rooms, included as part of a new mixed-used building, as overdevelopment. The rooms would have sat atop a new restaurant.
Berne Barton, the other new councilman, backed by builders and developers as part of a slate that ran as "Team Naples," said he worried that allowing the hotel rooms as part of the redevelopment project would set a bad precedent, which could then be copied up and down the street.
"I don't know if it's right for Fifth Avenue," Barton said.
Residential neighbors lined up in opposition, complaining about the potential impact of the hotel operations on traffic, safety and noise in their backyard, fearing they'd create an "Airbnb effect," which could then spread to other parts of Fifth Avenue, hollowing out the vibrancy of the street – and their communities.
Plans included two expansive hotel rooms on each of the upper floors, more akin to luxury homes, with private balconies. The condos would have spanned more than 2,200 square feet, with each one including two bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a kitchen.
Councilor Beth Petrunoff said more density and intensity of this type is not what's needed or wanted on Fifth Avenue. She suggested traditional owner-occupied residential condos would make a lot more sense.
"We want it to thrive," she said of the street. "And now we're at a tipping point."
The vote came after hours of questions, discussions and debate, following a formal presentation by the project's team of experts.
While they didn't support the hotel rooms, councilors complimented the design, especially of the modern-looking restaurant, with outdoor dining.
The upscale project had been in the works for years.
Stefano Frittella, who owns the property, has long planned to launch a new fine-dining concept for Naples in his new building. He's no stranger to the restaurant scene in downtown Naples, with ownership in Bice, Caffé Milano, La Trattoria, The Bevy and Vergina.
The long-time restaurateur also owns eateries in Miami Beach and Monaco.
The proposed site for the new project is at 472 Fifth Avenue S. It's now home to a single-story building, flanked by newer, taller ones that house the Del Mar and Osteria Tulia restaurants.
La Pescheria, which serves Italian cuisine with a focus on seafood, continues to operate there under a lease.
Property records show a company tied to Frittella purchased the property for $5.25 million in 2017. It was built in the late 1950s. He submitted his first site development plan to the city in October 2021.
Since submitting that first plan, Frittella made many design changes and agreed to many concessions, in an effort to appease neighbors and meet with city approval. The original scheme included 16 smaller-sized hotel rooms, but city reviewers raised a host of objections and concerns, making it clear that it would not get their support.
With a host of conditions, the city's Planning Advisory Council recommended approval. City staff found the site plan sufficient after additional compromises.
The developer's land use attorney Clay Brooker, with the Cheffy Passidomo firm, agreed to more concessions at the council meeting, including limiting the occupancy for each hotel room to six, requiring at least a three-night stay, and having an attendant on duty 24-7 to monitor guests.
But it wasn't nearly enough to win council's approval.
The hotel rooms required the approval of a conditional use, but council found the use inappropriate for the zoning district, and inconsistent with the city's land development code, comprehensive plan and vision to preserve its small-town charm and character for myriad reasons.
Council would have also had to grant an exception for parking, to support the lodging. The handling of parking and loading were factors in the denial.
The extra time and effort the owners and developers put into the project to ease concerns ahead of the public hearing weren't lost on council.
Mayor Teresa Heitmann expressed regret that the project made it so far, only to be denied, as something that's clearly unwanted on Fifth Avenue. Namely, the addition of more hotel rooms.
The city's review and approval process, she said, needs to change, with better communication all around.
"We can't do this to our petitioners," Heitmann said, in reflection at the end of the meeting. "It's just not right. It was hard for us to do."
She applauded council for not "crumbling," just because so much work had been put into the project, before reaching such a crucial decision.
Previously:Plans for new restaurant, hotel resurface on Fifth Avenue South in Naples
While the campaigning for the recent city election got ugly, Heitmann, who won by a slim margin, and the new councilors have vowed to put it all behind them, and to work together on important issues, including smart growth.
"I think we're off to a great start," Heitmann said.
After the vote, Janet Ferry, who spoke against the hotel rooms, along with a handful of others, said the unanimous decision by council "clearly recognized the objectives of our city vision," and residents’ interests.
"We are first and foremost a residential community, all be it one that appreciates and supports a robust local economy and our business districts," she said. "This balance is critical to our unique sense of place."
She added: "A lovely restaurant, such as the one designed, with residential dwelling units overhead, would support our vision, add stability and integrity to the street and serve both the business community and protect the residential boundaries. A restaurant with transient lodging above it would not."
The hotel rooms, she said, would not have operated with all the "appropriate oversight and operational infrastructure," which only added to the fears about their detrimental impacts on the surrounding residents and communities.