SRIA chairman Vernon Prather is drafting an ordinance to define what is a hotel room. The broad will discuss and vote on it at its May 8th meeting.
What’s at stake: Pensacola Beach has reached its cap on residential units – which includes condos – Portofino has about 700 units. Hurricane Ivan wiped out several hotels – Clarion, Holiday Inn and Dunes. The beaches land-use plan (set in 1998) calls for 2,000 hotel units.
In comes a new hybrid – condo-hotel – larger rooms, more amenities – another version of timeshare that failed in 1999-2000.
Condo owners don’t want the competition. Restaurants don’t want larger kitchens that might mean less meals outside the unit. Developers can get more for the units.
Since the leaseholders still aren’t paying property taxes, the county coffers will only be impacted if the condo-hotels mean fewer rentals. However if the condo-hotel units had to pay property taxes, the county might make considerably more off of the hybrid units – taxing each individual owner.
The question I have is – When a family visits us, will we be able to find a room on Pensacola Beach for them to stay a couple nights?
Also – will the SRIA ever build a parking garage?