Waterfront Resort Project Inches Along

STONE HARBOR –– Owner John Sprandio was little more than a foot and four inches away from gaining site plan approval from the Zoning Board June 13 for phase one of the Shelter Haven Resort on the vacant lot of 96th Street and Third Avenue.
Sprandio and his slew of professionals – an architect, designer, planner, surveyor and market analyst – presented plans with the same footprint and height as was approved years ago.
Those plans conform to old zoning laws, which have since changed, Zoning Officer Joanne Mascia said. Under these new laws the site plan presented was one-foot too close to 96th Street for a com-pliant setback and four inches too close to Third Avenue.
Plans for an outdoor dining area along the Shelter Haven Basin were inconsistent with cur-rent code as were the second and third floor bump-out windows.
“I’m concerned with the board’s ability to know what we are looking at,” board solicitor Andrew Catanese said referring to the changes or variances needed for the architecture and site plans in light of the present zoning code.
The year-round resort would include a spa, fitness room and full amenities keeping with the borough’s definition of upscale “boutique hotels” for the Water-front Business District.
Sprandio has owned the lot since 2000 and received approval in 1998 for a first-floor retail hotel. Plans presented June 13 didn’t include retail, but rather a large banquet area, a pool, small on-site rear parking area from 96th Street and, instead of 12 suites, 25 mini-suites with a total of 32 bed-rooms and 41 guest-rooms with one, two, or four rooms within each suite.
The resort plans 53 parking spaces on and off-site, two per unit, as required by CAFRA.
Architect Richard Stokes, whose designs include the Chelsea in Atlantic City, said the building is intended to be a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building with a vegetable roof, made with a covering of topsoil on which plants are grown, and gray water recycling system.
Public hearing has been postponed until modified site plans are presented to the board July 11 along with phase two, which includes the Henny’s Restaurant parking area for the resort’s off-site parking.
The resort will most likely transfer the liquor license from Henny’s Restaurant.
Plans showed 12-foot-wide second and third floor 22-inch bump-out windows, which, under new law, cannot exceed a width of 10 feet and cannot be within 10 feet of each other, Mascia said.
Sprandio intends to seek a variance for a 24-foot wide second-floor window as his attorney said modifying it “would change the aesthetics of the building.”
Contact Truluck at (609) 886-8600 ext. 24 or at: ltruluck @cmcherald.com