Developer proposes to limit Keewaydin beach club

A developer is proposing a new limit on a controversial proposal to build a beach club on Keewaydin Island.

The proposal would limit expansion of the proposed 2,925-square-foot screened pavilion and deck so that it could never be larger than 4,500 square feet, the company’s attorney Clay Brooker said Tuesday.

Expansion of the beach club, proposed for a barrier island within the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, has been a central issue in the debate over the plans.

The Collier County Planning Commission had been set to vote today on a recommendation on the plans, but Basil Street Partners LLC, a partnership that includes prominent local developer Jack Antaramian, has asked that the hearing be delayed until July 20. That would delay a Collier County Commission vote until Sept. 26.

The beach pavilion would be a private amenity for up to 750 members of Naples Bay Resort, a set of three projects Antaramian is building along U.S. 41 East, at Sandpiper Street, at the former Boat Haven marine site and at the former Grand Central Station shopping center on Goodlette-Frank Road.

The proposal to limit expansion has been sent to the state Department of Environmental Protection for review as part of a larger document that sets out restrictions on use of the beach club.

Brooker said both sides have come to an agreement about its “basic concepts” but still are tinkering with the wording of various documents.

DEP spokesman Anthony De Luise wrote in an e-mail that the agency is reviewing the developer’s changes. The review could be complete by week’s end, he wrote.

A delay of today’s hearing would give both sides more time to present a “fully final and executed document” to the Planning Commission so there will be no question about what rules the beach club would have to follow, Brooker said.

“We don’t want to have to deal with that kind of objection or that kind of issue,” he said.

It is unclear this week whether the new limit on expansion of the proposed beach club will quell opposition to the plans.

In a January letter, Conservancy of Southwest Florida President Andrew McElwaine wrote that the Conservancy would “withdraw its opposition” if the DEP agreement and the county placed a “restrictive covenant” on land outside the current footprint of the proposed pavilion.

Since then, but before details were known about expansion limits, the Conservancy’s conservation committee decided to oppose the beach club plans at today’s scheduled Planning Commission hearing.

“We’ve not had any further discussions and nothing’s changed on our end,” McElwaine said Tuesday.

Among other restrictions on the proposed beach club is a 56-person cap on the number of visitors to the pavilion at one time. The resort would provide a shuttle service to the island.

The pavilion also would have to follow rules about lighting, special events, cleaning the beach and the location of beach chairs and umbrellas.

The Keewaydin Island Property Owners Association is opposed to the beach club because the group considers the rules unenforceable.

The beach club represents a first step toward commercialization of one of Collier County’s natural gems, opponents say.