After requesting a continuance on his project, London Bay CEO Mark Wilson will be back in front of the LPA this morning at 9AM. And it appears, Wilson made a few adjustments to his proposal to redevelop the old Outrigger property.
In the LPA’s agenda packet a new layout of the property shows that Wilson has taken one floor off the 15 floor condo building to bring it down to the 158 feet several LPA members requested. He has then added an additional floor to each of the other 3 buildings. Those three buildings are the three hotel/condo buildings which takes them from 12 floors to 13, 11 floors to 12, and 9 floors to 10.
That may indicate Wilson has decided to try to use the multiplier from condo units to hotel rooms, which some people in the community believe is no longer valid due to the recent Comp Plan changes.
The challenge for the LPA today will be that staff has written that they have not had enough time to review Wilson’s changes, which were submitted on April 30th. The LPA is unable to simply delay the meeting until staff is ready because the previous meeting was continued to a date certain (today). LPA Chair Anita Cereceda is unlikely to inconvenience a roomful of local residents, who may show up for public comment, with another continuance, knowing this project is going forward to the Town Council no matter how the LPA votes.
Both the LPA and the Town Council have set special meetings to accomodate London Bay before the Summer recess (and before the November election).
You can watch today’s meeting live on our Facebook page or YouTube Channel.
This all follows a 7 hour LPA meeting where no decision was made. Wilson asked for the continuance when LPA members said they wanted him to reduce his highest building from 177 feet to 158.
Another reason Wilson asked for the continuance was that LPA member Doug Eckman had to leave the meeting at 3PM on the 14th. It appeared Eckman was leaning toward a YES vote on the project and Wilson doesn’t want to lose that vote. With Eckman out of the room, a vote was looking more like a 3-3 tie. A tied vote is a failed vote. At a special LPA meeting on April 21st (not about London Bay), Eckman informed the LPA he would be out of town and unavailable to participage in the meeting today. The LPA only needs 4 members to have a quorum and legally run a meeting.
Several members of the LPA seem to be fine with disregarding the island’s maximum Floor Area Ratio (FAR) max of 2.5. Wilson says his calculations bring the F.A.R. to a 3, although there’s a question as to whether they way he’s calculated it the way the town has made other properties calculate it. The bottom line is however it’s calculated it’s not 2.5. If the town allows London Bay to create its own “Outrigger” district, the calculation becomes meaningless.
Wilson’s sales pitch has been that the island needs this project to get its mojo back and he painted bleak financial numbers for the island during his presentation. He also said this is a project the south end of the island needs with the Wyndham the only other big south end property able to add a larger scale project. The project has both support and opposition from residents.
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The project is not needed margaritaville is the bar .it took 2 and a half years to build there it’s just too big on the south end
As an off islander who spends considerable time on FMB i am tired of hearing that nothing has been done to rebirth the beach. There is so much that has been restored, great restaurants, the beach looks better than ever, tons of fun and music everywhere! Rebuilding has happened and will continue. FMB still has its mojo and is still the place to be. I don’t believe LB will be a good neighbor as others have shown that they can be. What I do believe is that the vibe lives on and huge developments aren’t the way to go. FMB is a very special place and needs to be treated as such.
Nicely said! 🙂