The proposal, which split Planning and Zoning last month, would rezone a tract of properties on the corner of Sunshine and National from single family to Office-2 (O2) while also establishing a conditional overlay district (COD – a kind of zoning-modifier) to rule out uses like entertainment, tattoo parlors or vape shops.
The owners of the tract, Be Kind and Merciful (BK&M), bought the properties in 2022 hoping to develop a retail plaza. But when backlash from the University Heights Neighborhood Association repeatedly prevented those hopes from coming to fruition, they settled on rezoning and trying to sell to another developer. This has not proven very easy for them either.
At the top of Monday’s city council meeting, Mayor Jeff Schrag motioned to suspend the rules and move the ordinance regarding the rezoning to the top of the agenda. It turns out that the developers had requested to have the plan remanded back to Planning and Zoning in order to make further changes to the zoning designation that would allow for the construction of a possible hotel, and if the bill was getting remanded, the people there to speak about it might as well go home…