Agent for Siesta businessman pursuing change in land-use regulations and policy to eliminate counting of hotel rooms for residential purposes
On March 3, the Sarasota County commissioners will be asked whether they want to allow county Planning Division staff to process a proposed amendment to the county’s Unified Development Code (UDC) that would eliminate the counting of hotel rooms for residential density purposes in the “South Bridge” portion of Siesta Key.
The South Bridge area would be defined as the commercial portion of the barrier island in located south of Stickney Point Road and east of Midnight Pass Road, as noted in county records.
A county staff memo in the March 3 agenda packet points out, “This amendment is limited to the South Bridge Area only and would have no application elsewhere on Barrier Islands or within the County.” That amendment is being handled by Joe Medred of Genesis Planning and Development of Bradenton, on behalf of Siesta Key businessman Dr. Gary Kompothecras.
For years, Kompothecras has made it clear that he wants to construct a hotel on property he owns on Old Stickney Point Road, at the Peacock Road intersection.
Siesta Key resident Lourdes Ramirez won a lawsuit against the county in the summer of 2023 in which she argued that the Comprehensive Plan — which guides growth in the community — restricts residential density on the island to the level in place as of March 13, 1989. The applicable Future Land use policy is 2.9.1.
In late October 2021, the County Commission seated at that time voted 3-2 to approve an amendment to the Unified Development Code, which contains all of the land-use and zoning regulations, to classify hotels as commercial structures that did not have to abide by that residential density limitation.
Then-Commissioners Nancy Detert and Christian Ziegler opposed the measure, which was proposed by Sarasota attorney William Merrill III, of the Icard Merrill firm, on behalf of clients who wanted to build a 170-room hotel on slightly less than 1 acre on the edge of Siesta Village.
The board members also voted 3-2 that day to allow the hotel plans to move forward.
Almost exactly a week later, the same commissioners voted 4-1 to approve Kompothecras’ plans for a 120-room hotel on his Old Stickney Point Road parcels. Detert cast the “No” vote.
Rameriz and other opponents of the two projects characterized the plans’ focus as “mega-hotels.”
After reviewing older versions of the county Comprehensive Plan in presiding over Ramirez’s litigation, 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Hunter W. Carroll wrote in his August 2023 ruling that the maximum number of hotel rooms that could be allowed under the Siesta Key Overlay Zoning District regulations would be 36.
County regulations at the time restricted the number to 26 per acre on parcels zoned Commercial General — and then only if the majority of the rooms had no kitchens.
Nonetheless, in the aftermath of Carroll’s decision, Kompothecras continued to try to find a way to build his hotel.
As The Sarasota News Leader has reported, Kompothecras revived his hotel plans with an eye toward “piggybacking” on a series of proposed Comprehensive Plan amendments that Benderson Development Co. had proposed, so it could construct a high-rise hotel on the site of two shopping plazas it owns in Siesta Village. Ultimately, Ramirez learned late last year, with no company action having taken place on those amendments over a period of months, county staff declared them to have been withdrawn from consideration.
In the meantime — with county Planning Division staff having called for numerous revisions of those Benderson proposals — Kompothecras decided in the spring of 2025 to pursue his own South Bridge amendment.
On Feb. 25, when the News Leader checked the status of Kompothecras’ proposed Comprehensive Plan amendment in county Planning and Zoning Division records, the News Leader found the staff comment, “Revisions Required.”
Further, under the heading “Record Details,” the description of the proposal is as follows: “Privately initiated (large scale) Comprehensive Plan Text Amendment to revise existing Future Land Use (FLU) policy 2.9.1 and to add a new definition for ‘South Bridge Area” within the Siesta Key Barrier Island, to allow for development of transient accommodations that are exempt from residential density limitations within the CG/SKOD and CI/SKOD (Siesta Key Overlay) commercial zone districts contained within the proposed defined South Bridge Area.”
“CG/SKOD” refers to parcels zoned Commercial General that are governed by the Siesta Key Overlay District zoning regulations; “CI/SKOD” refers to parcels zoned Commercial Intensive.
Hotels are permitted by Special Exception, granted by the County Commission, on property with CG zoning.
If the county commissioners agree on March 3 to allow the county’s Planning Division to proceed with the work necessary for the ultimate approval of Kompothecras’ proposed UDC amendment, the March 3 staff memo says, a companion amendment to the Comprehensive Plan “would be reviewed in conjunction” with the UDC text.
Staff noted in the memo that it has no recommendation for the board members on how to handle the request submitted by Medred of Genesis Planning and Development. The staff is requesting board “[p]olicy guidance.”
The discussion will be part of item No. 25 on the March 3 agenda.
The meeting will be held at the Robert L. Anderson Administration Center, which stands at 4000 S. Tamiami Trail in Venice. It is scheduled as the first board discussion after the vote on the Consent Agenda of routine business matters, which will follow the Open to the Public comment period.
‘The first gate’
In January 2024, Siesta resident Ramirez and other island residents established a new nonprofit organization called Protect Siesta Key; Ramirez is the president.
On Feb. 25, Ramirez sent out a newsletter from that nonprofit with the headline, “Don’t Let the County Open the Floodgates for Mega-Hotels!”
In that e-blast, she first reported on the plans for the March 3 County Commission meeting, noting that the county Planning and Development Services staff will be reviewing 12 proposed UDC amendments that day with the board members; nine of those have been initiated by members of the public, including Kompothecras, she pointed out.
“This meeting is not a public hearing,” Ramirez wrote in the newsletter. “It is the first gate. The Commission will simply decide whether to allow the developer to move forward with the proposed change,” she added.
Then, with emphasis, she wrote, “If the County opens the door to unlimited hotel density in South Village, it will not stop there. Other commercial property owners will demand the same treatment — and more mega-hotels will follow.
“Our island cannot handle more intensity,” she pointed out:
- “Flooding already occurs during routine downpours.
- “Traffic congestion delays emergency response times.
- “Hurricane evacuation times continue to worsen.
- “Infrastructure is aging and strained.
“Besides eliminating density limits,” she continued in the newsletter, with further emphasis, “the proposal adds hotel uses to the Commercial Intensive (CI) districts along Stickney Point Road and near Turtle Beach Marina. Hotels (transient accommodations) are not currently allowed in CI under long-standing protective codes dating back to 1989. Adding hotels to CI is not just a density increase — it is an intensity increase, directly conflicting with our Comprehensive Plan protections.
“This is our moment to speak up,” Ramirez pointed out. “Protect Siesta Key urges you to email the County Commission today and copy the County planner: Commissioners@scgov.net, Planner@scgov.net”