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Board says Biltmore hotel must stay intact

Planning officials say a move to demolish the historic resort should be denied because its preservation is written into the town's comprehensive plan.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published January 11, 2006

BELLEAIR - Town officials told the owner of the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa that its plan to raze the historic hotel has a major flaw: It clashes with the town's key rules.

Tuesday night, the town's seven-member planning and zoning board unanimously recommended denying Belleview Biltmore Resort Ltd.'s application to tear down the hotel, saying its request doesn't conform with Belleair's comprehensive plan.

The plan mentions the 109-year-old hotel about a dozen times, claiming it should be preserved and protected.

The Town Commission is scheduled to make a final decision next Tuesday, but the owner's lawyers have asked for a delay.

Karla Rettstatt, planning board vice chairman, scolded the owner's attorney, Christopher Smart, for not acknowledging the hotel's prominence in the comprehensive plan.

"You never knew about it, that the Biltmore was at the top of that list?" she asked.

Smart told the board that his client plans to work with an architectural historian to photograph historic elements of the hotel.

Protecting the hotel cannot be accomplished by taking a picture of it, said town planning consultant, Robert G. Brown, senior vice president of TBE Group.

Preservation "is not the same as having a vacant lot where the hotel used to be," Brown said.

About 10 residents and preservationists spoke in favor of saving the hotel, which earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The meeting took an odd turn when one speaker, Robert Brandt of Palm Beach, announced he wanted to buy the hotel and save "every stick, shingle and flower petal."

Shortly after Brandt took his seat, the owner's attorney, Roger Schwenke, led him into the lobby for a private chat. No deal was announced upon their return.

Nine months ago, the owner filed its first application to tear down the Biltmore, but town officials said the owner submitted the wrong application. The staff rejected the owner's applications two more times on procedural grounds before finally accepting one turned in on Nov. 23.

Even if the commission approves the owner's plan to raze the hotel, a historic preservation ordinance passed in October requires the owner to go through more red tape to tear it down. The Biltmore's owner, however, contends that the ordinance does not take away its right to tear down the resort.

Lorri Helfand can be reached at 445-4155 or at lorri@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 11, 2006, 00:41:19]