Council Meets for Marathon Session

A wide range of issues coming before the Marco Island City Council resulted in a marathon five-hour meeting on Monday, May 2. Surprisingly, the extended session did not even break Marco’s record for its longest council meeting.

City councilors did their best to move through the various matters on the agenda. Discussions ranged from a misunderstanding surrounding a poorly worded memorandum about the perceived loss of a sporting events field, to discussions on a “retention plan” designed to maintain the city’s valuable pool of employees.

Council began the evening on a positive note, by presenting proclamations to city employees. Recognized were: Community Affairs Director Daniel Smith (5 years of service); Firefighter/Paramedic Matt Lund (10 years of service); Water and Sewer Department, Chief Operator of the South Water Plant Darrell Williams (15 years of service); and Human Resource Officer and Grants Coordinator Leslie Sanford (15 years of service).

One of the evening’s most contentious matters involved a resolution to approve a shared parking agreement for a new restaurant. The restaurant will be located at the end of Bald Eagle Drive, adjacent to the popular Snook Inn.

This matter originally came before council during their March meeting, when the petitioner faced council and a chamber filled with residents to seek relief from what they considered was an untenable situation in that area of Old Marco. 

Residents expressed concern that the peace and tranquility of Old Marco had been under assault for the last two decades. They opined that the addition of a three-story, 268-seat restaurant and bar would further add to the congestion, parking and noise issues in their neighborhood. At that time, council was blindsided by the fact that the last traffic report was from 2012, and that there was no recent traffic study in evidence. They requested that city staff contract for a traffic study, which would enable them to make a more informed decision. That report was completed by TyLin Engineering over the weekend of April 7, 8 and 9, 2022. This drew serious criticism from residents and councilors who questioned the validity of the findings. In fact, for some, the new report created more questions than it answered.

Further confusion was caused by the petitioner’s attorney, who mentioned the use of the old Marek’s location for off-site catering and food transfer to the proposed new restaurant. This would require representatives of MHK Architecture and Planning to come forth and qualify that no outside catering would be done other than preparation for the new restaurant.

The 268-seat restaurant would require a total of 72 parking spaces to accommodate their operation, which are being proposed as follows: 

• 37 Parking Spaces at the new restaurant location.

• Five Boat Slips.*

• 28 Parking Spaces at the old Marek’s site.

• Two Parking Credits within the city right of way.

• Two Additional Parking Credits for a bike rack, benches and recycling.

*The five boat slips are presently located in a basin which has silted in and needs work that has not yet been permitted. The necessary dredging to create a new seawall and docks requires state permits.

After a prolonged discussion, comments from neighbors and input of council, no councilor made a motion on the item, which the city attorney advised was the proper procedure. In an effort to bring a motion forward for a vote, Vice Chair Jared Grifoni moved to approve the staff’s recommendation for approval. The motion failed with only one vote in its favor.

Read more about the May 2 Marco Island City Council Meeting in next week’s edition of the Coastal Breeze News.