By Jerry Creel
Community Development Director
This week in economic development, the city council voted to uphold the recommendation of the planning commission to deny a change in zoning for several parcels of property located on Beach Boulevard between Hopkins Boulevard and Porter Avenue. At a previous meeting, the city council voted to approve an application for a new La Quinta Hotel to be located on the western corner of Hopkins and Beach Boulevards. The zoning for that property was changed from Residential Multi-Family (RM-10) to Community Business (CB) to allow the hotel. Due to requests from adjacent property owners, a public hearing was conducted to consider changing the zoning for the remaining parcels from the La Quinta, west to Porter Avenue, to CB as well.
At the public hearing, the planning commission voted to recommend denial of the request. The commission felt that zoning change requests for each property should be considered on a case by case basis. The city council agreed and voted to uphold the denial.
On Thursday January 15 2015, the planning commission will conduct a public hearing to consider the establishment of a Tree Committee. The public hearing will be held at 2:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Community Development Building located at 676 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.
So far today, there are no cases scheduled for the Development Review Committee for the meeting on Wednesday, January 14.Â
The deadline for submitting an application for a Wednesday DRC meeting is the previous Friday at 5:00 p.m.
We are currently reviewing plans for renovations ($5 Million) to convert the Sheraton Four Points Hotel on Beach Boulevard to a Doubletree Hotel. Also, renovation plans were submitted for the Golden Nugget Casino to add public restrooms. Plans were also submitted for renovations to establish a Stagecoach Bar at the Boomtown Casino, an addition to the arcade at Big Play Amusement Park, and 2 new single family houses.
For the last two weeks of 2014, we issued 119 building permits for a total construction valuation of $4.1 million dollars. The permits included, a renovation permit to convert the former Boomtown Visitors Center to Fat Tuesdays Daiquiri Bar, and building permits for 17 new single family houses.
For year 2014, we issued 3019 building permits for a total construction valuation of $112,534,923, which exceeded our 2013 total by $8.5 Million.  For the first week of 2015, we have issued 41 building permits totaling $4.6 million dollars, which include a permit to repair the exterior of the former Casino Magic structure.
Sales tax revenues for the month of November 2014 exceeded $900,000. for the first November since 2004. The $935,825 total was a $42,691 increase over November 2013.  December 2014 totals should be available later this month.
