Commercial zoning change denied for Mel Fisher Museum

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Worried that a proposed zoning change for the property that currently houses the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum could lead to the area becoming an extension of the rowdy lower Duval Street corridor, Key West City Commissioners unanimously denied the request.

Museum officials had asked for a rezoning from the current designation as Historic Planned Redevelopment and Development to Historic Residential Commercial Core District as a way to increase revenue producing activities allowed on the property. Most of lower Duval Street has the commercial core zoning designation.

Despite the Key West Planning Board earlier approving the zoning change by a 3-2 vote, the city planning department recommended against the change. City Planner Patrick Wright said the proposed new uses of the property, which include a bike rental booth and the reopening of a patio café, would be allowed under the current zoning.

“The requested change in zoning… would not make this principal use of a museum any more permissible than it is right now,” he said.

Wright did acknowledge, however, that new types of commercial activities at the museum might need a special permit and could possibly require the museum to submit a development plan for each one, a costly and time-consuming process. Owen Trepanier, speaking on behalf of the museum, said the current zoning would require a special permit for any activities not directly related to the museum’s mission, including weddings, lectures and other special events. He acknowledged that the museum could continue to operate under the current land use designation but it cannot change or adapt to an increasingly difficult business environment. Although the new zoning would allow the museum to open any type of business currently allowed on lower Duval, that is not the intention, he said.

“We’re not here to create a bar. We’re not here to create a strip club. We’re not here to create a t-shirt shop. We’re here to make sure the museum can remain vital and be part of Key West for many more generations to come,” Trepanier said.

Museum President and CEO Melissa Kendrick said the museum is looking for low-impact ways to increase revenue at the museum, which is a separate entity from the gift shop in the museum lobby that sells part of the bounty discovered by treasure hunter Mel Fisher in the gold-laden Atocha shipwreck. Things are becoming more expensive, Kendrick told commissioners, and we have to find ways to make things work.

“We’re trying to survive on the corner,” she said. “I hope you approve this for us tonight. We need it.”

Gregory Lloyd, a planning board member who voted against the zoning change, spoke as a private citizen at the commission meeting. He said he believes that current museum management does not want to open businesses similar to those on lower Duval. However, if the museum is ever sold, a new owner might not be so reluctant, he said.

“You’re giving them a permitted right for adult entertainment. You’re giving them a right for transient rentals,” Lloyd said. “What happens if some day it changes hands?”

That idea of an unknown buyer taking over the property and extending the often-rambunctious lower Duval commercial district into an area that backs up to a residential neighborhood was enough to convince commissioners to deny the zoning change. Commissioner Clayton Lopez also worried that adjacent businesses in the existing Historic Planned Redevelopment zone would request the more permissible commercial zoning change if it was granted to the Mel Fisher Museum. Mayor Craig Cates pointed out that there have been numerous noise complaints about lower Duval that could spread with a zoning change.

“Now, we’re going to allow, if we change this zoning, this place could be open until 4:00 in the morning with the same sound levels that are on Duval Street and with a residential area right beside it,” he said.

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