Pinellas BOAA denies request to convert former daycare into 13-unit multifamily development in Seminole

The Pinellas County Board of Adjustment and Appeals on June 4 denied without prejudice an application to allow a 13-unit multifamily conversion of an existing one-story former daycare building on First Street North in unincorporated Seminole, the board said, by a 4-1 vote with one member recused.

Board members and nearby business owners said the project, proposed by JRFF LLC, raised unresolved utility-easement, parking and compatibility questions and appeared aimed at short-term rental occupancy. Staff had recommended conditional approval of the Type 2 use, which would permit multifamily development in the C-1 neighborhood commercial zoning district if the board granted the exception.

The board’s vote matters because a Type 2 use is required to allow multifamily housing in the county’s C-1 zone; approval would have let the applicant pursue site-plan review and permitting required to make changes, including any utility hookups or fire-protection upgrades.

Molly Cord, principal planner with Pinellas County Building and Development Review Services, told the board the subject property is roughly 0.66 acre and contains a 7,296-square-foot, one-story structure built in 1981. The county’s future land-use designation for the parcel is Commercial General, which allows a residential density up to 24 units per acre—about 16 units…