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Panama City planning board recommends development agreement and conditional approval for Saint Andrew Bay Yacht Club project
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Summary
The Panama City Planning Board recommended a 30-year development agreement and conditionally approved a major development order for a new clubhouse at the Saint Andrew Bay Yacht Club, adding limits on expansion, event definitions, parking and nighttime activities after negotiations with neighbors.
The Panama City Planning Board on April 13 recommended a 30-year development agreement between the city and the Saint Andrew Bay Yacht Club and conditionally approved a related major development order for a new clubhouse, voting to recommend the agreement 4–0 with Chairman Neubauer recorded as abstaining.
The agreement, which staff said complies with Florida statutes and the Panama City Unified Land Development Code, spells out how the yacht club’s property will be redeveloped and how certain operations will be managed — including vehicle and trailer parking, sailing-center operations and potential future dock or ramp changes. The board’s recommendation will go to the City Commission for final approval on April 28; the major development order was approved by the board only if the commission also approves the development agreement.
Attorney Michael Wynne, who presented a red-line summary of last-minute edits to the published agreement, told the board the changes reflected months of negotiation with neighbors and “substantial” efforts to limit impacts on adjacent properties. Wynne read edits that: relocate a proposed pool farther from the road; add a formal definition of “special event” and subject such events to operational limits; prohibit most additional impervious surface on the Stokes (sailing-center) parcel except for safe ingress/egress and code-required accessibility; and add towing and fee procedures for extended overnight rig parking. Wynne also described new language that bundles no-expansion and zoning-status provisions and adds an intent clause clarifying the agreement is intended to define but not expand historical nonconforming rights.
“...we have achieved that consensus today,” Wynne said, summarizing the negotiations and edits that were added to the published document.
Attorney Meredith Bush, who said she had represented neighborhood interests in prior hearings, told the board she and her client had reviewed Wynne’s amended draft and believed it reflected the negotiated protections, though she noted several changes were finalized shortly before the meeting and said parties had been assured additional changes would delay the scheduled city-commission hearing.
Key restrictions in the revised agreement include limits on expansion of operational capacity at the sailing center, express constraints on adding aggregate or other impervious surfaces to create parking areas on the Stokes parcel, and prescribed nighttime activity hours (described in the draft as 9:30 p.m. to 8 a.m.). The document also adds a discontinuance provision that says a nonconforming use that is intentionally abandoned will not preserve nonconforming rights.
The board recommended approval of the development agreement and approved the major development order for the clubhouse conditioned on the City Commission’s approval. The next procedural step is the commission hearing on April 28, where members said the city will review the final adopted language before the project can proceed.
