Dunedin commission approves design review for 265 Causeway mixed‑use project, waives second reading

The Dunedin City Commission unanimously approved design‑review for a mixed‑use development at 265 Causeway Boulevard on May 7, allowing a project that includes 12 townhomes, a retail winery and a seven‑room hotel to proceed to permitting.

City planner George Kenny told the commission the Site is about 1.05 acres in a coastal high‑hazard land‑use designation and is zoned tourist facility; the proposal meets dimensional standards and is only slightly below the 50‑foot height cap. Kenny said the application mirrors a 2024 approval that lapsed when the applicant missed the 12‑month deadline for securing building permits. "This is exactly what you said yes to," he told the commission, summarizing that the project returns without substantive changes.

The developer and architect—Tim Gilpin of SDG Architecture representing JMAP Holmes—said the hotel annex would primarily serve visiting team administration and management, not players, and described the planned retail winery as a tasting and bottle‑retail space rather than a bar or entertainment venue. Gilpin said the dumpster area will be a capped concrete enclosure with a locked gate.

Nearby residents who spoke at the quorum‑required public hearing raised concerns after Pinellas County denied access to the Causeway and the project’s revised single exit onto Gary Circle. Jeremy Reynolds said that shifting primary access from the Causeway to a residential cul‑de‑sac creates a "functional incompatibility" with neighbors and urged the commission to reconsider traffic and parking impacts. Resident Cheryl Stimac said new units and hotel guests would reduce privacy and increase congestion for people who live near the Hampton Inn.

Staff responded that the project provides a 36‑space parking surplus over ordinance minimums and that the transportation analysis estimates the development will generate about 29 peak‑hour trips, which staff described as de minimis under city standards. Kenny and the applicant noted that Pinellas County would not permit a Causeway access and that proposal elements related to sidewalk setbacks, tree placement and trash access were addressed in the design and infrastructure review materials.

Commissioners debated whether circumstances had changed since the earlier approval but concluded the plans are substantively the same as the design the commission previously recommended. The commission passed the design‑review motion by unanimous roll call and then voted unanimously to waive a second reading, allowing the project to proceed directly to building‑permit review.

The applicant said plans would be submitted to the building department and staff expected infrastructure approval and vertical building permits in the coming weeks to months if reviews proceed on schedule. The commission did not attach additional conditions beyond those already noted in staff’s recommended conditions of approval.

Vote: Design review approval — unanimous. Waiver of second reading — unanimous.

What’s next: The applicant and staff said infrastructure review and building permit submittals are in progress; the developer estimated vertical permit application within weeks and hoped to begin site work later in the year.