Djon Pepaj has an uphill battle getting permits to convert his popular Sand on the Beach restaurant complex on S. Atlantic Street into a 12-room oceanfront bed and breakfast and keep his popular restaurant and lounge.
The back-and-forth discussions before the Melbourne Beach Town Commission have been ongoing for months, with commissioners on May 17 agreeing in principle to certain changes to the land development code for bed and breakfasts, but refusing others concessions sought by the restaurateur.
Commissioners tabled further action so Town Attorney Cliff Repperger Jr. can draft language for the proposed changes for the June meeting.
Commissioners say they have no problem eliminating the existing restriction in the definition for bed and breakfasts requiring a former use as a single family residence in a historic building. But where town officials have seemed to draw a line in the sand is on a code requirement that the property be a single use only – just a bed and breakfast.
The building housing Pepaj’s Sand on the Beach restaurant includes apartments, an office, a lounge and a bar. The largest bone of contention is the restaurant and the lounge, which would serve the general public not just the guests at the bed and breakfast.
“I have no problem with a B&B in town,” said Mayor Jim Simmons. “But when we talk about a restaurant attached you’re talking motel and we do not allow motels. A bed and breakfast does not offer a full-service meal and a lounge.”
Pepaj disagreed. “You can have both,” he said to commissioners. “Serving lunch is not a big deal.”
Pepaj, who owns a steak house on Ocean Avenue, initially requested a special exception for the conversion of the property, but was denied because the building did not meet the requirement as a historic residence. He and his legal team then proposed a code change to delete the residence stipulation.
“At the same meeting they said, ‘oh, by the way, we have evidence that there were residences there.’ So, we tabled the code change and directed the planner to determine if they met the resident requirement,” Simmons said.
Research discovered that as of 1959 the site included, among other elements, three residential buildings. But between 1986 and 1993 the site was redeveloped substantially to its current configuration, demolishing the dwellings. The planner responded that the history is not conclusive enough, which brought back the code change request to permit bed and breakfasts in single or multifamily buildings even if there is no historic connection – and to retain the right to serve meals to the general public.
“We hope for a change to allow the development of a restaurant and lounge into a B&B with a restaurant. It’s an attractive location,” said Pepaj’s lawyer, Kim Rezanka.
Port d’Hiver, one of the two bed and breakfasts in town, offers early evening wine and cheese snacks, but only to its overnight guests.
Even the elimination of the residence and historical aspects opens the door to competitors. “The effect here would be to have more locations where you can have a bed and breakfast,” Repperger said.
Simmons pointed out that should the church on Ocean Avenue shut down, someone could turn it into a bed and breakfast even if it was never a residence.
“I can live without it being historic,” Commissioner Tom Davis said.
The two existing Melbourne Beach inns fit the more traditional concept of a bed and breakfast as historic former residences. The seven-room SeaGlass Inn changed owners last month and declined comment for this story. Innkeepers at the 10-room Port d’Hiver did not return calls for comment.
Simmons said if the ordinance receives approval with the proposed changes, Pepaj would have to apply for a special exception for the rest of the requests.
“It is clear to me they would not meet the definition of a bed and breakfast if they also have a restaurant” and other elements, he said. “If they want to continue those businesses and have a B&B on the same property, I am virtually certain they would be turned down. Mr. Pepaj will have a choice: restaurant and/or other businesses or a B&B; he cannot have both.”