A modified plan for Marker 25 Marina excludes food service and entertainment.
By RICHARD DANIELSON
Published May 11, 2004
TARPON SPRINGS - Pinellas County planners have recommended that a local restaurateur be allowed to convert the Marker 25 Marina on the Anclote River into a fish camp, minus parts of the plan that neighbors oppose.
If approved by county commissioners on May 25, the camp would have 10 rental units for boaters staying overnight, three or four long-term rental homes, a bait shop that sells snacks, and some additional boat slips.
Under a proposed development agreement, it would not have a restaurant, a bar or the ability to sell beer or wine to go.
There would be no live entertainment and no outdoor loudspeakers.
Nor would there be any high-and-dry boat storage or rentals of airboats or personal watercraft.
"They've got some restrictions in the developer's agreement that we're pretty comfortable with," said Paul Cassel, the county's director of development review services. He said the project has been "greatly modified" from what was originally proposed.
The marina is at 1155 Anclote Road, just south of the Pinellas-Pasco county line between the Hickory Point RV Park and the $300,000-to-$400,000 homes in Meyer's Cove. It is owned by Michael S. Tsalickis, 47, who runs Paul's Shrimp House near the Sponge Docks.
Tarpon Springs lawyer Herb Elliott, who represents Tsalickis, said Monday he hopes this plan works for everyone.
"My client is comfortable with it," Elliott said. "We've made major modifications to the original proposal. I hope the neighbors will be happy with it."
The 2.3-acre property has been used for boating-related activities since the early 1960s, most recently as a bait shop, small marina and restaurant.
Neighbors say that after Tsalickis got a county variance in 1998 to sell beer and wine, the marina was transformed into a rowdy bar with pounding rock music, loud motorcycles and raucous, drunken customers. In March, complaints about the business led county officials to rescind the marina's ability to sell beer and wine.
That history has not given neighbors confidence about how any new development would turn out. Meyer's Cove resident Jon A. Wilson has fought Tsalickis' use of the marina for six years and plans to oppose this development, too.
Wilson said it would make sense to develop the land for high-end homes, but he remains "quite leery" of any expansion of the marina operation.
"It's like the camel putting his nose under the tent," said Wilson, 66, a retired labor relations representative for the Ford Motor Co. "As soon as the thing is zoned commercial, it'll be like Disneyland West over there."
But Elliott said the business that caused the trouble was run by a tenant of Tsalickis' who has been evicted. As envisioned, he said, the fish camp will be "just a place where people can come and use the river and go fishing."
"It'll be a nice, much more upscale operation than has been (there) in the past," he said.
