BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. — An online petition against a proposed four-story hotel in Bradenton Beach is gathering lots of signatures. The petition was started by a student at USF who is also a native of the Anna Maria Island area.
More than 2,500 people have signed Hunter Jensen's petition which called on Bradenton Beach City commissioners to deny approval to the proposed 103-room four-story hotel.
Key concerns raised by many who signed the petition against the new proposal include parking and traffic congestion which they say would become worse problems if the proposal gets the green light.
"It has the community very upset about it just due to the sheer size of it and the location of it," Jensen said.
The property on which the hotel would sit is located at the corner of Bridge Street and Gulf Drive. It stretches up to Third street and around to some parcels behind 101 Bridge Street.
Jensen considers the area the cultural center of Anna Maria Island and says the hotel would take up nearly half of Bridge Street. He believes allowing such a massive structure, compared to what currently exists does not align with the aesthetics of the area and would ruin the unique experience there for both tourists and locals alike.
"They are going to look elsewhere," Jensen said. "They're going to go places that will give them the old Florida feel, and they might even go out of state."
The developers' plans for the hotel would include a top-floor swimming pool area and more than 120 parking spaces. Some folks who live and work nearby said the small city's infrastructure can't handle what would come with such a project.
"One hundred three rooms, that's a lot of people, a lot of rooms, a lot of traffic, I am not a fan personally," said Beth Suchka, who works on Anna Maria Island.
"It's hard for the people that work here, that live here locally and that work here locally to get to and from during the season to their place of employment," Suchka said.
Community members against the plan also said they would rather see something they feel would positively impact their engagement with the island. They have made suggestions that include shops, restaurants and miniature golf centers. They believe that petition would convey a loud message to city leaders about what is unacceptable for their small community.
"They are starting to say, my leaders aren't representing me the way that I want them to represent me," Jensen said. "They are not addressing my concerns and I think it's really important that we take note of this because come election day we need to find a leader who's going to listen to our concerns."
10 Tampa Bay reached out to the developers for a response to those concerns but they were unavailable for comment.
A representative of the City also said city officials don't comment on preliminary plans submitted for review.