Conditions Placed on Little Sister Condo Project

The proposed site plan for The Cove at Pebble Beach.

The Village of Sister Bay Plan Commission voted unanimously to place a long list of conditions on the condominium project proposed for the former site of Little Sister Resort and Fred & Fuzzy’s restaurant during a meeting Tuesday evening.

The conditions include not using the words “Pebble Beach” in the condo project’s name, constructing an ADA-compliant path to the waterfront, banning transient rentals of the condominiums, and leaving the former Fred & Fuzzy’s bathrooms – located near village property – and making them available for public use with maintenance by the village.

Jeff DeLeers and Anuj Rastogi spoke for the developers in response to the conditions, most of which they said were not practical or financially feasible. Rastogi said the conditions would put “quite a few public infrastructure improvements on a private development.”

Plan Commission Chair Denise Bhirdo countered by saying that many of the commission’s requests were tweaks to proposals that the Cranes previously told the village they planned to make.

“When you first presented to us, you wanted to use the easement and pave it to have private access [for] your homeowners to Pebble Beach,” Bhirdo said. “To say that you are doing public infrastructure, you presented on doing something. We’re just asking that you step that up and make it ADA accessible.”

She made a similar argument regarding the bathrooms.

“Lance Crane stated that he would like to keep them for the homeowners in the development,” Bhirdo said. “The plan commission is proposing everyone use it. The village would maintain [them] for everyone’s use.”

“We want to work with the village on things that we can work on,” Rastogi said. “The neighbors like this project as well. We’re putting it back into a residential neighborhood.”

The last point was disputed by plan commissioners who noted that the area was not historically a residential neighborhood. Little Sister Resort opened a century ago, and most of the homes in the area were built after it opened. Little Sister Harbor was originally a village settlement.

Commissioner Nate Bell made a point on profitability considerations in regard to zoning.

“The Plan Commission does not concern itself with finances,” Bell said.

The commission did concede that requests that no blasting take place for the project would not be feasible after the developers noted that blasting would be required to extend sewer and water, just as the village had done previously.