Jupiter Town Council takes up the plan for the former Suni Sands site at 6 p.m. this Thursday, October 29, in the Council Chambers at 210 Military Trail. The town's notices list three items for 961 and 997 N A1A. One is a Future Land Use Map amendment, one is a zoning map amendment, and one is a large-scale planned unit development that would allow a hotel, residential condominiums, a restaurant, retail and a marina.
The hotel will get the headlines. This first reading also tests a deal the town struck in January, when Council agreed to spend $10.5 million on a waterfront parcel next to the development. Two lines in the application carry the most public weight: how much of the Riverwalk Corridor survives, and what the developer can ask of the park the town is buying.
The lot below the lighthouse
If you've looked northeast from the top of the Jupiter Lighthouse, you have seen the site. It is the vacant waterfront where the Suni Sands mobile home park once stood. The town's own records call it the "Sperry Property (aka Suni-Sands)." A 2022 staff report lists features named for that earlier owner: the Sperry period stairway and the Sperry boathouse, which the report says had recently been demolished.
The same report names two archaeological resources on the parcel. One is the Suni Sands Shell Midden. The other is the bed of the Jupiter and Lake Worth Railway, better known as the Celestial Railway. Those resources have shaped every decision about the site since. Reports differ on when developer Charles Modica bought the property and what he paid. WPTV gives about $16 million in 2016, and earlier coverage in the Palm Beach Post gives $17 million in 2013. The sources agree that his development plans stalled after Native American archaeological sites were found on the land.
The steps that led to Thursday:
- Late 2022: A town staff report describes an earlier plan with a 125-room hotel, 72 dwelling units, 6,439 square feet of retail and 5,650 square feet of restaurant space. These figures belong to that older plan. No current counts have been published for the 2026 application.
- July 2023: The Palm Beach Post reported that an ancient burial mound near the Jupiter Inlet could keep Modica from building, as Council prepared to hear his appeal.
- July 25, 2023: The Historic Resources Board had denied a certificate to dig for the whole site. Council replaced that denial with Certificate to Dig No. 2-23, which protects the 4.07-acre midden and the Celestial Railway features and allows digging on the rest of the site under conditions.
- August 2023 onward: Modica challenged the restrictions through Florida's special-magistrate process, arguing that the area left for development was infeasible. Mediation followed.
- January 20, 2026: Council approved a mediated settlement on a 4–1 vote.
What the town has already agreed to buy
Stet News broke the settlement terms. The town keeps the 4.07-acre midden, keeps the railway strip, and buys a separate 1.41-acre parcel for $10.5 million. Development is allowed on the remaining 4.5 acres or so. In all, the agreement preserves about 5.5 acres of the roughly 10.4-acre site.
The deal has a clock. Council must consider Modica's new plans by December 31, after a review process with public hearings. If Council rejects them, he can cancel the agreement and pursue legal remedies. Council Member Malise Sundstrom described the framework before the January vote, as Stet News reported:
"It's a wonderful compromise and a rare opportunity to secure waterfront property that we didn't think we might be able to before. We have until the end of the year to get a series of applications approved and in their public nature and with Planning and Zoning looking at them. It is contingent on that."
The settlement also lets Modica seek changes to the town's growth plan, zoning rules and land-development regulations. He can ask Council to add a definition of "condominium hotel" to the town code. The settlement indicates he wants to build a dock on the Jupiter Inlet near the former Sperry boathouse. Philippe Jeck, his attorney, told Stet News that those changes "will yield a development opportunity on what's left that wasn't necessarily there before."
That is the setting for Thursday. The applications on the agenda are how the January framework turns into enforceable maps and an ordinance, with fewer than ten weeks left before the deadline.
Two maps and a text change on one night
The Future Land Use Map amendment, PZ 26-6813, replaces the site's current designations with a split between flex development and conservation. The zoning map amendment, PZ 26-6814, then assigns the districts that apply on the ground.
| Current land use | Proposed land use | Proposed zoning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development | 8.7 acres High Density Residential, 1.8 acres Riverwalk Flex | 5.0 acres Inlet Village Flex | 5.0 acres Inlet Village Flex South |
| Preserved | None designated | 5.5 acres Conservation | 4.1 acres Conservation Preservation, 1.4 acres Conservation Restricted |
| Riverwalk Corridor component | 535 linear feet | 142 linear feet |
A third item, PZ 26-6812, is a zoning text amendment. It would let the town assign the Inlet Village Flex South Subdistrict to the area north of North A1A between Clemons Street and Saturn Street. The site's mapped zoning depends on that change, which is why it shares Thursday's agenda.
The table shows the trade in the January settlement. Land currently designated for high-density housing becomes about half commercial flex and half conservation. Without the settlement, the town would be zoning more than five acres of protected waterfront it had no clear way to acquire.
The 393 feet
The row with the smallest numbers draws the most attention from people who use the inlet. The applicant asks to shrink the Riverwalk Corridor component on this site from 535 to 142 linear feet, a reduction of 393 feet.
The Planning and Zoning Commission, acting as the Local Planning Agency, heard the land use amendment on September 10. OpenFlorida publishes AI-generated summaries of town meetings. Its summary of that meeting reports that commissioners voted 7–0 to recommend approval with changes. They kept the full 535-foot Riverwalk corridor, moved a 0.7-acre strip near the shoreline from Inlet Village Flex into conservation, and asked Council to consider an equitable cap on traffic trips along A1A. The town's adopted minutes are the record to check before treating those details as final.
If that summary is accurate, the advisory board reversed the two parts of the request that most affect the public edge of the site. Council can accept, revise or set aside the board's changes. Each choice changes what the developer gets out of the January framework, and it changes whether the developer stays in it.
The water side of the plan
The second pressure point is offshore. In August, WPTV reported that the settlement was in doubt. Town attorney Thomas Baird told Council that the developer was asking for restrictions on the town's future park next door, to "limit the activities that could occur in the park, limit the hours of the park."
The same WPTV story covered concerns from the Jupiter Inlet Foundation that a larger marina would replace a decaying dock on the inlet. Foundation member and former council member Cameron May pointed to a buoy marking Johnson's seagrass, which he called "an endangered, threatened seagrass" and an important food source for manatees in the area. The developer's attorney told WPTV that his client is fully compliant with the settlement. He said the project would bring substantial improvements to the environment, and that he is confident both the developer and the town will be pleased with how it handles the area offshore.
Park hours, park uses, the marina footprint and the Riverwalk length all sit at the line where the private 4.5 acres meet the public 5.5 acres. The town has already agreed to a $10.5 million price for its part of that line. Its leverage now comes from how it zones the other side.
What a first reading settles, and what it leaves open
The PUD notice puts the ordinance's first reading on October 29. The second reading, along with the site plan and special exception resolutions, is listed as "TBD." The land use and zoning map amendments follow the same two-step pattern. Thursday's vote starts that sequence. The final adoption votes, and the site plan that will show building placement and the marina layout, come at a later meeting that must still fit before the settlement's December 31 deadline.
The PUD notice also says the request includes "multiple waiver requests." The town typically posts agendas with supporting documents on its website about a week before a meeting, under Government, then Agendas & Minutes. Those staff materials are where any published room counts, unit counts, heights and slip numbers would appear. Questions about the applications go to Martin Schneider in the Planning and Zoning Department at (561) 741-2290.
The Hyland Group follows changes like the Sperry applications because what Council approves on the inlet becomes part of how nearby Jupiter and Tequesta homes are understood and valued. If you own near the water and want a private conversation about where your property stands as this process moves forward, Request a Confidential Home Valuation.
