Few topics generate more interest at Sarasota City Hall than a discussion of zoning changes on St. Armands Circle.
At its Nov. 21 meeting, the Sarasota City Commission heard a request from the St. Armands Business Improvement District for staff to investigate possible changes to the Commercial Tourism Zoning District in an effort to ” promote mixed-use development in the area, enhance the existing functionality and aesthetics of the circle, and set the framework for future development.
A request to start a new process that would have required additional community workshops and public hearings was under consideration. Still, more than a dozen people spoke out against the BID’s request primarily because the changes sought include increasing the maximum building height from 35 feet to 45 feet above the flood elevation of FEMA design, a review of additional density, and the addition of a hotel as a conditional use. .
Opponents saw this as an opportunity for commercial landlords in the circle to go vertical with their buildings, to add short-term rental accommodation above retail businesses.
Traffic in and around the circle was the main objection.
St. Armands BID President Tom Leonard told the commissioners that the main aim was to allow owners of the century-old buildings to bring them up to contemporary standards, if they wished.
“I’ve contacted every property owner in the circle and the majority of those operators feel that St. Armands needs more flexibility to allow it to maximize its potential,” said Leonard, owner of Shore Restaurant. Many buildings, he said, have eight-foot ceilings and non-compliant parking, limiting their owners’ ability to renovate.
“Our hands are tied there,” he said. “We’re not asking you to vote to approve it. We’re just asking you to vote so we can go through the public review process.
Already verified
This is not the first time the BID has tried to affect zoning changes on the circle. In 2008, he commissioned a study that resulted in an expressed need for a hotel and grocery store on the key.
“Not 10 grocery stores, not 10 hotels, one of each,” said Chris Golia, president of the St. Armands Residents Association. “But the issue before you today would allow every commercial building in St. Armands to have hotel rooms if the landlords wanted to, so we’re very concerned about that.”
Golia cited community workshops in August 2021 and January 2022, during which an overwhelming majority of participants opposed the proposals presented by the IDB.
St. Armands BID President Tom Leonard told Sarasota city commissioners that the zoning text changes at St. Armands Circle were necessary for commercial landlords to bring their buildings up to contemporary standards.
Ahead of the City Commission meeting, the St. Armands Residents Association reported that a recent poll of nearly half of responding residents resulted in 90% opposition to an increase in street height. commercial buildings and 87% opposed to a zoning text change that would allow boutique hotel use and Airbnb potential.
“For anyone who says all you’re doing is opening it up to public scrutiny, that’s already been done,” Golia said.
Lido Key resident Carl Shoffstall, president of a neighborhood association and candidate for city commissioner this year, objected to the BID taking the case to the city.
“It has nothing to do with me having mine and no one else should have theirs,” Shoffstall said. “We don’t need hotels. There is a hotel already approved. I really have a serious problem with people pushing this. We looked at this for over a year and a half and it was resoundingly rejected, and here we are, back to scab picking.
A big request
“We’re not trying to build towers there,” Leonard said. “What we’re trying to do is bring St. Armands to a level of development that makes it mainstream with other cities like Naples, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Tampa and St. Petersburg.”
Leonard and Julie Ryan, the BID’s city-appointed business manager, told commissioners that the BID itself is up for renewal in 2023 and that progress toward a zoning change could help secure landlord approval. As a special tax district, the city returns additional ad valorem revenue to the use of the BID to improve business on the circle.
Erik Arroyo, supported by his fellow commissioners, told Leonard that, in the wake of the approved Global Plan changes and the myriad zoning changes to improve affordable housing efforts that will follow, staff are already overstretched to undertake a zoning study.
City Manager Marlon Brown asked Planning Director Steve Cover to articulate staff workloads and when he might be able to fit the BID’s request into his schedule.
“We have a very heavy year ahead of us with downtown-related zoning enactment changes, which we will be jumping on early next year,” Cover said.
Could it be done in 2023, Brown asked?
“To really fit in comfortably, do it in 2024,” Cover said.
Rather than tackling a year-plus process to review a wholesale text amendment change, Arroyo suggested that landowners submit specific project proposals individually rather than wholesale under the guise of the IDB.
Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch agreed.
“When I’m reading this it’s to authorize city staff to prepare a zoning enactment amendment which is a big request from staff and then it says very specifically to review the additional density in the compensation plan” , said Ahearn-Koch. “I see it as a wide open door. It’s not targeted. It’s not specific. We didn’t have a plethora of people coming up to us asking for anything. To respond to Commissioner Arroyo’s point, there’s a lot going on, and to broadcast that without being targeted, I think we’re having trouble. »
City Attorney Robert Fournier settled the matter on the commissioners’ minds with a timely legal interpretation of the BID’s request.
Concretely, it is not precise enough.
“If the BID has any amendments they want to request, they should be able to articulate them or clarify what they are. I don’t think they’ve done that,” Fournier said. “The BID says the changes are necessary, and residents say they are not. I think it is not wise to allow an amendment to the zoning text unless you know exactly what is the proposed amendment, and I think it’s a little too open-ended for that.
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