CAP would encompass Gulf Gate Commercial Center and Gulf Gate Apartments and ‘foster well-planned development … to coordinate the needs of the surrounding commercial and residential areas’
During the regular meeting of the Sarasota County Commission scheduled for Sept. 10, the board members will be asked to approve the boundary and scope of work for a proposed Gulf Gate Critical Area Plan (CAP), as noted in a county public notice and on the Sept. 10 agenda.
The affected area of the CAP would be the approximately 64 acres near the intersection of Stickney Point Road and U.S. 41, a county staff memo explains. A summary of the request submitted to the county’s Planning and Development Services Department adds that the CAP would encompass property “north of the Mobile Estates community, south of Stickney Point, east of S. Tamiami Trail and west of a County-owned drainage canal.” The CAP would contain 129 parcels, the document adds.
The applicant is Gulf Gate Apartments LLC, whose registered agent is the Gaskill Law Firm in Sarasota, the Florida Division of Corporations shows. The manager of the limited liability company is James Riley of Mendota Heights, Minn., the Division records further note. Materials that The Sarasota News Leader reviewed during online research indicated that Riley is vice president and project partner with Lincoln Avenue Communities.
The county staff memo says that Philip DiMaria, a certified planner with the Kimley-Horn consulting firm in Sarasota, is the agent working on behalf of Gulf Gate Apartments LLC.
The goal with the pursuit of the CAP, the staff memo explains, is to make it possible for “redevelopment opportunities within the Gulf Gate area and, per the Applicant’s intent, to redevelop the existing Gulf Gate Apartments.”
The item is No. 5 on the Sept. 10 agenda, following the Open to the Public comment period, as well as three scheduled presentations and three discussions on various topics.
A document that DiMaria submitted to the county’s Planning and Development Services Department explains, “The purpose of the Gulf Gate CAP is two-fold, first to bring the Gulf Gate Apartments into conformity and achieve a density of 25 dwelling units per acre and second to create a harmonious development that provides a high-quality integrated system between commercial and residential uses in this part of Sarasota County. When completed, this CAP is intended to foster well-planned development in order to coordinate the needs of the surrounding commercial and residential areas.”
The Gulf Gate Commercial Center is the largest component in the proposed area of the CAP, the staff memo makes clear. It comprises “55.24 acres of commercial development dating from the early [1960s] to the late [1970s],” the memo continues. Approximately 160 businesses “of various types” exist in that area, the memo adds.
“In recognizing the uniqueness of this commercial area and how it interacted with the nearby residences,” the memo says, “a Neighborhood Plan for the Gulf Gate area was completed in 2019 and accepted by the [County Commission] through Resolution 2019-107 … Community and local business feedback drawn from this plan could be used to draft future CAP conditions,” the memo points out, “if the CAP process moves forward for this area.”
Then the memo explains that the Gulf Gate Apartments property has seven buildings standing on three parcels that comprise approximately 8.76 acres, “immediately adjacent to the existing Gulf Gate Commercial Center. The buildings were constructed between 1963 and 1975. … Square footage [among] all 7 apartment buildings totals approximately 196,441 square feet.”
The apartment buildings are zoned Residential Multi-Family-4 (RMF-4), which allowed for 18 units per acre, the memo says. The RMF-4 district no longer is an active one in the county, the memo points out.
Gulf Gate Apartments LLC is requesting the CAP to increase the size of the existing Community Commercial Center so it includes the Gulf Gate Apartments, which would “allow for the apartments to be rebuilt at a comparable density to what currently exists on-site,” the memo adds.
The commercial center plus the apartment complex would bring the total size of the CAP area to 64 acres, the memo notes.
Then the memo explains, “The Critical Area Plan (CAP) regulations (Ordinance No. 2016-062) require that a CAP be established prior to the development of a Commercial Center. The purpose of the CAP program is to plan for areas of critical concern and provide information for evaluating future development proposals to ensure consistency with the Comprehensive Plan. [The county’s Comprehensive Plan guides growth in the community.]”
The memo does point out that the Future Land Use map designation for the study area is Community Commercial Center, except for Medium Density Residential for the site of the Gulf Gate Apartments.
“Properties adjacent to the proposed CAP boundary and study area consist of single-family home subdivisions, a mobile home development, condominiums, a Sarasota County fire station, and existing commercial development,” the memo adds.
How the CAP process works
“After staff’s determination whether a CAP is required,” the memo continues, “the initial steps in the CAP process are to determine the boundary of the area subject to the CAP and the ‘scope of work,’ which are the items and issues to be reviewed and addressed in the Critical Area Plan. The County Commission (Board) considers the boundary and the scope of work at an advertised public hearing and, if approved, adopts by Resolution the boundary and scope of work.”
The memo also points out, “If the Applicant did not wish to propose a new CAP, a UDC [Unified Development Code] text amendment could be requested to recognize the existing density of the Gulf Gate Apartment properties, allowing for redevelopment of the structures. If the CAP boundary and scope are approved by the [commissioners] and a CAP ultimately adopted, the redevelopment of the apartments would be able to proceed with the request of a rezone and [Comprehensive Plan] amendment.”
The UDC contains all of the county’s zoning and land-use applications.
The application says, “There is no intent to intensify existing development within the study area.”
If the County Commission agrees to the CAP boundary and scope of work, the staff memo continues, Gulf Gate Apartments LLC “will prepare the CAP study based upon the scope of work. A public workshop concerning the CAP will be held prior to,” or during preparation of, the CAP study, the memo adds.
After the CAP study has been completed, the memo says, “it will be submitted to the County for review. Public hearings will then be scheduled with the Planning Commission and the [County Commission] for consideration of the completed CAP study, relevant maps, and conditions for development approval. The Applicant may file Comprehensive Plan amendment applications and rezone applications for all or part of the CAP area, to be considered at the same time as the completed CAP, or after approval of the CAP,” the memo further explains.