City of Sarasota’s Development Services director takes action in wake of repeated advertising touting residents’ ability to offer short-term rentals in violation of city law
On Jan. 14, Lucia Panica, the director of Development Services for the City of Sarasota, sent an email to the city commissioners, as well as then-interim City Manager Dave Bullock and Deputy City Manager Patrick Robinson.
“We have received questions regarding the signage and marketing for Saravela,” the proposed mixed-use structure that would be located on U.S. 41 between Fourth and Fifth streets, she began.
The original application submitted to the Development Services staff in October 2024 described a building that would encompass nine parcels comprising 1.7 acres on Fourth and Fifth streets in downtown Sarasota, with a total of 271 dwelling units, 11,402 square feet of retail space and a four-story, internal parking garage.
The website created for the Saravela says the building will contain 19 stories and “282 Turnkey Residences.” The units would range from one-bedroom designs, between 667 and 856 square feet, to townhomes with 1,530 to 1915 square feet, the website notes.
The person identified in the document as being under contract to purchase the parcels comprising the site is Lawrence Debb of Des Plaines, Illinois. Debb is the president and founder of GSP Development, that company’s website shows.
A representative of the Kimley-Horn consulting firm in Sarasota, Emily Griffiths, actually filed the application with the city, the document shows.
The developer, Panica explained in her Jan 14 email to city leaders, “is advertising the ability to do 3-day short term rentals. This project has not yet been approved and is still under DRC review,” she added, referring to the city’s Development Review Committee, whose members represent all of the departments involved in land-use issues and construction of new buildings.
“[T]hat statement is not correct,” Panica pointed out. “The City’s minimum stay requirements for short term rentals would apply,” she noted: seven days and seven nights.
If the tenancy of the Saravela units were seven days and seven nights — or less time — “the units would be considered transient lodging and would be classified as a hotel or motel use per Zoning Code Section II-304(b),” she continued. In that case, Panica added, they “must be separated in the condominium from the rest of the residential units. They also could not be used in the calculations for bonus density [related to planned affordable housing units]. Therefore, the Site Plan application would need to be updated to identify/specify which units in the development are designated as transient lodging,” Panica wrote.
“Transient lodging” is the term local governments use for hotel and motel accommodations.
“We have informed the applicant of this information and requested they remove or clarify their advertising. We are continuing to work with the applicant on this issue,” Panica added.
About 45 minutes later on Jan. 14, Mayor Debbie Trice responded to Panica, thanking her for the clarification and for following up with the applicant.
Trice added, “I suspect that the Marketing folks are off doing their own thing — and are also unaware that some potential purchasers were turned away by the thought of having short-term rentals in adjacent apartments.”
Trice concluded her email by telling Panica, “I’m always reassured when you are on top of issues.”
An earlier notification regarding the city’s short-term rentals regulations
Months before Panica sent that email, Devynn Glanz, a development review planner for the city, sent a letter on Oct. 8, 2025, to Natalie Macaire King, an attorney with the Icard Merrill firm in Sarasota, confirming that short-term and long-term rental use is allowed in the Downtown Bayfront and Downtown Core zoning districts, which the Saravela would straddle. Glanz explained, as well, “The intended use of the property as mixed-use with condominiums and short-term and long-term rentals will comply with the City of Sarasota Zoning Code and Code of Ordinances as long as tenancy exceeds seven days …”
Glanz cited the specific section of the Zoning Code that Panica ended up noting in her Jan. 14 email to the city commissioners.
Further, Glanz wrote, “If tenancy of these units is for seven days or less, the units are considered transient lodging and would be classified as hotel or motel use, or as short-term housing (Section II-304(b)) and must be separated in the condominium from the rest of the residential units.”
Glanz added, “No attainable housing units shall be considered short-term rentals or long-term rentals pursuant to Zoning Code Section VI-1005(b)(3)(c).”
On Jan. 22 — in spite of the communications from Glanz and Panica — GSP Development was credited as the author of an “advertorial” that was published by the Observer Media Group of Sarasota, touting “three-day minimum rental flexibility” for owners of Saravela units. The advertorial called that “an uncommon advantage in new downtown construction.”
The last paragraph of the advertorial encouraged people to visit the project website or call a phone number to obtain “more information on new condominium residences, penthouses and townhomes with short-term rental options …”
Less than a month later, on Feb. 15, a post on the Living in Downtown Sarasota Facebook page, attributed to Realtor Cydneyanne Hall, carried the heading, “3 Day Rental Minimums, This Condo Changed the Game in Sarasota.”
That post about the Saravela included the opening statement, “These residences feature 12-foot ceilings with both townhome and condominium options ranging from 1–4 bedrooms, priced from the $900s to $4M. Professional rental management is available, and the 3-day rental minimum creates rare flexibility for owners and investors.”
This week, Panica of Development Services sent a letter to attorney King and another Icard Merrill attorney, Patrick Seidensticker. She informed them that if the developer’s goal is to provide “transient lodging,” then the developer will have to submit an amendment to the project application and, essentially, pursue a new start to the development process. That, Panica noted, would include “a Community Workshop, Development Review Committee review, Planning Board Hearing, and City Commission Public Hearing.”
If King and Seidensticker had any questions, Panica added, they should contact Rebecca Webster, the acting development review chief planner for the city.
When The Sarasota News Leader visited the Saravela website on March 19, the homepage still said, “Three-Day Minimum Rental Freedom.”
In response to a News Leader request for a comment from GSP Development in regard to Panica’s letter, Seidensticker wrote in a March 19 email, “At this time, we continue to work with the City Staff to determine the proper path forward for the project.”
Attainable housing and more
As part of the original, October 2024 application for the Saravela, planner Danielle Stewart with Kimley-Horn and Associates of Sarasota, wrote on behalf of the developer, GSP Sarasota LLC, that the proposed plans called for “30 attainable housing units” out of the 271 condominiums, as well as “an approximately 3,000 square foot publicly accessible green space.”
The formal address of the Saravela, as shown on the weekly updates that the Development Services staff provides on applications under review, is 430 N. Tamiami Trail.
Stewart pointed out that the Downtown Bayfront and Downtown Core zoning districts in the city have a base density of 50 units per acre; thus, by utilizing the city’s “downtown attainable housing density bonus,” the potential existed “for up to 200 units per acre …”
Since the planned site for the Saravela comprises 1.7 acres, Stewart wrote, the base density would allow for 85 dwelling units. “As the applicant is proposing 186 dwelling units above the base density,” she added, the figure of 30 attainable units had been calculated; that number represents 16% of 186.
The attainable housing density bonus that the City Commission approved in September 2023 specified that at least 15% of the total number of dwelling units must be priced no higher than 120% of the Area Median Income (AMI) of the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). (The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) releases updated AMI figures annually for each MSA.) One-third of the units must be available to households having incomes at or below 80% of the AMI, the commissioners agreed.
In the October 2024 Saravela application, Stewart of Kimley-Horn also explained that the retail space “will occupy the first layer of the development adjacent to North Tamiami Trail.” She added, “Amenities being considered include resident working spaces, a kids’ lounge, a spa, a fitness center, and multiple upper story outdoor decks.”
Stewart further noted. “The outdoor deck spaces are proposed to include a pool, lounge areas, a putting green, and an outdoor dining space.”
The project location, Stewart pointed out, is “southeast of the intersection of North Tamiami Trail at 5th Street.” Saravela would be about 0.05 miles south of Boulevard of the Arts, she continued, “and less than 0.10 miles from the Bay Park.”
Further, Stewart explained in the application, the development was “proposed to occupy approximately 0.14 acres of the alley right-of-way situated between 4th and 5th Streets.” Stewart acknowledged that the developer would need city Planning Board approval for the city’s vacation of that right of way.
(After the Planning Board voted 3-2 against the vacation of the approximately 20-foot-wide, 300-foot-long alley/right of way, the developer appealed the decision to the Sarasota City Commission.)
(Following a May 19, 2025 City Commission hearing, that board agreed unanimously to the vacation of approximately 6,003 square feet of the alley, with stipulations. Among the latter, the commissioners called for a total of 40 attainable housing units in the Saravela, instead of 30.)
On Oct. 15, 2024, following city staff’s receipt of the Saravela submission, Noah Fossick, then the city’s development review chief planner, notified Stewart of Kimley-Horn that the application had been deemed incomplete and asked her to provide “the missing material” to city staff no later than Nov. 14, 2024.
Thus began the exchanges with city staff that culminated in the March 16 letter from Panica to the Sarasota attorneys representing GSP Development. In fact, Panica noted in her correspondence this week that the application had received partial Development Review Committee sign-off on July 16, 2025.