Residents of Bay Plaza plan appeal to City of Sarasota Planning Board
On Oct. 2, Lucia Panica, director of the City of Sarasota’s Development Services Department, approved the latest plans for the 1260 N. Palm Residences, also known as the Obsidian.
The developer — who also owns the parcels on which the tower is planned — is Michael Kihnke, president of MK Equity.
Noah Fossick, the chief planner for the city’s Development Review Committee (DRC), notified the project team members of Panica’s decision, which clears the way for construction of the 18-story, 327-foot-tall condominium tower, which will front on Palm Avenue in downtown Sarasota.
Referencing the adjustments that the project team had requested, the document issued by city staff — with Panica’s signature — pointed out, “The impacts of each adjustment do not create a cumulative effect that is inconsistent with the overall purpose of the [Downtown Bayfront] zoning district” in which the tower would stand.
The project has been controversial since it first was proposed in 2023, as it would be the tallest building in the city, and its bulk will be immediately adjacent to the Bay Plaza complex. Owners of condominiums in the latter building have protested the project from the outset, arguing that it is not compatible with neighboring structures.
Under city guidelines, Panica provided what is known as “administrative approval” of the plans. In other words, no hearings were necessary before the city Planning Board or the City Commission.
For months again this year — after a revised application was filed with city staff in February — residents fighting the project have appeared at City Commission meetings to protested the project.
In response to a Sarasota News Leader request for comment, Ron Shapiro, owner of a unit in Bay Plaza and one of the leaders of the opposition group, wrote in an Oct. 14 email, “Of course, we were disappointed with the decision by the City staff to approve the Obsidian application.
“We (Bay Plaza) are appealing this decision to the Planning Board,” he added. That body first must hear the appeal, he pointed out. If necessary, Shapiro continued, the Planning Board decision “can be appealed to the City Commissioners.”
Nonetheless, Shapiro continued, “[W]e are hopeful that the [Planning Board] will overrule the decision reached by the City staff.”
In 2023, after Panica of Development Services denied an adjustment requested by the project team, the developer, Kihnke, appealed her decision to the Planning Board. That body sided with Panica. Instead of appealing that decision to the City Commission, the project team members chose to modify the design of the tower.
As a structure in the Downtown Bayfront zoning district, the 14-unit building, which would have approximately 5,989 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and the second floor, can have a maximum of 18 floors. However, from the time the first application for the project was submitted to city staff, opponents have contended that extra “interstitial space” between floors — where components of the air conditioning system will be located, for example — was unnecessary and just incorporated into the design to provide higher ceilings for the condominium owners.
In the fall of 2023, when The Sarasota News Leader visited a website regarding the Obsidian, the publication found a statement about the fact that the units would have “[e]levated ceiling heights.” The condominiums, the website added, would range from 4,200 square feet to 7,200 square feet under air conditioning, with “[360-degree] views of the city with most residences featuring sweeping bay, gulf, and island views.”
The tower’s height originally was put at 342 feet; the revised application this year reduced it to 327 feet.
The earlier website is no longer available. This is the link to the new website. Prominent Sarasota real estate company Michael Saunders & Co. features its own webpages about the complex.
Adjustments to the city Zoning Code requirements
In late July, the project team tweaked three requested adjustments to the city’s Zoning Code regulations to enable the tower to be constructed as designed.
However, the Oct. 2 memorandum of approval indicates that those were refined further:
- A 20.8% reduction in the façade coverage on the ground floor, parallel to North Palm Avenue, from 133.61 feet to 105.87 feet. “The lot has 148.45 feet of total frontage,” the Oct. 2 document said.
- An adjustment of 6.5% for habitable space on the ground floor, from 105.87 feet to 99.02 feet, “(with the inclusion of the façade adjustment),” and by 8.6% on the second floor, from 148.45 feet to 135.7 feet.
- A 9.4% reduction in the required retail frontage, to 95.89 feet, where 105.87 feet would be required “(with the inclusion of the façade adjustment),” the document added.
The document explained that, in accord with the city Zoning Code, Panica, as director of Development Services, “is authorized to grant an adjustment for the reduction of a dimensional standard that does not exceed 25 percent, provided the request is consistent with [another section of the Zoning Code].”
The document noted, “The criteria in Section IV-1903(e)(2) have been carefully reviewed and [were] used for this determination. This is not a subjective review.”
The document then offered the rationale for approval of the adjustments:
- In regard to the parallel façade coverage, the applicant proposed the 20.8% reduction “to accommodate several requirements along the façade …” Among them were “vehicular site access, a Florida Power & Light (FPL) transformer, and the backflow preventers (BFPs) for fire and other utility lines. The applicant has mitigated the impacts by reducing and limiting the size of each required element to the greatest extent possible.”
For example, the document noted, “The area for the FPL transformer pad is slightly wider (10.33 feet) than the minimum required width (10 feet) per FPL Electric Service Standards.”
Further, the document said, the project team “reduced the size of the driveway entry to the minimum permitted width necessary to meet the required sight triangles per the City’s Engineering Design Criteria Manual (EDCM).” The proposed driveway is only slightly larger than the existing driveway, the document points out. The existing driveway is 10 feet wide; 22 feet is proposed.
“Furthermore,” the document added, “the access does not create a new interference” for the pedestrian experience since a curb cut” already exists on the site.
Moreover, it said, the proposed backflow preventers will have the minimum width required “to allow for reasonable access and maintenance by the City Utilities Department.”
Additionally, the document continued, “To mitigate for the impact of the reduction to the parallel façade requirement, the applicant has also provided an awning for the full frontage of the property as a pedestrian amenity …” The Zoning Code calls for such an awning to cover the sidewalk for a minimum of 90% of the building frontage, the document explained.
In regard to the habitable space adjustment, the document noted that the applicant had mitigated the reductions “by providing additional depth of habitable space on the first floor. The ground floor retail space has habitable space for up to 79.5 feet in depth, a 59.5 foot increase over the required 20 feet [of] depth of habitable space.”
The document pointed out, “This additional depth … increases the functionality and dynamism of the retail space.”
Additionally, the document said, “[T]he applicant has provided the required habitable space on the second floor as retail space providing additional commercial opportunities that stimulate the pedestrian experience, where they were not required to provide retail uses.”
Further, the document explained, the reduction in habitable space on the ground floor was necessary “to accommodate a direct pedestrian access to the structured parking as required by the Zoning Code. On the second floor,” it said, “the reduction in habitable space is to provide the requisite Fire Command Room, which must be at least 200 square feet and no less than [10] feet wide per the Florida Building Code.” The Fire Command Room, as designed, “is only marginally larger than the requirement at 205 square feet and 10.7 feet [in width].”
That room also will have a window facing the street, the document pointed out, which will allow pedestrians “to see the equipment and activity from the street. This will make the room appear as being habitable space.”
In regard to the third adjustment, for the required retail frontage, the document explained, “The applicant has mitigated this reduction by providing additional depth to the ground floor retail, retail on the second floor, and glass display walls within the lobbies for the retail units on both the ground and second floors.”
That section referenced the greater depth described earlier, noting that it will extend “to the rear of the building …”
Moreover, the document continued, the second floor retail space has an extra 1,882 square feet. Thus, altogether, the document said, “[T]he amount of retail space far exceeds the minimum requirement” in the Zoning Code.
The document then pointed out, “The requested adjustments are necessary to facilitate an appropriate design based on the limitations of the site. The adjustments are all related to health, safety and welfare regulations of the Zoning Code, Florida Building Code and the EDCM.”
The document also explained, “The intent and purpose of the downtown zone districts is to produce an urban area that is diverse, compact, and walkable. The Downtown Bayfront zone district is further intended to create a very dense mixed-use urban area with residential buildings in multi-family developments in tall structures [with] mandatory ground floor retail on certain designated frontages.”
It added that the design of the 1260 N. Palm Residences, with the adjustments, is for a “multi-family development in a tall structure with ground floor and second floor retail. The proposed development with the requested adjustments does still contribute to a diverse, compact, and walkable urban area and thus, the adjustments are consistent with the desired character of the Downtown Bayfront zone district.”