Commissioner Smith casts the sole ‘No’ vote
In spite of the Sarasota County Planning Division’s recommendation that they deny the application, the county commissioners have approved a proposal for 122 apartments on a 9.4-acre parcel between University Parkway and the Desoto Acres community.
Only Commissioner Mark Smith voted against the project.
Part of the applicant’s request was for what is termed a Small Area Comprehensive Plan Amendment. That called for changing the property designation on the county’s Future Land Use Map from Light Office and Light Density Residential — the latter allowing less than 2 dwelling units per acre — to Office/Multi-Family Residential, which provides for construction of a range between 5.5 and 13 units per acre.
As a staff memo in the board’s Sept. 11 agenda packet explained, “This Future Land Use designation will break the existing line of Light Office along University Parkway and extend south into the Low Density Residential Future Land Use designation by approximately 340 feet. If approved by the County Commission … this section of land would be the only area along University Parkway between N. Lockwood Ridge and
Washington Boulevard that is Office/Multi-Family and Residential Multi-Family within the Future Land Use Map and the University Parkway Corridor Critical Area Plan.”
That memo added, “After reviewing the proposal of the Small Area Comprehensive Plan Amendment, staff has determined that the proposed Future Land Use designation of Office/Multi-Family along University Parkway is not appropriate for the area due to [its] being inconsistent with University Parkway Corridor Plan.”
Commissioner Smith said he concurred with the staff view.
The memo further explained that the Critical Area Plan “discusses in detail how important it is” for development proposals to take into consideration the low-density residential neighborhoods in the area and to provide mitigation for incompatible uses, along with restrictions in regard to “certain uses and intensities.”
The last time that CAP was updated was in 1996, according to testimony during the hearing.
The memo also pointed out, “With the proposal of Office/Multi-Family, which will allow for OPI [Office, Professional and Institutional] and RMF [Residential Multi-Family] zone districts, the zone district of RMF-3 itself will open the property to special exceptions and restricted uses that the critical area plan purposely prohibited. The Applicant has provided a binding development concept plan that demonstrates what the development will be for the rezone. However, the density increase request from Low-Density Residential to Office/Multi-Family is not compatible with the existing area of development which [consists] of 2 acre lots of single-family residential.”
The very first speaker during the approximately two-hour and 15-minute-long hearing on Sept. 11 — Ralf Brookes, a Cape Coral attorney representing the Desoto Acres Association — told the commissioners, “It’s quite rare that I’m here when there’s a Planning staff recommendation for denial. Think about what that means.”
Brookes noted the “vast experience” of the county’s Planning Division members. “We ask that you take the staff opinions very seriously.”
During remarks as part of the board discussion after the hearing, Commissioner Smith said, “It’s a very nice project.” Yet, he continued, “I just think that the University Parkway Corridor Plan is a line in the sand, and we shouldn’t allow development to cross it.”
Instead, Smith added, referring to Desoto Acres, “We should maintain what is an extremely special area of Sarasota County. It’s old Sarasota. You don’t find this anywhere else in Sarasota.”
The county staff report on the application explained that the parcel planned for the project is approximately 665 feet east of the intersection of University Parkway and North Shade Avenue. The Binding Development Concept Plan showed that, along with the four-story buildings, a two-story structure will have 22 townhomes, and a pool and surface parking will be provided for the residents.
By count of The Sarasota News Leader, 15 of the 19 speakers who addressed the board during the public hearing opposed the application, many of them stressing the incompatibility of the plans with their community.
The four speakers in favor of the project were all employees of car dealerships in Sarasota County that are owned by members of the development team.
Explaining their decisions
Commissioner Neil Rainford, who made the two motions necessary for approval of the project, began his remarks with the statement, “The testimony was very impactful.”
He also noted that his son attended the Tabernacle Christian School, when it was open at 4141 Desoto Road, and he routinely drove his son there. “It’s one of the most beautiful communities,” Rainford added of Desoto Acres.
In fact, referencing a comment made by Jed Wolfson of Desoto Acres during the hearing, Rainford continued, “I think that the speaker that said that [the community] was the gem [of the county], over Siesta Key — I’d have a hard time arguing over that …”
Wolfson had commented on a remark that Commissioner Joe Neunder had made earlier in the day about Siesta Key, during a different agenda item. “Uh, uh,” Wolfson said. “The rest of us here think that [the gem of the county] is indeed Desoto Acres.”
Wolfson was among the speakers who complained about the proposed residential density of the apartment project. The developers said that was necessary to make the complex profitable, Wolfson added. Yet, he continued, “No one’s forcing them to buy the property. It’s not the responsibility of the commission to consider the profits of the developers — or, for that matter, the profit for the out-of-state owner [of the land].”
The owner identified in the application is Syed Mousavi of Escondido, Calif. The contract purchaser of the property — and the developer — formally is CEM Development Construction Services LLC of Lakeland. Robert “Bo” Medred, president of Genesis Planning and Development of Bradenton, who was part of the project team, told the commissioners that Erin and Chris Doherty and Adam Kemp were the developers.
On the CEM Development website, Erin Doherty — who addressed the board during the hearing — is listed as vice president of business development, while Chris Doherty is listed as the president. Kemp, who also spoke during the hearing, is the company’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, the website says.
In continuing to explain his decision to support the project, Rainford noted that the proposed four-story apartment buildings will be constructed in the portion of the site adjacent to University Parkway, approximately 492 feet from the closest single-family home in Desoto Acres. The one-story amenity center, south of the apartment complexes, would be about 446 feet from the closest house, a project team graphic showed.
Yet, Tim Lynch, secretary of the Desoto Acres Association, stressed residents’ concerns about the proximity of the four-story structures to the one-story homes in that community. “The proposed height is not compatible.”
Another member of the Desoto Acres Association board, Tom Bolt, pointed out that the University Parkway Corridor Critical Area Plan has kept Desoto Acres “the desirable neighborhood that it is.” If the project before the commissioners that day won approval, Bolt added, it would set a precedent “that would inevitably lead to more similar changes.”
He contended that a parcel of comparable size to the one that was the focus of the Sept. 11 hearing, situated west of the site, is being eyed by another developer. Moreover, he said, four parcels combined, south of the one he had just described, are the focus of a St. Petersburg developer’s aspirations. “We can already see the queue [of projects].”
In explaining why he made the motion for approval, Rainford also pointed out that a forested wetland and a stormwater pond will comprise approximately 3.24 acres of the southern portion of the development site, serving as a buffer for Desoto Acres residents.
Medred of Genesis Planning and Development noted that the trees in that wetland stand 50 to 65 feet in height, so they would be higher than the 45-foot-tall apartment buildings.
“It’s very rare that we see such a significant buffer,” Rainford added.
Commissioner Ron Cutsinger, who seconded the two motions, expressed his appreciation for the testimony, as well. Addressing the Desoto Acres residents present in the Commission Chambers of the County Administration Center in downtown Sarasota, Cutsinger continued, “I certainly respect your lifestyle. You’re fortunate to live in an area like that.”
Nonetheless, Cutsinger said he believes that the plans for the project will protect the characteristics of the community.
Moreover, he pointed out, when he moved to Sarasota County about 30 years ago, he could not have imagined the development along University Parkway and its environs, including the Mall at University Town Center. Referring to what he called “these older critical area plans,” Cutsinger added that he believes “it’s appropriate and right to review [them].”
Further, noting some residents’ concerns that the new development will create stormwater problems, including more pollution of area waterways, Cutsinger referred to the fact that Public Works Department Director Spencer Anderson has said the county’s regulations are the most stringent in Florida, to Anderson’s knowledge.
During an Aug. 28 presentation to the commissioners, Anderson stressed that any developer proposing a major land-use change must hire a licensed engineer to create a model that will be compared with the county’s stormwater model, to show that a proposed new community will not increase stormwater runoff more than one-hundredth of a foot “anywhere outside of [the boundaries of the new development].”
Cutsinger did acknowledge that the flooding of neighborhoods that resulted from Tropical Storm Debby’s lingering over the county for hours in early August had prompted a higher level of concern for residents in regard to the handling of stormwater.
Commissioner Joe Neunder added, “We’re all hypersensitive to the stormwater conditions … after Debby.”
Neunder told the audience members, “This was a very hard application for me,” especially given the proximity of the development to Desoto Acres. However, he continued, the project team’s efforts to mitigate “the encroachment of the development” made the plans “a little more palatable for me.”
More pleas for protecting Desoto Acres
Among other issues that speakers raised during the hearing is the fact that drivers commuting from Manatee County to Sarasota County and vice versa already use Desoto Acres as a “cut-through,” endangering residents.
Gail Goolsby Harvey told the board members that her parents built the oldest house in the community; it stands at the intersection of 59th Street and North Shade Avenue.
“Our street used to be a dirt road,” she continued. “Now it is like a superhighway.” She added that she refers to the street as “Desoto Drag Strip South.”
Harvey further noted, “Going north on Tuttle [in the immediate area] is gridlocked [during rush hour traffic].” The same situation exists on U.S. 301 and North Lockwood Ridge Road in that area, she added.
Medred of the project team maintained that if the parcel were developed with the existing zoning, more vehicle trips would result.
However, a chart in the county staff report showed that a 44,000-square-foot light office complex, plus a nine-unit residential building, would generate 559 new trips each day, compared to 857 for the development as proposed.
The staff report said, “It is expected that the potential trips will increase by approximately 298 trips daily trips and decrease by 4 net new trips during the PM peak hour.”
Yet another issue that arose during the discussion involved affordable housing.
Erin Doherty of CEM told the board members that the 122 apartments would serve as “quality workforce housing in the community.”
However, Commissioner Smith said he did not read any information in the county staff report “that talked about affordable housing.”
Kemp of CEM responded that the apartments and townhomes would be rented at market rates for Sarasota County; “nothing less.”
Nonetheless, Kemp continued, the average monthly rent for an apartment in the county is $1,900 per month. He asserted that that is close to the figure that would be used for a household making 100% of the Area Median Income for the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area, as set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). (The AMI data is updated annually.)
Kemp did acknowledge that CEM wants “to take care of our employees first,” referring to the five area car dealerships that Erin Doherty had referenced in her comments.
The four hearing speakers who were representing Doherty family dealerships talked of the challenges of hiring and retaining employees because of the high cost of living in the county.
When Commissioner Neunder asked Kemp, “Are you planning on helping out your employees” with the housing expense, Kemp responded, “Yeah. Of course.”
Kemp also said that the company would consider offering lower rents to first responders.
If the 8.27 hearing on Pat Neal’s 3H Ranch showed us anything, it revealed that the Board will ignore a host of good reasons not to approve that project – Commissioner Smith gave a superb summary of all the reasons, and they were ignored.
Here, it’s almost as if a new genre of Board approvals is a-borning. They will offer courtly praise to the area to be impacted, then invite us to sympathize with the difficulty – the agonies – of approving a project for a developer that violates the basic order of our planning code. Are Neunder, Rainford, Cutsinger and Moran trying out for operatic roles?
Time to remember who is ignoring safety and density concerns when you cast your votes for county Board candidates.
An opera indeed, defined in Britannica as a complex, often costly variety of musico-dramatic entertainment that has attracted both supporters and detractors throughout its history and has sometimes been the target of intense criticism. Its detractors have viewed it as an artificial and irrational art form that defies dramatic verisimilitude. Supporters have seen it as more than the sum of its parts, with the music supporting and intensifying the lyrics and action to create a genre of greater emotional impact than either music or drama could achieve on its own. Sadly, we have many more such performances to look forward to unless County residents demand something better.
Regardless how we characterize BCC meetings, the speakers at these hearings should keep in mind the oath they sign on those Speaker Cards about telling the truth. That would preclude the sort of deception and gaming of the system we see on display at many of these hearings. The back and forth over the absence of Affordable Housing initiated by Commissioner Smith and then joined by Commissioner Neunder suggests that CEM, like any serious investor is sticking to market rents, they are going to help its employees as well as our underpaid County First Responders. We will be watching.