Confusion about attainable housing bonuses provided by state and city arises during discussion of preliminary application
During the March 5 meeting of the City of Sarasota’s Development Review Committee (DRC), the city’s chief planner recommended to the team proposing a complex with dwelling units in one 18-story building and a companion nine-story structure in downtown Sarasota to “just consider reducing the bulk and massing …”
“It’s quite substantial,” Noah Fossick told the representatives of DT Sarasota LLC, which has submitted preliminary plans to the city for a project called the Adagio. It would stand on property that the company purchased from the Church of the Redeemer, property records show. The affected parcels, according to the letter sent with the preliminary application, are 1360 Ringling Blvd.; 301 and 303 S. Palm Ave.; and 330 S. Pineapple Ave.
The approximately 2.24-acre site is zoned Downtown Core, which allows for 10 stories, by right.
Fossick noted that the Adagio, as designed, is “maybe the largest bulk of any building, other than potentially The Vue, in the city at this point.”
The Vue combines the Westin Sarasota and condominiums at the intersection of U.S. 41 and Gulfstream Avenue.
Fossick’s comments came exactly three weeks after members of the Sarasota Planning Board questioned him about the size of the proposed 18-story condominium complex called the 1260 N. Palm Residences, also known as the Obsidian, which would stand at a height of 327 feet, dwarfing the Bay Plaza condominiums behind it, as well as every other structure in the city.
(During that Feb. 12 Planning Board meeting, Fossick and city Development Services Director Lucia Panica stood firm on staff’s decision to approve the North Palm Avenue plans. The Bay Plaza Owners Association had appealed that decision. With the Planning Board having ruled 4-1 to allow the building to be constructed, the Bay Plaza group has appealed the decision to the City Commission. That hearing will be conducted on Monday, April 21.)
Even before Fossick made his “bulk and massing” comment during the DRC meeting this week, project team members expressed surprise when he informed them that their plans to obtain a residential density bonus by creating 67 affordable apartments did not comply with the city’s attainable housing regulations.
(The DRC comprises representatives of every city department — plus the Sarasota County Fire Department and the Sarasota County School Board — which is involved in land-use decisions.)
In a Feb. 10 letter to City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs, Joel Freedman, president of Freedman Consulting & Development LLC in Sarasota — the agent for the Adagio team — wrote that the “proposed redevelopment” of the property zoned Downtown Core “will utilize the ‘Live Local Act’ as adopted in the Florida Statutes.” He also pointed out that the plans called for the western building on the site to “have 100 residential condominium units,” while the eastern building would contain the rental apartments. “The attainable units required by the Live Local Act will be located in the eastern building,” he added.
The Live Local Act, Florida Statute 166-04151, says in part, “A municipality must authorize multifamily and mixed-use residential as allowable uses in any area zoned for commercial, industrial, or mixed use if at least 40 percent of the residential units in a proposed multifamily development are rental units that, for a period of at least 30 years, are affordable as defined in [Florida Statute] 420.0004. … For mixed-use residential projects, at least 65 percent of the total square footage must be used for residential purposes.”
During the DRC meeting, consultant Freedman told Fossick that the number of attainable units would meet the 40% threshold, thereby ensuring a density bonus for the project.
The ‘interspersing’ issue
In going through the Zoning and Planning staff comments on the preliminary application, Fossick also noted that Section II-201 of the city’s Zoning Code, which pertains to attainable housing, calls for interspersing “all attainable units on at least half the floors, and [ensuring] they share a common entrance with the market rate units.”
That comment added, “Please demonstrate how the building entrance of the attainable units is indistinguishable and functionally equivalent to the market rate units. Please also demonstrate how the exterior appearance is indistinguishable from and functionally equivalent to the market rate units, primarily in terms of outdoor areas (i.e., balconies).”
“Can we just get a little additional clarification as to the [interspersing],” project architect Kemal Muskara of Kobi Karp Architecture and Interior Design in Miami, asked.
Before Fossick could respond, Freedman reiterated the information from his letter to the city auditor and clerk: “The plan was to have market rate [units] and affordable [apartments] in separate buildings.”
Another project team member, Mike Hoyt, vice president of The Lutgert Companies in Naples and a principal of DT Sarasota Development, corrected Freedman, noting that the dwelling units would be in the “same building, but in separate towers.”
“You have to demonstrate they’re on at least half the floors,” Fossick replied, referring to the attainable units.
Kobi Karp, principal of his eponymous Miami firm, asked, “That’s your interpretation of the Live Local [Act]?”
“No,” Fossick told him. “This is our attainable housing requirement,” referring to the city Zoning Code.
Then another project team member interjected that he thought the application was being submitted under the state’s affordable housing law guidelines.
“Understood,” Fossick said. Yet, he continued, the density bonus sought for the project was linked to the city regulation.
In September 2023, the City Commission approved measures to enable developers to achieve density bonuses if at least 15% of the planned residential units would be priced to be affordable. As staff explained, buildings in the Downtown Core would be restricted to 50 dwellings per acre. However, a developer could construct up to 200 units if the developer used the attainable housing bonus.
During the DRC discussion, Karp asked Fossick whether the project would work if the team reduced the number of units in the two towers.
“To 50 units per acre,” Fossick replied, instead of the 74.6 units per acre indicated in the preliminary application.
“Then we no longer attain your bonus?” Karp responded, “and follow the Live Local [Act requirements]?”
“Yes,” Fossick told him.
A community workshop suggested
In his Feb. 10 letter to City Auditor and Clerk Griggs, consultant Freedman did note that the plans call for retail and office uses along Ringling Boulevard and Pineapple Avenue.
Among his concluding remarks, Fossick encouraged the project team members to hold a voluntary Community Workshop, which would enable city residents to learn the details about the proposal. The comments that the members of the DRC had provided to the team in advance of the meeting elaborated on that: Staff also encourages the development team to incorporate community comments into the final design.
The Planning Department staff could assist with the workshop, the comments document noted, with no fee required.