Item to be heard under New Business on July 20 agenda
During its regular meeting on July 20, the Sarasota city commissioners will be asked whether they would like for staff members to create standards for “Condo Hotel and Apartment Hotel Developments,” as the agenda describes the proposal.
The Agenda Request Form explains, “Within the Downtown and Urban Mixed-Use zone districts, hotel and motel uses are not considered residential dwelling units and therefore are not included in the calculation of maximum residential density. By contrast, residential development is subject to the maximum density permitted by the applicable Future Land Use designation and zoning district unless additional density is obtained through programs such as the Attainable Housing Density Bonus Program or the Historic Preservation Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Program.”
The form further points out, “In other zoning districts, hotels and motels are generally subject to maximum room counts (maximum density) or other development standards that reduce the potential for similar classification questions.”
The form then notes that the city’s Zoning Code “defines a hotel or motel as, ‘a building or group of detached or connected buildings, containing six or more guest rooms, designed or used primarily for providing sleeping accommodations for automobile travelers and/or tourists on a daily or weekly rate basis. Such establishments shall provide customary hotel/motel services such as linen, maid service, telephone, etc. Said use may also contain such ancillary facilities as conference facilities, restaurant, bar, recreational facilities, ballroom, banquet room, and meeting rooms,’ while Section II-304, Residential Use Categories, further states that lodging where tenancy is arranged for one week or less is considered a form of transient lodging and may be classified as a hotel or motel use.”
The next part of the Agenda Request Form references an issue that arose early this year in regard to the proposed Saravela mixed-use complex planned in the Rosemary District. It says, “Recent development proposals have raised questions regarding the distinction between residential dwelling units and hotel or motel uses. In several cases, projects have been designed with individually owned condominium units containing residential features such as full kitchens and one- to three-bedroom floorplans, while also proposing centralized management, hotel amenities, and the ability for units to be rented for periods of less than one week. These projects are often referred to as ‘condo hotels’ or ‘apartment hotels’ and may function as a hybrid of residential and transient lodging uses.”
As The Sarasota News Leader reported, Lucia Panica, director of the city’s Development Services Department, dealt early this year with questions about the marketing of Saravela, which included “the ability to do 3-day short term rentals,” as she pointed out in a Jan. 14 email to city leaders.
“[T]hat statement is not correct,” Panica wrote in that email. “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),” Panica continued. In that case, she 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 pointed out in her email.
In March, Panica sent a letter to the attorneys with the Icard Merrill firm in Sarasota who were representing the developer of the Saravela, Lawrence Debb of GSP Sarasota LLC, whose address in Florida Division of Corporations records is in Des Plaines, Illinois. Panica informed the attorneys that if it were Debb’s goal to provide “transient lodging,” then he would have to submit an amendment to the project application and, essentially, pursue a new start to the development process.
No revised application ever was submitted, as indicated by public records regarding the project, which the News Leader reviewed on the city’s website this week.
On July 8, following a public hearing, the members of the Sarasota Planning Board voted 4-1 to approve three administrative adjustments that the Saravela project team needed to proceed with the development. (See the related article in this issue.)
The July 20 Agenda Request Form further explains that the purpose of the discussion during that meeting “is to review the existing Code provisions, identify potential regulatory gaps related to condo hotel and apartment hotel developments, and obtain policy direction regarding how the Zoning Code should address a land use type that may not have been contemplated when the current density provisions were originally established.”
The item is listed as the last portion of New Business on the July 20 agenda. The scheduled presenters are Ryan Chapdelain, general manager of the city’s Planning Department, and Chief Planner Brianna Dobbs.
The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at City Hall, which stands at 1565 First St. in downtown Sarasota.