Sarasota leaders grapple with impact of increased building

When Howard Shulman first started renting a home in the city, his friends on the east coast of Florida would ask: Why Sarasota?

“It’s just so much more user friendly,” Shulman said. “We’re home in 15 minutes after seeing a show. We have everything that we want here.”

Today, Shulman sees things shifting quickly in the city that bills itself as a place “where urban amenities meet small-town living.” He sent an email to the City Commission Dec. 9, admonishing the board for the “unfettered growth” he believes is tarnishing the city.

Now a full-time resident, Shulman is concerned by the effects of continued building on the quality of life in Sarasota, where a record number of building permits were issued over the past two years. The first major post-recession construction projects wrapped up in 2015, and there’s no signs the building will slow down in the near future.

“I don’t mean to be a rabble-rouser,” Shulman said. “It’s just an emotional thing — I’d hate to see a great town turn into a busy city.”

Shulman found a sympathetic ear in City Commissioner Susan Chapman, who passed along his message to city administration. Chapman has frequently reported similar concerns from other residents; she says city staff tells her she’s the only one complaining.

Chapman rejects the notion that those concerned about this topic are against all growth, or want to close the door to new residents and business. She wants to prioritize growth in moderation as a means to avoid issues such as increased traffic gridlock.

“I’m not opposed to development,” Chapman said. “The issue is maintaining the quality and character of our community.”

"It’s just an emotional thing. I’d hate to see a great town turn into a busy city." — Howard Shulman

City staff said the process of approving new projects is fairly straightforward. Concurrency regulations exist to ensure city infrastructure can withstand any given development, but there’s not much wiggle room to pick and choose preferred proposals.

Chapman believes the city could be more stringent in  its approval process, citing the city code’s repeated references to “compatibility” with neighboring projects as criteria for reviewing a proposed development. But city staff members disputed the idea that those passages offer increased flexibility.

“If a project satisfies (concurrency) thresholds, there’s an obligation on the city’s part to allow it to proceed,” said Gretchen Schneider, the city’s general manager of planning and development.

New rules

In 2013, the city created the Urban Design Studio, hiring a team to write a new form-based zoning code for the entire city.

For those who share Chapman’s concerns, this might seem like an opportune time to clamp down on large-scale developments. But according to Urban Design Studio Director Karin Murphy, that moment passed a long time ago.

"If people want to be mad, they can be mad at 1970s folks." — Karin Murphy

In the early 2000s, Murphy worked on developing a new code specifically for downtown Sarasota. The group involved in that effort favored a smaller scale for the heart of the city, encouraging buildings around five stories. Once the core started to fill in, they would consider allowing increased heights.

However, officials could not take back property rights — such as the maximum allowed building height — already given to land owners. The new code removed bonuses allowing increased height, but a 10-story maximum in the downtown core remained.

“Before our time, back in the day, they zoned downtown to be, like, the size of Tokyo,” Murphy said. “If people want to be mad, they can be mad at 1970s folks.”

Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown affirmed that the challenge is decades in the making.

Residents have worried about the impact of Vue Sarasota Bay, a project with nearly 400 condo and hotel units near the busy intersection of Gulfstream Avenue and U.S. 41. Just more than a block to the north, a developer is entitled to build 870 residential and hotel units — along with nearly 230,000 square feet of commercial space — on the vacant 14.5-acre Sarasota Quay site.

“They had those rights before the downturn in the economy, and now that the economy is picking up, they’re using them,” Brown said. “Is this concerning to us? Yes, it is.”

Developers monitor how growth will impact them, too, according to David Arent,  project manager for Vue developer Kolter Urban. Arent believes larger projects benefit the city by providing economic stimulation, but there is an expectation that the city will ensure new projects can function with existing infrastructure.

“We rely on their traffic studies and city planners for the overall view, because they’ve got more of a global perspective,” Arent said.

Those who are fighting against allowing large, intense developments are waging a war that’s already been lost, Murphy believes. That’s not to say she doesn’t believe the concerns are valid; she just thinks a different strategy is necessary.

Murphy wants to encourage the creation of moderately sized buildings and discourage jarring transitions in scale from one neighborhood to another. The new code can’t take away the right to build up, but it can offer incentives for foregoing the maximum height.

If a density bonus allows a developer to build the same number of residential units in a five- and 15-story building, that developer might opt for the former.

“People want that,” Murphy said. “It’s cheaper for the builders — those big towers are very expensive.”

Murphy also believes strengthening public transit and increasing the city’s walkability should be priorities. If it’s a given that Sarasota will grow, she says, then there’s only one way to avoid constantly widening roadways and increased congestion.

“You’re between the No. 1 thing people want to go to: the beach,” Murphy said. “They’re not stopping going to the beach. If you have no other way but a car for them to get there, the pressure will be constantly on the city to widen those roads and take away that quality of life.”

"You’re between the No. 1 thing people want to go to: the beach." — Karin Murphy

Murphy, Brown and Chapman all believe now is a critical moment for the city to examine the direction in which it will grow for decades to come. They see it as a broader conversation, involving Sarasota County and other neighboring working in tandem.

Brown, who suggested holding a commission retreat focused solely on this topic, highlighted the need for increased citizen input. How many residents are truly concerned about the growth? What about people that embrace the new developments?

Until those questions can be addressed, the city will be operating from a position of uncertainty as building continues.

“Will this taper off soon? I don’t know,” Brown said. “Will it need the intervention of the city to really sit back and say, ‘Wow, we need to fix this soon?’ I don’t know.”