Town could establish 16 potential new residential zoning districts for multifamily residential properties

Nonconforming property owners who want to redevelop aging multifamily and tourism properties feel stuck, according to Planning, Zoning and Building Director Alaina Ray. They’re stuck because they have no incentive to modernize their properties or rebuild them. 

So the town is crafting a plan to fix the issue and allow approximately 100 nonconforming property owners Keywide more incentives to rebuild.

How does the town make that happen while staff works to streamline its land development codes? By creating new districts to bring those properties into conformity.

The town could establish 16 potential new residential zoning districts for multifamily residential properties that are currently nonconforming. The town also seeks to provide incentives for modernization and reconstruction while also allowing a potential density increase on those properties to two units per acre instead of one. Property owners could then redevelop their current buildings with potentially larger units without losing existing units. The proposal allows for a potential increase of 351 potential additional multifamily units Keywide for those properties.

For nonconforming tourism properties, the town is working to establish four new tourism zoning districts of 12, 15, 18 and 42 units per acre that allow existing nonconforming tourism properties to stay whole and conforming. There’s a potential of 350 additional tourism units islandwide under this scenario.

Ray is quick to point out that for any applicant seeking to redevelop under the new scenarios, a referendum for additional units over the existing units would be required. The projects also still require multiple hearings, public input and approval at Planning and Zoning Board and Town Commission meetings.

“The whole goal behind this is to conform what’s already on the ground,” Ray said. 

She said the main issue for current nonconforming property owners is that they don’t have an incentive to upgrade properties with their current number of units. 

Ray told board members May 19 that some property owners want to rebuild but also can’t afford it economically without incentives.

“Property owners are recognizing they are not as marketable anymore and want to bring buildings to modern standards and can’t do it economically.”

– Alaina Ray, Planning, Zoning and Building director

“One condo board member told me his condo board wants to rebuild, but they need an additional five to seven units that would pay for the redevelopment of existing units,” Ray said. “So property owners are recognizing they are not as marketable anymore and want to bring buildings to modern standards and can’t do it economically. In order to get the loans they need to rebuild, they need additional income that comes from the sale of future units. Anybody looking at a major redevelopment seeks additional units that pays for the back-end redevelopment of the remainder of the property.”

The goal is to bring the properties into compliance without resorting to spot zoning to fix the issues.

Both the planning board and the commission gave Ray direction May 19 to work over the summer to craft language for the new districts that would work to fix the nonconforming property issues Keywide. Staff will work over the summer and hold special meetings with both boards so they can review options in September. 

Although 20 new zoning districts for the Key might seem like a lot, Ray said it’s still a much smaller number compared with the more than 100 individual new zoning districts that could be needed to fix the issues. 

“The best way to do this is to provide a range of density within each category,” Ray said. “What this results in is the minimum number of additional units.”

If the commission in the fall approves the language for new districts, Ray said “there’s going to be a huge outreach to (nonconforming) property owners.” Nonconforming property owners have the option of not entering a new district that fits their needs if they don’t want to. 

“It would be an opt-in process,” Ray said. “If they don’t want to do it, they don’t have to.” 

The town will take on this process as one legislative action so property owners don’t have to go through the time and expense to enter a new zoning district individually. 

Why change nonconforming properties?

In 2008, voters approved a referendum that allowed nonconforming property owners to rebuild their existing units. But the vote did not change the properties’ nonconforming status and did not allow them to build larger, more modern units, for example, with higher ceilings and more square footage. 

“If we can help provide regulations that allow modernization and allow properties to potentially have some flexibility to redevelop with modern hurricane codes and amenities, the island will still look the way it does today, but it will be a much more sustainable community in the event we are hit by a hurricane,” said Planning, Zoning and Building Director Alaina Ray. “And it will help keep our market values up, too.”
 

Is the town moving fast enough?

Several Longboat Key commissioners expressed concern at a joint workshop with the Planning and Zoning Board May 19 that town staff and University of Florida consultants working to overhaul town codes and comprehensive plan changes aren’t moving fast enough.

Planning, Zoning and Building Director Alaina Ray told the Longboat Observer she “understands the frustration and feels it, too.”

Ray said she can open up the binder of the town’s current codes, close her eyes and point a finger at statements in the codes that contradict a previous statement on a different page. 

“I’ve talked to numerous land use experts that have looked at this code and have never seen anything quite as frustrating,” Ray said. “We want to do this as quickly as possible but we want to do it right. Too many times if we get in a hurry to pass something, we have unintended consequences. If you do things too fast, there can be repercussions.”

Ray, though, said she will push UF consultants this summer to move more quickly.

“I’ve had to push them some on timing, and I will continue to push harder,” Ray said. “The urgency by board members has been passed through, and this will pick up speed now with the direction we got.”