Longboat moves ahead with pathway to redevelopment

It has taken years, but Longboat Key commissioners soon will get the chance to discuss — and vote on — a package of new codes meant to provide a pathway for owners of buildings out of step with the town’s zoning laws. The goal is to allow them to redevelop into something more in keeping with the modern real estate market or rebuild from a catastrophe.

The whole idea behind the package, moved forward this summer from the Planning and Zoning Commission, is to hold the line on modern-day density rules, enacted years ago to put a cap on the population on an island that was approaching build-out.

The matter is expected to be first heard Nov. 5 by the commission.

“The discussion has always been that we have to let them rebuild,” Planning & Zoning Board Chairwoman B.J. Bishop said, adding the owners of so-called “nonconforming” properties were always allowed to maintain the status quo if they chose to. But, when it comes to redevelopment or rebuilding, “we want to encourage them to build in a less-intensive manner,” she said.

The town’s 100 or so nonconforming properties were built largely in the 1970s and early 1980s, often with 7-foot ceilings and common laundry rooms on each floor, before the town reduced density from one end of the island to the other. 

Buildings such as Seaplace, with its 461 units, are examples of properties built before lower density rules were established.

Commissioners, planners and planning board members have spent years trying to write new codes to govern redevelopment projects, but events have gotten in the way. 

The biggest interruption was the Unicorp National Developments Inc. plan to redevelop the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort into a five-star St. Regis hotel and condo project. Officials decided against setting new rules and codes before dealing with the Colony redevelopment, which sidetracked them for at least a year.

Bishop said the idea behind town restrictions on height and density is to keep Longboat Longboat.

“There was a real push,” said Bishop, who noted at one time the town was zoned to accommodate 70,000 people. “We don’t want to look like Miami and we don’t want to look like Naples.”

What’s new?

The terms voluntary and involuntary were taken out of the ordinances by design, Bishop said.

“One of my complaints is involuntary rebuild and voluntary rebuild” she said. “I just don’t think it matters. Good planning and good building is what matters. You have a right to do what you want with your property, even if a storm knocks it over.”

The new codes recommended by her board and referred to the commission set new standards for redevelopment.

Among them:

• Land use cannot change. A property zoned for a condominium must stay a condominium and can’t be remade into, say, a commercial property.

Cubic footage inside the building must not exceed the existing volume, though the interior configuration could change.

The footprint of the property must stay the same. In other words, green space and breezeway space must remain.

Building height will be held to the town’s standard of 65 feet, about six floors. Numerous buildings today exceed that height.

Buildings on the gulf will never be less than 50 feet from the high-water or erosion-control line, unless the previous encroachment was less than 50 feet.

Creation of a townwide registry of all nonconforming properties, both for the benefit of the town leaders and the property owners. 

Shelters for parking spaces that were previously not covered will not be permitted unless they meet site setback and land requirements.

“Rather than a giant high-rise, we would like to see two or three lower buildings that have less intensity,” Bishop said.

Still, a complete rebuild to modern standards (higher unit ceilings, in-unit laundry facilities) might not always be possible with the same number of units as originally built.

But it can be done if open space is used wisely, said Commissioner Jim Brown, who is an architect.

“You have to reconfigure the building,” he said.

Planned unit developments, which offered developers some flexibility to skirt some of the town’s codes — with commission approval — have been eliminated from the discussion, Bishop said.

“It is just a zoning technique that gives you more flexibility,” she said. “The commission did not like it.”

What it might mean

Owners at Spanish Main aren’t waiting for a disaster to begin investigating what a remodeled property might look like.

The not-so-typical nonconforming Longboat condominium community of 212 villa-style units was built in the 1960s. Concerned about potential hurricane damage, community members have discussed possibly rebuilding the community with 14, two-story buildings with parking underneath.

Tom Freiwald, a Spanish Main resident and chair of the Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force, said even though there are no definitive rebuilding plans, the community is taking initial steps by trying to come up with some designs for a potential redevelopment. As of now, there are no plans to rebuild, he said. Spanish Main’s 28 acres supports a density of just more than seven units an acre, close to today’s standards. 

“We embrace the efforts of the town to make this simpler,” Freiwald said. “We want to be prepared.”

If owners of a nonconforming, multifamily property are willing to comply with as much of the town’s zoning as possible, then the P&Z board is willing to work with them to get their project built, Bishop said, though each case would be examined and considered individually and on the basis of practicality and realities of the market.

Getting to that goal of a lower-intensity building can be a hard hurdle to clear.

So how would a typical condominium on Longboat be affected?

The Islands West, for example, is a 15-story development with 87 units built in 1972. Units vary from 1,100 square feet to 3,200 square feet. Under Longboat zoning laws, it is considered a nonconforming property and would be tough to rebuild with 10-foot ceilings and not exceed its current cubic footage, which means open space would have to be used and the building reconfigured to maximize the number of units.

Save the date

After an initial hearing with the Town Commission in November, the proposed codes could be set for a final public hearing by the end of the year. The three commissioners running for re-election, Brown, Jack Daly and Mayor George Spoll, have all acknowledged the town’s zoning codes need to be updated and brought up to today’s standards.

“Eventually the whole island will be rebuilt,” Brown said.