Developer plots Beneva housing project

A development team is asking the city to change the zoning of a Sarasota property to accommodate a five-story, 111-apartment complex at 105 S. Beneva Road, near the street’s intersection with Fruitville Road.

On Oct. 24, representatives of property owner Tenth Way Corporation hosted a community workshop at City Hall to discuss plans. According to preliminary material filed with the city, the Fruitville Forum would include four residential levels with 111 two-bedroom, two-bathroom units sized at about 1,150 square feet. The plans include 222 parking spaces.

In 2017, the city approved a change in the future land use classification for the 4.4-acre property from Community Commercial to Multi-Family, Medium Density. Now the property owner is requesting a zoning change from Commercial Neighborhood to Residential Multiple Family 5, which would allow a residential density up to 20 units per acre.

Two members of the public appeared at Monday’s meeting. Roger Corbail, the owner of a property that neighbors the proposed site, asked questions about the effects the building might have on the area.

“I was looking at the sightline from Fruitville, and there are no high buildings at all over there,” he said. “Once you put that building there, it’s going to stick out over everything in the neighborhood.”

Matthew Brockway, a land-use attorney representing Tenth Way Corporation, noted there is already a four-story multifamily residential building across the street. He said the project would include landscaping designed to preserve as many large trees as feasible while creating a buffer between neighboring properties.

Brockway said questions about how the project would affect infrastructure, such as drainage, would be addressed once the property owner formally filed a site plan and went through the development review process.

“There’s been a lot of planning up to this point, and there’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said.