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How high can beach structures be built?
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer ST. PETE BEACH -- The city's senior planner, Jerry Speece, made a bold statement last month in a memo addressed to the citizens of St. Pete Beach: "There are no changes in building heights," Speece wrote in all capital letters and bold-faced type. The memo was an introduction to the city's proposed new land development code, a document city commissioners have worked on for three years and one that will shape development -- or rather, redevelopment -- on the almost completely built-out barrier island. But Jan. 12, at a meeting of civic leaders where Speece had planned to present the new code, St. Pete Beach resident Ralph Lickton pointed out several areas of the city where buildings could be a third taller than currently allowed. Lickton is apparently the only city resident who compared the 192-page document to the former zoning ordinance it will replace. Even the mayor and city commissioners say they didn't know about the height change, despite several workshops held last year to pore over the proposed new regulations. "We'll all get a little black eye on that one," said Commissioner Peter Blank, referring to commissioners' failure to notice that in some areas, a 35-foot building height restriction would be raised to 50 feet. Now the City Commission is in a difficult spot, with city elections weeks away and some residents mistrusting the key official who compiled the new land development regulations. The mayor and some commissioners still want to vote on the land development regulations Feb. 5, which would put the regulations on track for final approval before the March 12 city election. Meanwhile, residents who question the regulations say they fear the city is trying to rush approval to satisfy developers whose plans rely on the new regulations. "To try to rush it through ... it just makes me wonder, where's the hidden agenda?" said Bill Allard, who has announced plans to run for City Commission against Blank, the city commissioner. Blank and Mayor Ward Friszolowski are both up for re-election, and it appears both will face opposition. City Commissioner John Phillips has announced he will not run again. At least one city resident, Comer Minish, is spreading the word that voters can put something else on the ballot this year: a referendum that would give residents a vote on the technical, jargon-filled pages of land development regulations. "A change this big takes a little bit of time to get it right," Steve Gordon, who is considering running for mayor against Friszolowski, told commissioners last week. Gordon said he is "disappointed and dismayed that there were so many unannounced changes" to the land development code. Speece apologized to the commission last week for what he called a "misstatement." "It has been brought to my attention that in my memorandum included with the published Land Development Code I unintentionally made the following misstatement: "THERE ARE NO CHANGES IN BUILDING HEIGHTS,' " Speece wrote in the memo, dated Tuesday. "When I wrote that statement, I was seeking to make it very clear that the much talked-about 200-foot height on Gulf Boulevard and the 100 or 75-foot height in the Corey Business District were not a part of the final regulations published." The City Commission initially discussed increasing allowable heights along Gulf Boulevard's "Hotel Row" and along Corey Avenue. Those proposals proved so controversial that commissioners have shelved them and plan to deal with them later. "The big deal is, lo and behold, in the RM district for multifamily over six units, they raised it to 50 (feet), and I had simply forgotten," Speece said Friday. "My mistake." Speece said city commissioners were informed of the changes. "They apparently overlooked it then, because it was presented at workshops," he said. The new "RM" district replaces a former zoning district that allowed 15 condominiums per acre, but capped the height at 35 feet. Lickton says that height restriction made it impossible for developers to build the 15 allowed condos, and increasing the height will, in effect, increase how many units can be built. Speece counters that 15 units were always possible, though they would have been small with the previous height restriction. He also said the city no longer plans to raise the heights in that area, and the height change was never a principal part of the plan. He says he's more than happy to keep the current restrictions: "It does not give us heartburn at all to just set it at 35 (feet)." Among the areas included in the "RM" district are 15 properties near the intersection of Boca Ciega Drive and 78th Avenue; several properties on the south end of Gulf Winds Drive; and properties immediately north and south of the Don CeSar Beach Resort & Spa lining Gulf Boulevard. Other changes Lickton and the critics who back him question are in the residential zoning requirements for the Belle Vista and Vina Del Mar neighborhoods -- changes Speece calls minor, housekeeping-type changes. While city officials decide what to do about the new rules they had hoped to pass and when to do it, some developers are waiting in the wings. Just in the past week, developers and real estate agents have hinted that old buildings such as the Snowden Resort Apartments, Blake's Inn and Crown Nursing Center could be razed for new condominiums or hotels. Roy Siegle, a commercial real estate developer, said some of St. Pete Beach's older buildings are "probably housing people that we really don't need to have around here." Siegle said development deals hinge on the city's approval of new regulations along Gulf Boulevard that will allow existing structures to be replaced with 18-unit-per-acre condominiums or 30-unit-per-acre hotels. He also said the people asking the city to slow down its plans were making a "ridiculous request" and "don't know what they're talking about." "We don't have any land left on St. Pete Beach for building luxury condominiums," Siegle said. "We're talking about a huge amount of money." "I plead with you not to allow this to go beyond Feb. 5," he continued. "That is a crucial time. They were expecting it in December. The last thing they want to do is wait until after elections." But city resident Jack Ohlhaber said he wants commissioners to study the proposed regulations more, especially now that even city officials don't completely understand them. "I think most of the people in this community think this city is as dense as it needs to be," Ohlhaber said. "It's all very nice that somebody can get an extra $11/2-million for their condos, but that's not going to benefit this area a whole lot."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
