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By MEGAN SCOTT, Times Staff WriterA consultant hired by the city recommends retaining the 50-foot building height limit imposed by a temporary moratorium.
DUNEDIN - The door is slowly closing on developers who want to construct box-shaped buildings taller than 50 feet.
A consultant hired to review the city's codes recommended this week that Dunedin not allow developers to build anything higher.
That means a temporary moratorium that bans new buildings higher than 50 feet will essentially stay in place. Commissioners still have to work out the details on what they will allow.
HDR, an architectural, engineering and consulting firm, also recommended the commission develop stricter guidelines for developers, requiring them to use a structure similar to a wedding cake, stepping back the top two floors. For example, on a three-story building on Main Street, the top two floors would be stepped back 10 feet from the bottom floor.
"Main Street is the dominant street downtown," said James Moore, national director of community planning and urban design in HDR's Tampa office.
"This is where the height controls should be the most rigorous. It's hard to get a quaint village atmosphere with an eight-story building."
And commissioners have been worried about losing that quaint village atmosphere. In some areas, without the moratorium, developers could build up to 80 feet.
Commissioners approved the six-month moratorium in August on buildings taller than 50 feet.
They wanted to give HDR time to finish its visioning report, which, besides downtown, studied the Dunedin Causeway, State Road 580, Patricia and Douglas avenues and the residential area on the south side of town.
HDR recommended 42 to 45 feet on Main and 50 feet everywhere else.
That height limit though is not set in stone.
Kevin Campbell, Dunedin's director of community services, said the commission could allow for taller buildings if there was a benefit to the community, such as if the developer was doing affordable housing, creating parking or, in the case of the causeway, providing better access to the waterfront with piers and boardwalks.
During a commission discussion Monday, that idea was met with some resistance.
"People who own or buy the property will say, "Oh, I have a couple of public benefits. I'll go to 80 feet,' " said Commissioner Deborah Kynes. "I certainly don't believe on the Douglas corridor we have any reason for an 80-foot building."
The commission ruled out allowing anything more than 50 feet on Douglas and Patricia.
But on the causeway, the consensus was to allow 72-foot buildings.
They decided State Road 580 east of New York Avenue could go to 80 feet. But the downtown part has to be 50 feet or less.
"Your restriction is still 50, and you're going to have to justify why you need to go above that," said Mayor John Doglione.
Commissioners promised that won't be easy.
"We're going to get rid of the entitlement, the whole atmosphere," said Kynes. "It's going to be really driven by if there is a public benefit. And it goes back to the commission to decide that public benefit."
City Attorney John Hubbard took down everyone's comments and is drafting a summary of the discussion to bring back to the commission.
Commissioners want to have the new height limits in place before the moratorium expires in January.
They promised developers they would not extend the moratorium.
"The clock is running," said Doglione. "The staff has to bring back all those confusing comments that has everybody scratching their heads. We'll review it and meet and say, "That's what we said."'
But even when the new limits are put in place, developers won't be sitting pretty.
The commission also plans to develop stricter design criteria for new buildings.