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Seminole pushes building standards

Two businesses' design plans, one ordinary, one futuristic, prompt the City Council to fast-track rules to shape Seminole's image.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published April 25, 2006

SEMINOLE - The designs of two proposed businesses upset the City Council so much that it decided to fast-track Seminole's new architectural standards.

The offending designs were of a proposed Kohl's department store on Park Street and a World Savings bank on the Seminole Mall lot.

Kohl's will be an anchor for a shopping center on Park, where Essilor is located. The problem with the design, Mayor Dottie Reeder said, is that it's nothing special. It looks like every other shopping center with a big building and acres of parking.

Reeder said she would prefer to have each business in its own building with limited parking around each in a kind of "village" effect. Reeder saw a similar project in Orlando and said it was "unbelievably gorgeous."

The discussion, which took place at the council's annual retreat on April 15, moved into high gear when the council saw the futuristic building World Savings wants on the northwest corner of the Seminole Mall property. The bank will replace a BP gas station.

"I don't know what I'm looking at," Reeder said. "What is that? I can't even identify it."

Other council members suggested the building, with its gray galvanized and glass exterior, appeared to be a "space ship."

"Definitely not a green building," council member Patricia Hartstein said.

That's when council member Dan Hester suggested the city "fast-track" architectural standards.

"Do you really think that's going to fit into our community?" Reeder asked of the bank design. "That's going to look like nothing in this area.

"Have they seen Seminole? Have they been here?"

Yes, said City Manager Frank Edmunds. The bank has a branch on Seminole Boulevard.

Reeder: "So they know what we look like here, and they think this is going to fit?"

Referring to the boxlike design of the existing bank on Seminole Boulevard, Reeder said, "They're going from one extreme to the other."

Council members were much happier with a proposed design for the Bahama Winds condominium project that will have 40 units in two buildings on Bay Pines Boulevard.

The council has been discussing the idea of establishing a unique image for Seminole for at least a year. Last August they hired the Renaissance Planning Group in Orlando to come up with a plan to revamp the city's image.

In October, they listened to Renaissance's proposal, which was divided into three parts: a beautification, or streetscape, plan; a city center project; and a design plan.

Had the council opted to do all three, the cost would have been $298,180. Instead, the council chose to shelve all but the streetscaping plan, which cost an estimated $84,990.

But council members began rethinking that decision when they viewed the imminent new projects.

Reeder led the discussion, wondering if there was a way to persuade developers to come up with designs that would be more palatable.

Without an established standard to work from, it is impossible to force developers to design a certain way, said Mitch Bobowski, the city's general services director.

Reeder worried that, by the time the council gets standards into place, it will be too late to create a city image because development would have gone too far afield.

"We're going to develop into something we have no control over," she said.

Edmunds reminded the council that it had set October 2008 as a deadline for setting architectural standards.

"But by 2008, it will be too late, won't it?" Reeder asked.

Edmunds said it would not be too late because businesses are redeveloping all the time. But, he said, "It sounds to me like the council wants to fast-track this."

A chorus of "yeahs" answered him. The first step, Edmunds said, will be to find a consultant to help with the work. It is unclear when he will bring that to the council.

[Last modified April 25, 2006, 01:08:16]