1260 North Palm Residences, though 15 feet shorter, is still too tall for neighbors. And they are an ‘aggrieved party’ now.
By Florence Fahringer
Original Air Date: December 13, 2024
Host: When a luxury developer proposed the tallest tower yet for downtown Sarasota, it went down in a hail of criticism, both by planners and the public. The developer shaved 15 feet off and put it back before city planners. This week, the second version came before the City Planning Commission, due to an appeal by neighbors. Florence Fahringer reports.
Florence Fahringer: This past Wednesday, the City of Sarasota Planning Board had a bout of deja vu. On the agenda was an appeal by the Bay Plaza Owners Association concerning developer Matt Kihnke’s plans to construct a luxury condo complex next door. These plans use a regulatory loophole to stretch their eighteen-story building to a height of over three hundred feet by extending the height between floors — the building’s “interstitial space.”
As it turns out, the Obsidian has a new name, 1260 North Palm Residences, as well as a new height, 327 feet — 15 feet shorter than the original plan, and just over 150 feet taller than the Bay Plaza condo complex. This new plan would still make North Palm the tallest building in Sarasota’s skyline, dwarfing the Ritz Carlton by 66 feet; but before it can become Sarasota’s tallest building, it must jump through the bureaucratic hurdles which caused it to be sent back to the drawing boards in the first place.
One such hurdle is the discontent of the Bay Plaza HOA. Bay Plaza didn’t like the Obsidian, and they still don’t care for its slightly shorter makeover; even though both plans would only be four stories taller than Bay Plaza, they still somehow manage to be nearly double Bay Plaza’s height. The Planning Board now had to determine whether or not Bay Plaza counts as an “aggrieved party”; essentially, the question the board had to answer was whether or not the construction and/or existence of North Palm would have an “adverse impact” on any one of Bay Plaza’s “legally recognized interests”; such interests are outlined by the land development regulations of Sarasota County’s comprehensive plan.
Robert Lincoln, the legal rep for North Palm, received some questions from board members at the end of his argument. Though these questions at first remained on topic, over time they tended to bleed into the board members’ broader reservations about North Palm. First, Daniel Deleo and Lincoln talk garbage.
Daniel Deleo: Okay. Do you agree that if there was an issue with respect to garbage as outlined by Mr. Bentley, that would be a legally recognized interest? Do you agree with that?
Robert Lincoln: No.
DD: Okay. Why not?
RL: Because they don’t have a legally recognized interest in how the city allows 1260 North Palm to have its garbage picked up. They don’t have a legally recognized interest in the use of the right of way between the sidewalk and the curb in front of 1260s building.
DD: So Mr. Bentley in his letter had a series of reasons. The trash issue that I just talked about was one, correct?
RL: That was one of the things that he raised, yes.
DD: Another one was what he described as, the proposed building does not comply with the building code requirements with regard to its excessive use of interstitial space. Do you agree that Mr. Bentley is correct with respect to his assertion that the association would in fact suffer to a greater degree than the general public with respect to that issue?
RL: No, because there’s no legally recognized interest in another property’s use of interstitial space. There’s no legally recognized interest in your neighbor’s use of the airspace over their own property.
DD: If what we’re trying to do is regulate land development, then it’s an issue of like versus like of height. Then how can the association not, If they’re on three sides, be a party, as defined … pardon me … suffer to a greater degree than the general public, and suffer an adverse effect to legally recognized interests.
RL: Because it’s not a legally recognized interest.
FF: Shane Lamay got his questions in next.
Shane Lamay: What ticks me off is, if I bought a condo unit in this building, I have a reasonable expectation — and I understand the code backwards and forwards. I would think, you know, there could be a building built here. I have no problem with a building being built there. But you don’t have a reasonable expectation to have a building that has 39 parking spaces, is 100 feet higher than any other building around, reduces the amount of retail frontage to the degree that you did. All these things add up and they become a real, I think, to use your words, they hinder your quality of life, or they diminish your quality of life. As a reasonable expectation for somebody who bought a unit there, I think it does make a difference. And I think they are aggrieved in that sense.
RL: I don’t think they have a legally recognized interest in … they might be adversely affected, based on those other definitions, but they’re not aggrieved because you don’t have a legally recognized interest in the amount of retail frontage that the other property has. You do if the zoning code prescribes that it needs to be this way, or the height needs to be this low, or the parking spaces need to be this many—
SL: And then you come up with a building that’s just above and beyond what ever was … I mean, yes, you found loophole after loophole after loophole and you exploited every one of them and congratulations for that. But I think that nobody living here expected this to happen and that’s really what it comes down to. And I can’t believe that we’re arguing over the definition of “aggrieved” in this case. It’s just … how could you be more aggrieved—
RL: And the answer is, you can’t—
SL: But I’m going back to the fact that that’s the intent of the zoning code, that it is. You are “aggrieved” if you didn’t meet the intent of the zoning code in this case.
RL: No, except that that’s clearly not what the definition says.
FF: Morgan Bentley, legal rep for the Bay Plaza HOA, then got his chance to rebut Lincoln’s arguments.
Morgan Bentley: So, for those of you who know Charlie Bailey, he has a saying that sometimes people put the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle. That’s what we have here. Let’s start over. This term, if we can have the overhead, everything you just heard emphasized the idea that whether we have a property right is, do we have a property right that’s being impinged upon that is our property right? That’s not what it says. What it says is — and again, keep in mind, any person or entity which will suffer to a greater degree than the general public an adverse effect to a legally recognized interest, protected or furthered by the land development regulations or the comprehensive plan.
This is exactly what you guys were talking about, is the code contemplates that the agreement has to do with what’s furthered by the land development regulations or comprehensive plans. Why does that make sense? Because if you read your appeal criteria, they have nothing to do with my property rights. Not one.
I’ll tell you what the Florida Supreme Court said. Ordinarily, abutting property owners have standing by virtue of their proximity to the proposed area of rezoning. Not even site plan, just rezoning. That’s what the Florida Supreme Court says. You guys did not make up this language. This language has been around for forty, fifty … two years, and it’s everywhere. This “aggrieved party” language is everywhere, and that’s what it means. But yes, I think it probably depends on what’s been violated, frankly. I’ll turn it around on you, though — If we don’t have standing, who would?
FF: Soon after, the board voted. One board member was absent, two members voted against Bay Plaza, and three members of the board — Deleo, Clermont, and Lamay — voted in favor; as such, the board recognized that the Bay Plaza HOA was indeed an “aggrieved party,” though only by one vote. On this hurdle, North Palm stumbled. Because Bay Plaza was recognized as an aggrieved party, the planning board will hold a public hearing on the plans to construct North Palm on February Twelfth.
This is Florence Fahringer, reporting for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.