Legal loopholes allow to circumvent zoning laws.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: March 19, 2025
Host: Downtown Sarasota is seeing what looks like a race for height and density by developers of new skyscrapers. Ramon Lopez explains some of these projects and the Live Local Act, a driver behind at least one of them.
Ramon Lopez: It seems the expression “the sky’s the limit” is the goal of a couple of real estate moguls with an eye on dominating downtown Sarasota’s skyline.
Visualization of the Adagio condo complex. The developers hope to bypass local height restrictions using the Live Local Act.
DT Sarasota LLC recently submitted preliminary plans to the City of Sarasota’s Development Review Committee for a massive real estate project named Adagio in the downtown core area.
The filing generated public protest because the multi-million dollar project was hatched using Florida’s Live Local Act, which could preclude application of Sarasota’s housing regs and building codes.
Ground zero for the 2.24-acre site involves Ringling Boulevard, Palm Avenue and South Pineapple. The site is zoned Downtown Core, which allows for only 10-story buildings, versus 18 floors on the Downtown Bay Front.
The developer plans to build two buildings. The western building would be 18 stories with 100 luxury condos. The eastern tower would be nine stories, consisting of 67 rental units designated “attainable” to meet Live Local requirements. A loophole in the state law would give the developer the right to put up an 18-story tower in a 10-story zone.
The LLA was enacted to spur workforce and affordable housing. It relaxes local zoning regs and bypasses local density caps and height restrictions. It requires at least 40 percent of the housing units be set aside as “affordable.” Noah Fossick, the town’s chief planner, recently told a concerned citizen the developer has “checked all the boxes.”
LLA could preclude local governments from blocking developers’ plans. Applications could be administratively approved so Sarasota city commissioners might not get to vote on the matter.
But local governments can opt out of LLA if the county they are in has an adequate supply of affordable housing units. And Sarasota County is listed as a Florida county that can opt out.
Sarasota City Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch was asked by the Sarasota Herald Tribune back in May 2023 about the Live Local Act.
She’s worried the city council would be precluded from ruling on a real estate project. She said past, hard-fought changes to comprehensive plans would not count. She said the state is applying a one-size-fits-all approach to a problem that needs many different tools.
Live Local Act is also being tested in Bal Harbour, an affluent suburb of Miami Beach. A developer wants to put up four towers of up to 27 stories each. The plan calls for a boutique hotel and 600 residential units. The zone-busting is triggered by 240 apartments, or 40 percent of the total, to be leased at affordable rents.
Rendering of the 1260 North Palm Residences, which could become the tallest tower in downtown Sarasota .
Meanwhile, Sarasota opponents continue their battle against another 18-story downtown building project employing a different legal loophole.
By a 4-1 vote, the Sarasota Planning Commission approved the planned 14-unit, 342-foot Obsidian luxury condo tower at 1260 N. Palm Ave, but the city commission must sign off on the project.
The City of Sarasota regulates a building’s height by the number of floors. But the developer is using uninhabited space between floors to boost the height and make the Obsidian the tallest building in downtown Sarasota.
The Obsidian’s successor, 1260 North Palm Residences, faced much less pushback from city planners despite being only a few feet shorter.
The Obsidian showdown goes before the city commission on April 21, and vocal opponent Ron Shapiro told the city leaders to do the right thing.
Ron Shapiro: We can only hope that, on April 21, you, the city commissioners, will reach the same conclusions and have the same courage as Mr. Dan DeLeo, the chair of the planning board, who voted firmly and passionately against the project, citing “a tremendous amount of evidence” “fully independent of the interstitial space issue.” I want to note that the three planning board members I mentioned earlier all said they “don’t like the building.” However, they still voted for it.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if you like this project or not. What matters is that, on April 21, you do the right thing and vote against it based on the “tremendous amount of evidence” as referenced by Mr. Dan DeLeo and then some.
RL: This is Ramon Lopez 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.