It took last-minute assurances from the county staff that further studies that would be expected of Benderson Development — plus agreement that the Sarasota County Commission could hold a workshop on those matters. But approximately five hours and 45 minutes after they began the agenda item, the commissioners voted unanimously on Oct. 11 to continue a public hearing on Benderson’s request for approval of the formal boundary of its proposed Siesta Promenade project.
“We will get back to the commission in a report form” the details about what all those expectations of Benderson are, county Planning Division Manager Allen Parsons told the board. The studies also will involve the “impact area,” he added: the adjacent neighborhood and other nearby properties that will be expected to deal with more traffic, for example, if the project moves forward.
“We understand the importance of this,” responded Assistant County Administrator Steve Botelho, who was sitting in for County Administrator Tom Harmer.
Then Parsons pointed out, “Timing is actually just dependent on working through the process [of a Critical Area Plan application].” The various staff members reviewing the materials Benderson has submitted have to complete their efforts, Parsons added, holding up an inches-thick notebook indicating all the various aspects of those reviews.
Commissioner Charles Hines made the motion for the continuance after about an hour more of board discussion following almost two hours and 15 minutes of public comments and a 5-minute rebuttal by Todd Mathes, director of development for Benderson.
Referring to the intersection of U.S. 41 and Stickney Point Road, Hines acknowledged that it “is a mess,” reflecting planning ideas from 20 years ago, when the view was to just keep adding traffic lanes to ameliorate congestion.
Maio also referenced changes implemented by the Florida Legislature in 2011 and 2012 that limit a local government board in what it can require a developer with a rezoning petition to do to improve the handling of traffic a project is expected to generate. The CAP process, he added, does give the commission more leeway in making demands upon a developer.
Commissioners Christine Robinson and Carolyn Mason both argued at times for expanding the boundary to incorporate the neighborhoods that would abut the project on about 24 acres at the northwest corner of the U.S. 41 and Stickney Point Road intersection. Nonetheless, the board members ultimately agreed that they were satisfied by the list of issues Parsons showed them that staff would be required to address with Benderson under the guidelines of the CAP process. Among them are protection of adjacent residential neighborhoods; compatibility of mixed-use development compared to the existing use or redevelopment of the site as a traditional commercial center; and creation of public amenities.
The first step in the process of winning a CAP approval, Parsons pointed out, is approving the boundary of the project area.
“I can’t tell you when” the public hearings will be scheduled before the Planning Commission and the County Commission that will be necessary for Benderson to win the go-ahead to pursue a project on the site, Parsons said.
Sura Kochman, a member of the Pine Shores Neighborhood Alliance who has served as a liaison between that group and county and Benderson representatives, was among numerous public speakers who implored the board to deny the boundary request, citing numerous county future land use policies that she said the project would violate. Among them is Policy 1.2, which calls for the protection of the “quality and integrity of established neighborhoods from adjacent incompatible development.” “This is not a compatible use,” she said of Siesta Promenade.
Altogether, 47 people signed up to address the board on Oct. 11. By the News Leader’s count, 34 of them did make comments, with the vast majority opposed to the project.
In regard to the planned workshop, Hines asked Deputy County Attorney Alan Roddy whether the commissioners would be able to discuss issues such as density and height of buildings. Otherwise, the only session during which it could address those facets of Benderson’s final proposal would be a public hearing on the boundary area, the CAP application and the associated rezoning request. That would follow a Planning Commission hearing.
Roddy explained that the commissioners would have to be careful not to discuss issues directly related to the rezoning.
“This is a pioneering project that is presented to you this morning,” Parsons told the board at the outset of his Oct. 11 presentation. Benderson’s application is the first to make use of higher densities available under the CAP policy the county adopted in 2005, Parsons added.
That CAP designation allows the firm to seek density up to 25 units per acre. If it pursued rezoning of the property to the Commercial General designation county staff long had figured on for that site, Benderson would be restricted to 13 units per acre.
He has spent hundreds of hours since then personally speaking with nearby residents and property owners in the area, he said, and other Benderson employees have put in hundreds of hours, as well.
On the site, 22.4 acres is zoned Residential Manufactured Home (RMH), 1.1 acres is zoned Commercial General and 0.34 acres is zoned Office, Professional and Institutional, according to a graphic Parsons showed the board. Mathes pointed out that only the RMH and Commercial General acreage is eligible for the CAP process, under county planning rules.
“The upper limits [of density under a CAP], I’m not a fan of,” Maio said at one point.
In the application it filed with the county’s Planning and Development Services Department in August, Benderson proposed up to 140,000 square feet of retail space, a 150-room hotel and 506 multi-family units. In recent weeks, Mathes has shown various groups a revised plan with about 400 dwelling units, two smaller hotels and the same amount of retail space.
“That is correct,” Parsons replied. Regardless, if the density ends up higher than 13 units per acre, Parsons noted, at least 15% [of the homes] have to be affordable housing.