Fear of Heights

Fear of Heights

How high is too high? The fight for the air up there.

By Sean Roth

Real Estate Editor

Building heights are the philosophical topic of the moment in Manatee and Sarasota counties. The debate has kicked around in development and governmental circles for years, but because of a confluence of projects recently proposed in the area, the topic has engendered renewed interest.

The key project fueling discussion is the possible success of Arvidais multiyear campaign to develop condominium towers on Perico Island. For four years, Arvida has tried to obtain final approval for the project, but legal challenges from environmental groups and a suit by Manatee County against the city of Bradenton seemed to indefinitely halt the project.

In March, Arvida submitted a revised plan, which reduced the residential units to 686 in a total of 13 condominium buildings, including five that reach 10 stories. When Bradenton City Council approved the site plan, it appeared the city, county, other municipalities and environmental groups would once again be heading back to court to debate building heights, density and traffic issues.

The project also spurred talk among several county commissioners of scrapping the city-county growth management agreement in favor of the former charter system.

In September, the county commission proposed a settlement, which narrowed its concern to height only. The agreement required the developer to limit the height of its buildings to no more than five stories. Arvida and the city of Bradenton refused the offer, and prepared for a court battle.

Faced with hefty legal bills and an uncertain outcome, the county commission made a conciliatory offer. Arvida could have increased height in four buildings in exchange for reduced heights in four others. It represented a fairly clear concession on the countyis part.

At about the same time, the Bradenton City Commission approved a WCI Communities Inc. site plan to develop Mangrove Point, a mix of 10-story condominium towers and mid-rise and single-family buildings on the Manatee River at 48th Street Court East.

That was followed by the Manatee County Commissionsi approval of a site plan, albeit with reduced heights, for Long Bar Pointe Condominium, a 275-unit development at 75th Street West and 53rd Avenue.

Add to this the continued controlled growth and height issues of the Bradenton Beach City Commission (some of which were recounted in GCBRis June 4 cover story Pillage or Progress?), innumerable letters to newspapers and Sarasota Countyis extension of allowable heights and you have a genuine height controversy.

For Manatee Commissioner Joe McClash, the Arvida settlement represents a rebuff of what he sees as the communityis desire for low-rise buildings. The commission has set building heights in most of the unincorporated county at 35 feet.

i(Reduced) height is a community standard that has always been in place until recently,i he says. iYou donit see seven-story buildings on Holmes Beach. We are trying to preserve our waterfront vistas. We are a low-rise community. We are not Sarasota County. O Our waterfront views are some of our most important assets, and height is very important in retaining that.i

McClash contends the current approvals for excess height on Perico and Mangrove Point violate the spirit of the peopleis vision for Manatee County. He calls the cityis approval ia land-use decision that was money driven, pure and simple.i

As for Arvidais contention that additional height allows for smaller building footprints and less environmental impact, McClash pointedly says thatis untrue.

iThat is one of the arguments that Arvida and the city have used to mislead people,i McClash says. iThe site is entirely surrounded by mangrove or protected areas. Any intrusion into the mangroves they make would lessen the amount of land they have to build on. Now, if they were building two tall buildings on the end and the rest became open space maybe it would be preserving more space. But as it stands there is no proof to validate that environmental statement.i

McClash concedes that reduced heights and reduced densities are linked.

iManatee Countyis vision has always been that of a low-rise skyline,i he says. iWe are not duplicating what they are doing on Longboat Key. Manatee County wants to remain unique especially along our waterfront vistas. The time is now to introduce restrictions that will preserve the character of the community.i

Additional height, McClash says, belongs in the urbanized areas of downtown where it encourages revitalization and reduces sprawl. The legal loophole to greater density in the rest of the county, McClash asserts, is planned developments, which offer unlimited height but require more approvals.

iI think Sarasota County has major transportation problems because of the heights allowed (on the barrier islands),i McClash says. iThere is a not a system of transportation they have that will handle their growth. We canit really handle any more travel to the barrier islands either.i

Fellow Manatee County Commissioner Pat Glass has a different take on the height issue. She suggests the county should have taken a stance that was more open to compromise.

iYou donit need to get in a battle with the city just over the height of the building,i Glass says. iYou shouldnit complain until you get your own house in order. If Joe McClash or any other commissioner wants to change the height restriction, theyive got to change the (countyis) comprehensive plan. I tell everybody I think we need to have a discourse. Everybody wants a beautiful view, but there has got to be a variety.i

Technically, the city of Bradenton has no height restrictions. But Mayor Wayne Poston says the city requires that any large-scale development work from the cityis perspective.

iWe think we can get that done when it comes to the council,i Poston says. iMost of Bradenton is an urban environment, which means that we believe in a mix of densities and heights. With Mangrove Point, I think the condos are appropriate. I like them. It allows you to retain a piece of ground and have some breathing room.i

As for the Bradenton downtown core, Poston says it will likely need more residential units in tall buildings to draw the density necessary to attract a grocery store.

iHe wants the control, thatis Joeis deal,i Poston says. iHeis threatening us with charter government. Thatis not your solution, Joe. They keep referring back to Imagine Manatee, and saying that the people said they didnit want high-rise buildings. But letis be honest. Imagine Manatee was 900 people. Itis never been tested.i

Poston says tall buildings have their own appeal.

iWhen you talk to me about beautiful architecture, I think about the Empire State Building, the Chrysler building or the Prudential Center,i Poston says. iThey are all striking. These are landmarks. I think itis a sign of prosperity. If someone thinks (tall buildings) are going to be offensive take them to Longboat Key and then take them to Anna Maria (Island). Itis a different type of lifestyle but that is the great thing about municipalities.i

To the north, Palmetto regulates building height to no more than 12 stories or 130 feet.

Yet with a Development of Regional Impact approval, construction has started on the first of three 15-story condominium towers for the Bel Mare Condominiums at Riviera Dunes Resort & Yacht Club. The 62-unit tower is promoted as the largest residential building in the entire county.

i(The developer) looked at the four 12-story buildings and asked if they could build three 15-story buildings instead,i says Palmetto Mayor Larry Bustle. iThey wanted to decrease the footprint on the ground floor level to include more parking and green space. And they thought it would have a positive effect on the view. The city commission decided ... it offered a lot of positive things to us. I believe on a personal note that they did it right by sparingly spacing the tall buildings o designing them so theyire not just all in a row. These are also not square box buildings.i

Bustle and others say that without the additional option of height, affordable housing near the downtown core is almost impossible. Bustle says the county should hold a workshop on the height issues.

In Sarasota County, the commission has capped building heights at 85 feet, but at a recent meeting a special exception to the height restriction was created. That special exception allows property owners, who develop mixed-use, to have up to 110 feet or nine-stories. The new height special exception incentive was attacked by Sarasota attorney Dan Lobeck, President of Control Growth Now, as a give away of almost unlimited height at a time when residents want greater control on development.

iHeight has always been a real bug-a-boo,i Sarasota County Commissioner Shannon Staub says. iThere are very few ehigh buildingsi in the county.i

Further, she says, people who are worried about 30-story buildings should know the exception is capped at 110 feet. She points out there are already a few older condominiums that are already 9 to 10 stories in the county so the height is not out of line historically. In addition, the height allowance would have to be environmentally sensitive and would have to be compatible with the neighborhood.

But Staub acknowledges that it was a very emotional vote for several commissioners and yielded a split vote by the commission. She says the exception was designed to appeal to market concerns and to offer developers alternatives that appeal to the commissionis preferred development style.

iPeople here think we are so special, and they donit want it to look like somewhere else,i Staub says. iI can understand that. People are worried that they arenit just going to get one large development; that they are going to get a slew of them. But what if one of those projects is really good for the community and for redevelopment?i

Staub says all projects, no matter how theyire designed, must face approval from the county commission for the additional height.

In Sarasota, buildings heights are more gradual and create a stair-step effect as it leaves the bayfront downtown area. The city generally talks about height in stories, which is about 14 feet per level with two feet between stories.

The downtown bayfront zone allows up to 18 stories (or about 288 feet). The downtown core is capped at 10 stories (about 160 feet) except for two new buildings up to 180 feet, which have not been specified by the city commission yet. Downtown edge was limited to five stories and downtown neighborhood zoned property was limited to three stories. The larger buildings also must have 12-foot recesses, which decrease the building floor size, above the fourth story.

iThis allows builders higher ceilings than before,i says Sarasota city Commissioner Lou Ann Palmer. iI am one of the strongest supporters of the height restrictions. I donit want skyscrapers. We are a midsized city. People are worried that the buildings will blot out the sky and reduce the general ambiance. We donit want a canyon effect.i

Unfortunately, for current city planners, it is the general agreement among city commissioners that past administrations allowed too much height along the bayfront. So in many ways the current height restrictions are primarily historical and preserve existing property rights.

Asked why the city needs height restrictions given the fact that the city, admittedly, has a flawed historical size layout. iIim with you on that one,i says Commissioner Danny Bilyeu. iHeight doesnit scare me. I like to study tall buildings. When the city allowed 180 feet in the i70s not everyone went out and built 180-foot buildings. Look at the (Doug) Tibbetts building at Ringling and Orange. They could have gone up 10 stores but instead they decided to build a four-story building.i

Mayor Richard Martin argues that height restrictions are important to directing growth.

iYou can never really take height away without hurting property rights,i Martin says. iThis is a process you grapple with. You have to respect the past to a certain extent in regard to scale. (But) (i)n some respect you want to limit buildings heights in order to have buildings fill up the space.i He explains that according to new urbanism principles people want to walk along downtown cores that are connected and where there arenit large open gaps.

Even so Martin says there are definite advantages to the ecology of space found in smaller footprints of larger buildings.

In general, Martin is right that new urbanism is consistent with new urbanism principles says John Norquist, mayor of Milwaukee, Wis., from 1988-2003 and president of the Congress for New Urbanism, a Chicago-based non-profit organization developed to teach others how to implement the principles of the new urbanism.

iNew urbanism is not against high buildings,i Norquist says. iBut if a community wants to have height limits there can be a good reason to do that. In Washington, D.C., for example nothing can be bigger than the Capitol building, and it looks great. Height limits allows light to get into the street. Rules help to create communities.i

By and large, Norquist says new urbanism is generally more agnostic on height limits and encourages regulating on form rather than on use.

iThe places where you strictly regulate retail from office leads to some very unpleasant places,i he says. iSuch as when office parks are out by themselves or shopping malls. You donit typically want to take pictures of such places, and they tend to lose real estate value.i

Free(er) Markets

Sarasota and Manatee counties are certainly not alone in their building height debates. Both St. Petersburg and Fort Lauderdale have no height restrictions, which has led to obvious larger growth patterns.

One of the reasons for the current height of Fort Lauderdaleis downtown is a well known face in Sarasota o Richard Zipes. In Sarasota, Zipes is the planned developer of The Metropolitan at U.S. 41 and Gulf Stream. As president of Omni Development Co. in a partnership with Tarragon Realty Investors Inc., a publicly traded New York-based real estate investment company, Zipes developed the $200 million, 42-story Las Olas River House condominium in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

iWe put (the city) on the map,i Zipes says. iThis is the tallest residential building from Aventura to Atlanta, Ga. Ites really neat when the city talks about how proud they are of the building and what it has done to the cityis skyline. The building is a lot different from the others that were already here. It stamps the architectural landscape in a very positive way. Itis a landmark.i

Miami-based Sieger Suarez Architectural Partnership designed the condominium tower.

Was the approval process easy for Zipes? No way.

iSince the building is built we have been received a hell of lot better then when we were planning it,i Zipes says. iIf we were to go before them today I think things would be different.i

The partners first filed site plans in November 2000, and at the time the downtown buildings generally ranged from 20 to 25 stories. Zipes says the city commission was naturally leery about allowing a large building, and it took some convincing.

iIt was really the location that sold them,i Zipes says. iWe are south of a jail across the river. To the east there is a 26-story office building. On the west side there is a park. And to the north of the site is Florida Atlantic University. It was not like it would be negatively impacting those people.i

In addition, the three-acre site had previous been approved as a Florida Quality Development area, which allows a building to be built without a height restriction. The building is 447 feet high.

The biggest hurdle to the development was getting the Federal Aviation Administration to approve the project; large buildings can cause radar shadowing.

Chris Barton, Fort Lauderdaleis principal planner, says developments such as Las Olas River House have encouraged more redevelopment in the downtown.

iPeople say that we are built out here, but really we are under built,i Barton says. iMost of the square footage in the city is 30 to 40 years old. As property values go up, those buildings are being bought up and property is being consolidated.

In many ways, Barton says, Zipes and his partner had a relatively easy approval process.

iWe had incentives at the time that allowed them to be approved rather quickly,i Barton says. iThey changed the design in mid-stream, so it was approved twice by staff.i

There are about 65 major proposals, developments with more 50 units or more than 12 stories, to develop in Fort Lauderdale. The city has no height restrictions on the main core development, but development on the edge of the city center area is restricted to 150 feet and has required recesses.

Barton says also that economics in relation to state codes has played a large part in controlling building heights. After five stories, Floridais fire protection code and building code become more stringent in water and sprinkler requirements.

iThatis why you will typically see developers jump from five stories to 8 or 9,i Barton says.

While St. Petersburg also does not have height limits in its downtown core similar to Fort Lauderdale, the FAA most approve the height.

iThat is very limiting by itself,i says John Hixenbaugh, zoning official for St. Petersburg. However, required building recesses also affect heights.

But Hixenbaugh says as the city is working on its new zoning ordinance, he expects that there will be some height restrictions put in place fairly soon.

iWe have been operating under a zoning ordinance that dates back to 1977,i Hixenbaugh says. iThat was a time when cities had to beg people to build in the downtown. Now the city has gone through a visioning process and the city (officials have) a better form and shape that they want the city to take on. We are going to taper the height down away from the core.i

The commission is expected to adopt the new zoning code in August. A more significant problem, Hixenbaugh says, is that most of the taller buildings built in the city o much like the St. Petersburgis regions to the south o have been isuper expensivei condominiums.

iWe wouldnit be quite as concerned about the height if what we were seeing wasnit just condominiums,i Hixenbaugh says. iIt wouldnit matter so much if we could change what the public sees maybe adding retail or restaurant on the street level.i