- December 25, 2024
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Local architect Mark Sultana recalls when he received the phone call that he won the contract to design the current facilities for the Sarasota Yacht Club.
It came the day his daughter was born.
“My daughter is 16 now, so I’ve been working on this project for that long,” said Sultana, founder of DSDG Architects, to the City of Sarasota's Development Review Committee at a July 3 meeting. The yacht club is just east of St. Armands off the John Ringling Causeway.
“The club has become very popular. They have about a 75-person waitlist currently to get a membership, so they engaged me to look at future development and future expansion for the project,” Sultana said. “Some of the areas that need attention are the fitness center that's too small and the office space for employees is too small.”
To address those needs and to eliminate the waiting list, Sultana and the club settled on a new free-standing structure built above current surface parking, plus more parking spaces in order to expand membership. The private club is zoned Office Regional District and requires a minor conditional use and site plan approval by the Planning Board.
Proposed changes to the site plan originally submitted in 2008 include:
With multiple comments made by staff and a traffic impact study required, the project requires a resubmittal to the DRC. Once it meets all code requirements, it will be placed on the Planning Board agenda.
Two other projects also recently came before the Development Review Committee. One of those projects in 777 South Palm Ave.
Located directly across U.S. 41 from the new parking structure at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, developer Odin Endeavors seeks to redevelop an aging two-story commercial building standing on just more than one-half acre into a five-story condominium building that will include attainable housing.
Representing the developer, land planning consultant Kimley-Horn is anticipating administrative approval of the project as there are no requested changes to the Downtown Edge zoning requirements.
As a pre-application hearing before the DRC, details are few and the plan remains in flux. The pre-applicaiton documents referenced 27 condominiums with two attainable housing units, but Patrick Seidensticker of law firm Icard Merrill, representing the applicant, suggested that could change by the time a plan is submitted.
“The proposed development today says 27 units,” he said. “Subsequent to this, it has been determined those units may increase to 33 or so with required attainable housing. And there also may be an addition of some commercial retail space on the site as well.”
The increase in residential units will require at least thee affordable and attainable units per the city's density bonus policy. The units must be evenly distributed between price points that are defined as affordable to 80% or below, 81%-100% and 101%-120% of area median income.
The proposed development includes a pedestrian amenity area, a ground-floor lobby with a mezzanine and two levels of parking. A rooftop amenity area featuring a pool and fitness area are also proposed. The public realm will be improved with street trees and wide sidewalks along South Palm Avenue and Bayfront Drive.
Another project up review is Bayside North. With site work already underway on the Bayside apartment development between Florida and Cocoanut avenues bordered by 10th Street and May Lane in the Rosemary District, its developer, Longboat Group, presented plans for a second phase, to be named Bayside North.
The site is just shy of one acre and borders the 3.5-acre Bayside property to the north to 10th Street. Although developed separately, Bayside North will add 96 apartments to the 254 units planned for Bayside. At seven stories, Bayside North will be two stories taller than Bayside, as permitted by code. Fifteen units in Bayside North will be priced as attainable and affordable.
The parcel is currently used as staging area for Bayside construction.
Development consultant Joel Freedman told the DRC a Planning Board adjustment will be required for the project because of design conflicts between the city’s Engineering Design Criteria Manual (EDCM) and the Rosemary Residential Overlay District on matters such as easements and setbacks.
“It creates an interesting issue because of maximum setbacks in Downtown Edge, so we're obviously having to get an adjustment from the Planning Board,” Freedman said. “This is another case where we have the Rosemary Overlay District wanting one thing and the EDCM wanting another, so my expectation is we'll be asking for a technical deviation to do what the Rosemary Overlay District wants us to do.”
The RROD requires at least three additional development standards incorporated into the project's design, Bayside North meeting four of them. Urban open space will occupy at least 10% of the site, which qualifies as two standards. In addition, the project will be mixed-use as required and at least 50% of the dwelling units above the ground floor and facing streets will have balconies.
In addition to the 96 apartments, Bayside North proposes a 2,995-square-foot commercial space on the ground floor that is currently planned for a casual restaurant of up to 100 seats that may serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.
