Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/110922
Sarasota News Leader February 22, 2013 tors some certainty? I see great value, and I���ve listened to some Laurel Park residents and some of the Alta Vista residents and they bring good points. You know, Alta Vista and Walmart. Page 27 You say you want to grow the tax base. Would you consider high-rise development north of 10th Street? Dorfman: That���s not the density I���m advocating right now. I���m advocating the kind of density required to provide housing that is more affordable for young professionals. I���m for density that allows us to build rental housing, from 650 square feet to 1,500 square feet. If I lived there, I���d have some of those concerns as well. But how do you not run people away who want to invest in our town ��� who can add to the tax base or bring jobs. Everything isn���t good for our city, I understand that. How do you find that middle ground? I like DROD [the Downtown Residential OverIt���s something I wrestle with every day as a lay District]. It���s been sunsetted. But I see that density as allowing us ��� and I���ve had a lot of candidate. meetings on this ��� to start to move areas of If somebody���s building something on the edge the North Trail forward. I think the North Trail of Laurel Park and the [residents] don���t hear is the place to look at that kind of density. [about it] and don���t understand, well I understand some of [the neighborhood���s] concerns. I���m not a wholesale proponent of putting up I really do. Or maybe [the developers are] not more luxury condos. I think our need right sensitive to the neighborhood with their site now is rental units. I���m a proponent of [rentplan, even if it���s moving a generator or a light al property] downtown; I���m a proponent of it along the North Trail, possibly in the Roseor something. Those are reasonable things. mary District. That���s the kind of density I���d be How do you find a process that doesn���t slow advocating. down the process? I try not to listen to just one side. I try to consider both views. It���s a You know the equation: To build an acre you have to sell X-number of units at $1.2 million. conversation we should have. They become 3,000-square-foot-units, and Citywide? that���s not what we need in Sarasota. Lumpkin: I would definitely want to have that I���ve had four meetings now, with two separate conversation. groups, and I���ve seen the numbers. I���ve seen the plans. I���ve seen how it can work and it ac��������� tually doesn���t require that big a tweak to our Would you favor expanding adminis- density. It requires a tweak on height ��� not trative site plan approval to the North much, but a little bit. But it���s doable. Trail? For $1,000 per month? Theisen: No. People can have meetings. It���s Dorfman: Even less. You can go from roughly sort of with the Sunshine idea. No backroom $750 per month up to $2,000 if you���re going for deals. a two-bedroom [unit]. And this is rental hous��������� ing, not condominiums. And it does work.