Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/112475
Sarasota News Leader March 1, 2013 Page 45 the planning board. ���There is reluctance to in place. Presumably, those standards would build a small building if they have a shot at a be ���grandfathered��� into perpetuity. bigger building if they just wait.��� The district calls for several design standards. Summers is a leader of a North Trail neigh- One concerns signs; another establishes criteria for building frontages, sidewalks and borhood. streetscapes. All breezed by with 5-0 votes. A THE GUTS OF THE DEAL provision on parking passed 3-2. The North Trail Overlay District (NTOD) is a complicated interplay of procedures, design guidelines, incentives and restrictions. It came out of three years of figurative head banging by local businesses, neighbors and property owners. Not a single North Trail neighborhood has endorsed it, although the area it would cover spans at least four. City staff presented 13 distinct issues for the Planning Board to ponder. On most points, the board responded with unanimous approval. For a few, the vote was 3-2, with member Susan Chapman and Chairwoman Jennifer Ahearn-Koch always in the minority. (It was the same 3-2 split to approve the Ringling Walmart site plan in January.) The first point of deviation was a simple question: Should the NTOD be voluntary or mandatory? As proposed, once a developer decided to use the NTOD, he or she had to stick with it; no going back. The action would be recorded on the deed and binding on any future property owner. Three Planning Board members said the adherence to NTOD guidelines should be voluntary, allowing developers to choose if they want to participate. THE APPROVAL PROCESS Administrative site plan approval in the NTOD was a major point of contention. ���This thing goes nowhere without the administrative approval process,��� said Planning Board Member Chris Gallagher. Ahearn-Koch replied, ���The city plan says citizens should have the maximum opportunity for meaningful involvement in decisions that affect their neighborhood.��� Gallagher responded, ���I support administrative review because when it becomes public, it���s unmanageable and unpredictable. That���s the simple reason they don���t want it.��� Chapman referred to the City Commission���s Walmart decision this week. (See the story in this issue.) ���We just had an example of staff interpretation for compatibility and the neighborhood���s idea of compatibility,��� she said. ���In a built-out city, we have to have a concept of compatibility. Staff���s analysis is not the same as the public���s.��� When it came to a vote, it was again the guys versus the gals. Vald Svekis, Gallagher and Morton Siegel voted for NTOD administrative The board was unanimous in approving a review, ensuring it passed 3-2. height bonus of 10 feet (up to 45 feet) and allowing the use of current zoning standards Then it was time to vote on the entire NTOD for ���daylight plane��� configuration ��� a kind of package and the vote was the same, 3-2, with ���let the sunshine in��� separation of structures. Ahearn-Koch and Chapman in the minority. For developers not wishing to utilize the The issue probably will go before the City NTOD, the Planning Board agreed unanimous- Commission in April, when one or perhaps two ly to let the current zoning standards remain city commissioners may be lame ducks. %