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Sarasota News Leader July 19, 2013 Page 41 tential high-rise sea. On Monday, July 15, they If staff approved the site plan, neighbors could achieved a solution that may be embraced pay roughly $1,600 to appeal that decision to citywide. the Planning Board; and they could pay another $1,600 to appeal the Planning Board deciIt is called the Laurel Park Overlay District — sion to the full Sarasota City Commission. the L-POD. The commission approved it on a 4-1 vote, with Caragiulo in the minority. It will While they now will give up their automatic use a procedure that is a compromise between public hearings at the Planning Board and City current land-use regulations and new ones Commission levels, the hearings will still be that will emerge over the next three years. available as appeals for fees. Yet the compromise keeps alive the administrative site plan For most neighborhoods, a developer with big plans needs to go before the Planning Board approval desired by developers, a point made and City Commission to win approval to make by Chapman. changes in the future land-use map, as well as to obtain variances and other changes to the status quo. And the developer must start by informing nearby residents and calling them to a neighborhood meeting to outline the plan. But downtown, the developer needs none of that. Only staff approval of the plan is required — so-called administrative site plan approval. "It could become a model on how to resolve community differences with development interests," she said. "It is a very valid compromise." Chapman heard all the arguments as a Planning Board member before her election in May to the City Commission. Mayor Snyder, also an alumnus of the Planning Board, but at an earlier time, said before For Laurel Park residents, that meant a new the vote: "This is a solution good for downskyscraper could be proposed and approved town and good for the city." across the street before anybody heard about it. The proverbial "done deal" — and one the Passage of the Laurel Park Overlay District demonstrates commission support for a proneighbors refused to accept. cess to allow administrative site plan approvA compromise arose. Neighbors would be told al, but with safeguards for neighborhoods, — officially notified — when a project on their including the right to appeal. perimeter was afoot. And they would have the opportunity to confront the developer at As the city begins the early work on creating a a public meeting, able to ask questions and form-based code, the compromise with Laurel make suggestions. Then, after the developer Park may prove a palatable standard acceptsubmitted a site plan, another public meeting able to current residents and developers alike. would be held. At neither meeting would any The overlay in concept may be expanded to encompass the entire city. % binding decision be made. facebook.com/SarasotaNewsLeader