BRADENTON BEACH – In what City Attorney Ricinda Perry described as a “concerning situation” at an Oct. 5 city commission meeting, a city building official has determined that several properties in the city do not conform to the building code.
“When we were looking at this and looking at zoning, comp plan and future land use designations, we had an ‘oh my’ moment,” Perry said. “What we discovered, Runaway Bay – all the condominiums – Tortuga, Silver Surf, Bridgewalk, Old Bridge Village, all of these appear to be triggered in some way by this provision on first blush.”
Perry displayed the text of the city’s high-density residential code, which says there may be up to nine single-family detached homes per acre with at least 1,000 square feet each or 18 duplex units per acre with at least 700 square feet each. For multi-family residential properties having three or more units, each must be at least 700 square feet, with up to 18 units allowed per acre. For hotel/motel/ transient lodging units with at least six units, each having at least 300 square feet, the allowable density is up to 18 residential units per acre.
Many properties in the city exceed the number of allowable units, making them “non-conforming,” according to Perry. City officials say that has no immediate effect, but that if a natural disaster forces rebuilding, current codes would apply, potentially forcing the elimination of some units.
Perry said Angela Rodocker, owner of Silver Surf and Bridgewalk, expressed concern about her properties.
“She has 1.22 acres on Old Bridge Village, and I think it was 28 units. According to this language, she is not allowed to have that – if something happens – if she wants to expand it,” Perry said.
Currently, these buildings and others are considered to be legally non-conforming, she said.
“That’s important, it’s legal, it can sit there, but it’s non-conforming with the comp plan,” Perry said, explaining that the city code does not allow those owners to expand their developments.
Perry said if there’s a natural disaster, they can rebuild only on their current footprint.
“But you have to look at the next part, which is what concerned (Building Official) Steve Gilbert. You must meet all other comprehensive plan requirements,” she said.
Perry used the example of a property having 56 units per acre, more than the allowable density of 18 per acre. If there is a disaster causing the units to be replaced, the building can be rebuilt in the same footprint, but each unit now has to be a minimum of 700 square feet.
“The concern is if I build a 400-square-foot unit to fit all these in and I’m now required to increase that to 700, which one of the property owners is going to be told you don’t have a unit because you have to meet that standard in order to rebuild from a hurricane?” Perry said. “Who do we tell you don’t have a home anymore to?”
Perry said that it’s important to protect current property owners.
“I don’t want to scare anybody too terribly much, but it is something very important to make sure we protect property owners who have gone through the proper channels and make sure we don’t take away their existing property rights and as it stands I can tell you there is concern that we have created a substantial amount of legal non-conformities,” she said.
Commission to engage expert
“So what staff would like to do with your blessing, is we want to see how big the problem is, if in fact it is a problem,” Perry said. “It jumps out at us as a big red flag and we need to get to the bottom of it. In order to figure out what kind of problem we’re looking at, we need to have our city planner, Luis Serna, go into the land development code, the comprehensive plan, look at this provision and then go out and find all the properties that have been triggered by this.”
She asked for approval to have an analysis done by Serna to determine how many units exist on a property and if he can, with ease, find out when those units were approved, and by what mechanism.
“Then also figure out what the average square foot is per unit, what the lot coverage is and the floor ratio,” Perry said. “Those were the things that were tweaked and touched and you have to comply with in order to rebuild after a natural disaster or fire and see what property rights have become legal non-conformities because from what I understand, this commission wants to protect what’s been approved and given to people.”
“I think it’s only fair that if it (the data from Serna) triggers those areas, we need to let those people know what’s going on,” she said. “Then you can decide on that data. Do we send it over to the land planning agency and let them decide and possibly adjust the language as needed?”
“I have talked with Steve (Gilbert),” Mayor John Chappie said. “We need more data to see if it is major and we need our planner – Luis Serna – to do this data collection and bring it back to the city commission. Then we on the city commission will decide if we need to do something. Or send it to the Planning and Zoning Board to review this. But it’s important it comes back to the commission first.”
Commissioner Jan Vosburgh urged that the data collection process be done quickly.
Perry read a draft motion: “A motion to authorize Luis Serna to work with staff to review the city’s comprehensive plan as it relates to the number of units for the comp plan designations by looking at all existing developments six units or greater, and providing an analysis to the city commission identifying the floor area ratio, lot coverage, number of units and average square footage together with any information with the date of approval and the development approval mechanism to the city commission.”
Cole made the motion and Vosburgh seconded it. Commissioners approved it unanimously. Commissioners Jake Spooner and Marilyn Maro were absent with excuse from the meeting.
