In the City of Sarasota Who Is Responsible for Review Demolition Permits

SARASOTA — After nigh nine hours of testimony from expert witnesses, public comment and debate, a split Sarasota Urban center Committee on Saturday denied an appeal past a private citizen challenging a demolition permit for the vacant Thousand.WIZ building to make mode for the first stage of the bayfront redevelopment project known as The Bay.

A lawyer representing resident Edward Haas, who filed the appeal and lives across the street from the empty onetime children's museum, argued the metropolis failed to follow its own code when issuing the demolition allow. Haas' lawyer Ralf Brookes claims the city filed the incorrect paperwork and didn't consider the architectural significance of the building while also considering the structure's historic value — two considerations that go hand-in-hand.

Brookes ultimately failed to convince a majority of the commission that its metropolis staff fabricated fatal flaws while conducting a required historic review of the construction. Built in 1976 by famed Chicago builder Walter Netsch, it originally serving as the Selby Library before condign the G.WIZ museum in 2000.

"It doesn't matter that the Gettysburg Accost wasn't signed at that place," Brookes said, adding at that place'south more to celebrated designation than where a historic event took identify, citing the building's architectural significance.

The committee voted 3-two to uphold the city's issuance of a demolition permit in December. The dissenting votes belonged to Vice Mayor Jen Ahearn-Koch and Commissioner Willie Charles Shaw.

While Shaw acknowledged the city followed its own rules, he voted in favor of the appeal considering he believes structures with architectural significance in the city should be saved, he said. Ahearn-Koch, who declined to recuse herself from the hearing at the urging of Deputy Urban center Attorney Mike Connolly because of her outspoken advancement for sparing the building, believes the building carries significance and should avoid the wrecking ball, she said.

"We were presented with competent substantial testify to the effect that the edifice does have architectural significance — infrequent architectural significance," Ahearn-Koch said.

Mayor Liz Alpert — who refused to recuse herself at Brookes' request because she sent the city'southward Historic Preservation Board a letter in November asking it to respect two previous votes by the commission to demolish the building — said she believes the city did a thorough job while conducting its historical analysis. Clifford Smith, the city's senior planner who also serves on the Florida Historical Committee and the National Register Review Lath for the state, determined the building was ineligible for local or national historic designation.

"We're not here deciding whether it's architecturally meaning, historic or any of those things. We're hither to decide the issue on appeal, which was if the city followed the procedure for issuing the sabotage permit," Alpert said. "I would say that information technology absolutely followed the procedure."

City officials have argued the building lost whatever historic significance when it was overhauled to become the Yard.WIZ museum and that they used the right application form to obtain the demolition permit. Timothy Parsons, division director and state historic preservation officer for Florida'south Division of Historical Resources, has said the edifice doesn't meet criteria for historic designation, according to an Oct. 4, 2018, letter to Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown.

But staunch supporters of the structure say the city failed to accept a registered architect examine the building for architectural significance. They also clung to a Dec. 3, 2018, letter from the country's Division of Historical Resources stating that the building potentially meets the criteria for national historic designation. In addition, they claimed the city failed to find viable alternatives for the building, such every bit a new tenant or a new apply.

Bill Waddill, managing managing director of the Sarasota Bayfront Planning Organization, provided the city with cost estimates from architects. Renovating the building, which has sabbatum vacant for nigh six years and costs the city roughly $44,000 annually to maintain, would cost between $8 meg to $10.5 one thousand thousand, metropolis documents provided every bit prove on Sabbatum showed. It would cost roughly $xx million to $xxx million to motility, minus renovation costs, according to city documents provided past Waddill.

Fifty-fifty if the building was designated historic, the urban center could still legally knock downwardly the building since information technology owns information technology, Connolly said.

Saturday'southward vote doesn't necessarily mean the fight to spare the structure is over. Haas has xxx days to appeal the commission'south decision to the Circuit Court, Connolly said. If a judge finds the city violated its own code in issuing the demolition permit, the court could overturn the commission'southward conclusion, potentially jeopardizing phase one of the highly anticipated bayfront project.

The first phase of The Bay project — which requires demolition of the G.WIZ building — consists of a recreational pier on the s end and a pedestrian bridge over Tamiami Trail. The work could have three to four years and cost approximately $10 one thousand thousand to $twenty meg, designers have said. Part of the commencement phase also includes a concession stand and open space for events, outdoor movies and art displays and would accept a year to build at a cost of $3 million to $four million.

Plans for the more than $300 million project telephone call for several pedestrian bridges, a relocated boat ramp, a waterfront promenade, ane-acre event backyard, a 3,000- to iv,000-square-human foot casual restaurant, smaller nutrient kiosks, a allurement and tackle shop, a new performing arts middle, a repurposed Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, children's play space, botanical gardens and a cultural commune that preserves the Sarasota Garden Order, art heart, history center, Blueish Pagoda and Municipal Auditorium. The unabridged 53-acre project could take 10 to 15 years to build, planners take said.

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Source: https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2019/03/17/sarasota-city-commission-denies-demolition-appeal-for-gwiz-building/4719823007/

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