Apartments at former Sarasota Kennel Club approach approval

With preliminary approval of voluntary annexation and rezoning from the Sarasota City Commission in hand, an apartment complex developer is at the starting gate in its quest to build a rental community on the site of the former Sarasota Kennel Club.

Raleigh, North Carolina-based Aventon Cos. plans to build a medium-density, 348-unit multifamily complex at the shuttered 26-acre dog track site at the corner of University Parkway and Old Bradenton Road. Recommended for disapproval by a 3-2 vote of the Planning Board — primarily over concerns about noise from flight operations at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport across the street — commissioners instead sided with the need for workforce housing.

By a 4-1 vote, commissioners approved the rezoning with Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch dissenting. Moments earlier, they unanimously approved the voluntary annexation of a 3.25-acre strip of land — essentially the backstretch of the track along the eastern edge of the property off Desoto Road— into the city.

Currently zoned Community Commercial (city parcel) and Moderate Density Residential (county parcel), pending second reading approval the property will be rezoned Multiple Family-Medium Density, as specified in the future land use map in accordance with the city’s comprehensive plan amendment application. That amendment awaits approval from Tallahassee.

The annexation and comprehensive plan amendment will return to the City Commission on Sept. 6 for a second reading. Because it was unanimous, the annexation will be on the consent agenda. The comprehensive plan amendment will be placed under unfinished business because the first reading vote was not unanimous.

During that same meeting, the City Commission is expected to hold a quasi-judicial public hearing for the proposed rezoning and site plan for the development.

Ahearn-Koch opposed the rezoning out of concern for future residents living essentially under the glide path for SRQ, the runway 1,500 feet from the northern edge of the property, and the frequent but not constant emission of noise from aircraft. She cited studies of adverse health effects of constant exposure of that level of noise, and that with required noise mitigation construction techniques will still be above 60 decibels indoors.

Aventon Senior Development Director Sean Flanagan countered that indoor conversation is at 60 decibels, and all of the outdoor amenities will be located on the western side of the property outside the noise contour. Prospective residents will be made aware of the proximity to the airport prior to signing a lease, he added, and the city and airport will be indemnified against future liability.

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport President Rick Piccolo told commissioners he “unabashedly” opposes the apartment development, calling it the worst possible use of the property. He said complaints are inevitable, regardless of paperwork signed by tenants.

As the airport grew and flight operations increased during his 27 years there, he said SRQ has invested $45 million in noise mitigation for homes in neighborhoods surrounding the former kennel club site. Most of those homes were in place prior to the airport's emergence and FAA guidelines for noise mitigation were developed.

And that noise is only going to get worse, he said. Although SRQ averages between five and six commercial aircraft operations an hour, it has approximately 160,000 operations a year — about 18.5 takeoffs and landings per hour, including private aircraft. At its peak in 1992-93, there were 192,000 operations a year, and there remains capacity even beyond that peak for even more air traffic, Piccolo told commissioners.

“I've been doing this a long time,” Piccolo said. “They will be complaining because they always do. It’s very similar to people who move downtown and say ‘I want to move where the action is going on.’ When the action happens, they start complaining.”

Proximity precedents

Neighborhoods in similar proximity to SRQ as the proposed Aventon Sarasota number in the hundreds of homes, not including a planned 280-unit apartment community, called Progress at University, bordering the western edge of the site. That complex, which sits more directly beneath the glide path than does the dog track, is making its way through the city's Design Review Committee process and headed toward final consideration.

Current zoning of the site would allow for more intensive commercial uses such as a big box store or retail strip center — a convenience store has already been approved for the northwest corner at University and Old Bradenton — and the absence of opposition from surrounding neighborhoods suggests an apartment community is the most compatible option for the now-blighted property.

“We didn't have anybody from the neighborhood speak against it at all. The neighborhood association is in favor of it,” Commissioner Hagen Brody said. “They understand that if this didn't go through, there is a chance that it could end up being something much less compatible with the neighborhood and it may be more combative with the airport.”

More workforce housing

The majority of the rents at Aventon Sarasota will be approximately 120% of the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton average median income, Flanagan said, placing it at the top of the attainable workforce housing price range. Although that was concerning to some commissioners, Brody suggested the proximity to the airport will be a “natural governor” on the rents.

A lower density community means no units added to the affordable housing stock, but it is one step in bolstering the workforce category. Flanagan said as more apartments come online, rents will naturally decrease throughout the city.

“Almost 94% of our units would fall within that 120% AMI limit,” Flanagan said. “If you have two people in a three-bedroom splitting that rent and they each have their own lease, we'd have 100% of the project meeting the 120% of AMI. That's our teachers, our police, our firefighters, hospital employees, airport employees — and that's because we're able to build a low-density project of this nature.”

Ahearn-Koch acknowledged the apartments would be a welcomed addition to the housing stock, but questioned if the city should knowingly allow to move forward a project that she believes will put residents in harm’s way.

“No doubt it's a beautiful project, … but the word for me is it just comes down to ‘must,’” she said. “Must we do this? Can we do this? Yes, we can. Must we? Must we knowingly allow people to be exposed to something that in our documentation says will cause health and safety issues. I love this project, but I cannot support the motion.”

Brody bristled at Ahearn-Koch’s assessment, pointing to the neighborhoods adjacent to the site and admonished her for publicly suggesting the residents are unsafe in their own homes.

Commissioner Liz Alpert sided with Brody.

“It just doesn't make sense to me to pull out this one little island of residences and say we can have them all around here, but we can't have it there. That just makes makes no sense in terms of our planning,” she said. “If we're putting people in harm's way, then all of those residences around there ought to be demolished. We should take them by eminent domain and say they can't be there anymore because it presents too much of a hazard.

“I think that this is going to add to our housing stock and adding to the housing stock does bring down rents because it's supply and demand.”