Transfer of development rights workshop postponed until Monday

In an effort to save historic downtown properties from the pressures of redevelopment, the city of Sarasota planning staff will host a community workshop Tuesday evening to present details and take feedback on a transfer of development rights program.

The workshop, originally scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 6, has been rescheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 12, in the City Commission Chambers at Sarasota City Hall.

Discussed is an amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Plan to incentivize the preservation of designated historic buildings. The voluntary TDR program provides a market-based incentive for preserving designated historic buildings.

That is accomplished by allowing the unused development rights on a site with an existing, designated historic building to be transferred to another site. Transferable development rights may include density and building height. 

The proposed zoning text amendment would limit the additional building height to a maximum of two stories. Eligible properties are divided into sending and receiving zones to transfer or receive development rights, or as sending-only zones, where development rights may only be transferred, but not received. 

The program would allow the owner of a designated historic property to sell development rights to a property owner within a receiving zone to allow higher density and height. Once sold, the historic property cannot be replaced with a larger building even if destroyed by natural disaster.

The Zoning Text Amendment proposes to include a definition of designated historic building as part of the voluntary TDR program. That includes:

• Locally designated by the city of Sarasota as a significant historic property. 
• A building located within a Sarasota Local Historic District and identified by the city as a contributing property to such historic district. 
• A building individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 
• A building located within a historic district listed in the National Register of Historic Places and identified as a contributing property to such historic district.

The program was pitched to the City Commission at a Feb. 12 workshop by Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation Director Erin DiFazio.

“This is a market-based initiative for preserving historic structures by allowing the owner to sell unused development rights,” DiFazio said at the workshop. “With transfer of development rights you are actually not gaining height, but rather transferring that height and density from an inappropriate location where it demolishes a historic building to one that is appropriate and does not result in the demolishing of an historic building.”

This story was updated to correct the starting time of the workshop.