Sarasota explores air rights transfer program to preserve historic properties

Seeking to bring Florida’s 37th transfer of development rights for historic properties program to Sarasota, the organization promoting the effort shared its proposal during an Aug. 12 community workshop at City Hall.

The program is designed to relieve pressure on owners of such properties from selling for redevelopment and instead allowing them to sell the height and density air rights above their buildings and homes to be used in other areas of downtown.

Historic properties are disappearing at an alarming rate, said Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation Program Director Erin DiFazio, to the tune of 15 per week countywide. From 2010 to 2019, 316 qualifying structures were lost, she said, and an additional 241 between 2021 and 2022.

“The Alliance has been working on this initiative for several years,” DiFazio said. “We started researching ways that we could help to really move the needle with historic preservation here.”

The alliance and city staff introduced the concept to city commissioners during a Feb. 12 workshop. In summary, the TDR permits the owner of a historic property to transfer its development rights to another property within the downtown area. The transfer is permanent and binding, limiting current or future owners of the historic buildings to redevelop their sites only to the height and density rights they retain.

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Transfers can be all or part of the future development rights, meaning they can be sold off in whole or in pieces. Once sold, though, there is no going back. The first TDR program in the country was established in New York City in 1968.

“You are transferring that height and density from an inappropriate location, one that demolishes a historic building, to an appropriate location,” DiFazio said. “It is a proven, successful tool that's utilized in cities around the country.”

Those cities include St. Petersburg, which the SAHP points to as a highly successful example. There, more than 3 million square feet of development rights have been transferred to date.

Ultimately, the SAHP is seeking a zoning text amendment to the city’s comprehensive plan. It would identify sending zones — areas from which rights may be sold only — and receiving zones, into which rights can be transferred and incorporated into future development. 

Qualifying properties include:

• Those 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.

Held as an example of such a structure is the vacant Kress building at 1442 Main St. With a lot area of 7,716 square feet in the Downtown Core zone district, it could by right be redeveloped into a 10-story, 77,160-square-foot building. Currently at three stories and 25,256 square feet, should its air rights be sold and transferred, that comes to 51,904 square feet to be gained elsewhere, leaving the Kress building — or at minimum its scale — intact in perpetuity.

Or, a building such as Kress could sell only a portion of its by-right developable square footage should that fit the needs of a buyer, and sell the remainder to another at a later time.

“If a buyer who would stand on a receiving site wouldn't need all of the units or all of the square footage associated with the sending site, they can purchase as much as they'd like,” said Philip DiMaria of land use consultant Kimley-Horn, which was retained by the SAHP.  “The sending site could retain whatever development rights would be left over and then sell those.”

From a property tax perspective, only what remains, rather than what could have been built there despite the realized capital gain, is assessed. In other words, the assessed value of the land and building are not affected.

The SAHP is in the process of filing formal applications with the city. DiFazio said she anticipates a hearing before the Planning Board this fall, followed by a City Commission Comprehensive Plan text amendment transmittal hearing. If that schedule holds, she anticipates a first reading before the commission in January followed by a second in February. A Comprehensive Plan text amendment requires a 4-1 supermajority approval.

“This has been a community-led project from the very beginning,” DiFazio said. “We recognize that our historic preservation toolkit has been insufficient to prevent the loss of many of our important historic structures. The goal of this has always been to help preserve some of Sarasota’s historic character, its charm and its magic.”