Fruitville Road project wins adjustment for Fourth Street driveway

With no site plan submitted, the developer of nearly 2 acres between Fruitville Road and Fourth Street at North Tamiami Trail gets critical access approval.

By Andrew Warfield
| 5:00 a.m. February 19, 2025

The development envelope of a future project between Fruitville Road and Fourth Street is outlined in yellow with the options for the driveway location shown off Fourth Street.

Sarasota
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After tackling a five-hour hearing over the fate of the controversial Obsidian condominium tower, with little discussion, the Sarasota Planning Board quickly approved an adjustment for the developer of what is generically called the Fruitville Road project.

Palsar Developments had previously secured a rezoning of a -.95-acre portion of the site from Downtown Edge to Downtown Core. The remainder of the property, at 1.1 acre, which covers one quadrant of the roundabout at U.S. 41 and Fruitville Road is zoned Downtown Bayfront.

Although no site plan has been submitted, the developer is seeking its access to the property from Fourth Street, which, as a city-designated primary street, is not permitted.

In all, the parcels to be redeveloped are at 1266, 1258, 1250, 1240 and 1230 Fourth St.; 332 and 300 N. Tamiami Trail; and 1225, 1233 and 1241 Fruitville Road. The rezoned portion wraps around the low-rise Encore condominiums at the corner of Fruitville Road and Cocoanut Avenue, which dropped its objections to the project by gaining access to the Fourth Street entrance and five dedicated parking spots for guests.

This alley is the only access point for several residents of The Encore and, without an approved curb cut off Fourth Street would be the onlyk access for any future developments on the block. — This alley is a primary access point for residents of The Encore condominiums.

The rezoning approval returned the Downtown Edge portion to its original zoning, the result of a 2018 development plan that never materialized. It allows Palsar to build up to 10 stories in the Downtown Core portion and 18 stories in the Downtown Edge parcels.

Had the adjustment not been granted, the only access to the property would have been through a narrow alley off Cocoanut Avenue, which currently serves as the prmary ingress/egress for Encore just a few hundred feet north of the Fruitville Road intersection.

In February 2024, the Planning Board recommended against the rezoning by a 4-1 vote in part because, at the time opposed by The Encore and other neighborhood advocates. It had an initial hearing before the City Commission, shortly after Bill Waddill of Kimley-Horne brokered a deal with Encore and Rosemary District neighborhood advocates, which included the shared access, guest parking spots and an overall streetscape plan to surround the entire block.

Sent back to the Planning Board with the proposed changes, and facing no objections from Encore or the Rosemary District, it recommended approval of the rezoning application.

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author

Andrew Warfield

Andrew Warfield is the Sarasota Observer city reporter. He is a four-decade veteran of print media. A Florida native, he has spent most of his career in the Carolinas as a writer and editor, nearly a decade as co-founder and editor of a community newspaper in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.