Quay developer appeals Kolter Urban Planning Board adjustment

Citing what it calls illegal encroachment on its property and public right of way, the developer of One Park and One Park West on Blocks 1 and 9 in The Quay have filed an appeal of the Sarasota Planning Board’s approval of access adjustments for the redevelopment of the adjacent Hyatt Regency property.

On Dec. 20, attorney Tyler Stall, representing developer Property Markets Group and its Sarasota investment partner MoneyShow — which comprise Quay Blocks 1 and 9 — notified City Auditor and Clerk Shayla Griggs of its appeal. The letter requests the appeal to be placed on an upcoming City Commission agenda as an aggrieved party. 

The Planning Board approved by a 4-1 vote, with Daniel Clermont opposed, developer Kolter Urban's adjustment request to relocate the primary driveway off Boulevard of the Arts to the east. The site plan shows the driveway will serve the motor court for both the condominiums and the hotel. 

Quay 1 and 9 is challenging the size of that new access and is disputing Kolter's plan to build over a shared alley owned half by Kolter and half by Quay 1 and 9 — the dividing line down the center — overhanging the alley beginning at 15 feet. Also challenged is Kolter's site plan, that shows what Quay 1 and 9 is calling an encroachment on the public right of way on Quay Commons at Boulevard of the Arts.

Kolter Urban is working through city staff for administrative approval of its plan to replace the Hyatt Regency with a mixed-use development. Plans are to build two 18-story towers with 224 condominiums and 166 hotel rooms plus 8,830 square feet of commercial space. Stall argued unsuccessfully before the Planning Board that the overhang not only abuts its portion of the alley separating the Hyatt Property from Block 1 in The Quay, and that the building of what is platted sidewalk on Quay Commons amounts to a taking. 

Stall's letter also cites an inadequately sized turning template for garbage trucks in the shared alley, which would force them onto Block 1 property. It also alleges the plan is in violation of the city’s Engineering Design Criteria Manual in multiple points, including:

• At 33 feet in width, the primary driveway is in excess of ECDM requirements that limit commercial driveways to 24 feet. 
• Proposed curb cuts violate provisions of the Comprehensive Plan and the EDCM pertaining to and promoting the existence and maintenance of pedestrian sleeves and bicycle lanes in the Downtown Environs Area (DEA).
• Proposed adjustment interferes with both Quay 1 & 9’s and the public’s pedestrian experience and access to the Multi-Use Recreational Trail and to the Bay, including vistas of the water. 
• Concerns regarding the Kolter’s traffic study and whether its conclusions were justified, complete and persuasive. 

Photo by Andrew Warfield

To address the latter point, Quay 1 and 9 intends to conduct its own traffic study that will be submitted before the public hearing by the City Commission. “Quay 1 and 9 is confident that its traffic study will prove that the applicant’s proposed adjustment is not sufficiently safe or efficient and requires denial or further modifications,” Stall’s letter reads.

In addition, Stall wrote, “At the Planning Board hearing, representatives of the applicant denied that these provisions of the EDCM existed or had any application. Further, the applicant’s representatives cited to the portion of the EDCM pertaining to buildings outside of the DEA. Although possibly unintentional, these misleading and incorrect statements misled the Planning Board, who relied on these misstatements to their detriment in their analysis of whether to approve the applicant’s proposed adjustment.”

During the Planning Board meeting, Stall argued Kolter building over its side of the alley was detrimental to One Park West, which is slated for Block 9. Although jointly owned by the developers, the city holds the public right of way there.

“Everything 15 feet and above belongs to Kolter,” argued attorney Brenda Patten, who represents Kolter Urban. “They can build their building over that part of the easement because they own the land. It's not subject to the easement.” 

Site plan changes

Quay 1 and 9’s appeal notwithstanding, the Hyatt redevelopment project had its third submittal before the city’s Development Review Committee, with a handful of changes since its prior appearance. 

Chief among them, Patten told the DRC, is that Kolter Urban is planning to move the easternmost building to of the easement area. That move had nothing to do with Quay 1 and 9’s appeal. However, as Patten told the Observer, she was unaware of the action at that time.

In an email, Patten spelled out the reason for the adjustment to its site plan.

“In the staff’s 12/27/24 DRC comment memo, staff said part of the development on the east side of the Hyatt property encroaches into … a 12-foot non-exclusive permanent public pedestrian access easement … abutting Quay Commons,” Patten wrote. “Kolter owns in fee simple the land over which the easement runs. It is not part of the Quay property. The easement grants rights ‘for general public pedestrian, bicycle and non-vehicular ingress, egress and access.’ Kolter will revise its plan to accommodate the public access easement while maintaining its rights as owner of the property.”

Other changes to the plan include an increase in hotel rooms from 166 to 174 and a firm square footage of ballroom space, previously listed as 7,000 square feet, now 6,610 square feet.

Because of the number of unresolved issues, the project will require another resubmittal to the DRC. A date for the City Commission to consider Quay 1 and 9’s appeal has not been announced.