Planning board to recommend lower building height, density

Since county staff, developers and residents couldn't come up with a compromise on the area's building requirements, the Collier County Planning Commission did it for them.

The Planning Commission decided Thursday to reduce the building height in the Vanderbilt Beach residential-tourist zone from 100 feet to 75 feet and decreased density from 16 units to 4 units per acre.

The Planning Commission's recommendation will now go before Collier County commissioners at a Dec. 10 meeting.

The recommendation comes four weeks after the Planning Commission expressed displeasure over the county staff's proposal and asked that staff and community representatives compromise on what to do.

That didn't happen.

Instead, county staff returned with an economist's analysis -- paid for by the county -- that estimates that a building height limit proposed by residents would lop $40 million off the value of a redevelopment of the Vanderbilt Inn.

Vanderbilt Beach residents have been fighting with county staff and developers for more than two years to limit building in the area. They saw things swing in their favor Thursday, but it wasn't a complete victory.

"I don't think anyone's happy," said Diane Ketcham, president of the Vanderbilt Beach and Bay Association.

She's not 100 percent happy, she said, and she's sure that Richard Yovanovich, a lawyer for Vanderbilt Inn owner Jerry Nerad, isn't happy.

Vanderbilt Beach residents wanted building heights to come down farther, but were pleased with the proposed density reduction because it will limit tall structures on small parcels. Approved recommendations require side-yard setbacks to be half of the building height making tall buildings impossible on small parcels.

The area in question is located on Gulfshore Drive between Vanderbilt Beach Road and Bluebill Avenue. It's been under a building moratorium for two years, while county staff studied building impacts and concerns about the density and what residents have characterized as the canyonization of the area.

But the county proposed few changes, so the Vanderbilt Beach Property Owners Association, Vanderbilt Beach and Bay Association and Save Vanderbilt Beach hired a planner and lawyer and came up with their own proposal. Together they represent more than 3,100 households. Around 20 residents showed up at the meeting Thursday wearing name tags that read "Save Vanderbilt Beach."

County staff proposed that building heights remain at 100 feet, and suggested eliminating a 25-foot bonus that's allowed in the current law. The staff recommended that density stay at 16 units per acre.

The community came up with an alternative that reduced building heights to 54 feet and density to three units per acre.

Don Schneider, principal planner on the overlay study, said there was no rationale for reducing building height and density. Schneider, who has worked on the study for two years, never found a trigger that would justify it within the growth management plan, he said.

Vanderbilt residents got the Planning Commission to listen to them a month ago. The proposal was sent back for review, and last week, the Environmental Advisory Council recommended the community proposal over the county staff's plan.

After four weeks of review, county staff took out provisions that allowed parking garages to protrude from buildings past the setbacks.

"Is that the only change made from our last meeting?" asked Planning Commissioner Mark Strain.

The county staff and community were supposed to get together and work out a compromise. But nothing happened until last week, when the Planning Commission made them.

"The staff basically ignored you," said Richard Bing, vice president of the Vanderbilt Beach and Bay Association.

So Wednesday morning, the two groups came together, but Bing said, no substantial progress was made.

Despite a semi-victory on Thursday, the community association has one more barrier. The County Commission has final approval and will hear the proposals next month.

Two problems could block a community victory at the County Commission.

The Bert J. Harris Jr. Private Property Rights Protection Act protects landowners from government action that significantly burdens landowners and reduces the property's value and could form the basis for a developer lawsuit against the county.

The county staff kept building heights at 100 feet, out of what some community members said was fear.

Vanderbilt Inn owner Jerry Nerad has vowed to file suit against the county if it reduces building heights.

"It's a reduction from 75 units to 19 or 20," said Yovanovich, Nerad's lawyer. "It's going to be a dramatic reduction in value."

The courts will resolve this one, he said.

County staff didn't produce fiscal analysis at the last meeting. But this time they were prepared.

They brought in the big gun -- Orlando economist Hank Fishkind. Yovanovich called him the best economist in the state.

Fishkind studied the area and said building heights play a big factor in unit prices.

He found that first-story units averaged a selling price under $500,000, he said. A fifth story unit averaged just over $600,000, while a 10th-story unit was priced just below $900,000.

"As you see, buildings that are taller," Fishkind said, "the average value goes up significantly."

Under the community proposal, the Vanderbilt Inn would lose $40 million in value, Fishkind said. And the county would lose over $15 million in tax revenues over the next 20 years.

But B.J. Savard-Boyer, president of the Vanderbilt Beach Property Owners Association, disagreed. Real estate speculation, she said, is like the stock market. You can't know what's going to happen.

"We are not going to make up $41 million," Yovanovich said.

The other problem is the consistency or inconsistency of the various proposals. The different sides have their own views on how consistent the county and neighborhood proposals are with the county's growth management plans.

But it's up to county commissioners to decide what's allowed under the growth management plan.