And the recent proposal that will be heard by County Commissioners on July 9th…
3. Nonconforming Lots of Record on Barrier Islands: Before the adoption of the 1975 zoning regulations, several areas on the barrier islands were platted with small residential lots, some with a width of only 25 feet! These lots are called ‘nonconforming lots of record,’ as they do not conform to the minimum lot sizes required by our zoning codes since 1975. In 1989, Sarasota County adopted laws acknowledging that some homes on existing nonconforming lots of records can continue to exist. To protect property rights, a property owner can rebuild on those tiny lots as platted but can’t change the lot lines. The goal of our zoning regulations since 1975 is to have these small lots to cease to exist. According to our Comp Plan, all lots created since 1975 must meet minimum lot size requirements for their district.
The Protect Siesta Key letter to the County Commission (Link) includes a hypothetical example of a Residential Single Family 1.2-acre parcel that legally can have 3 homes but contains 10 nonconforming lots of record that were platted in 1912. Due to regulations such as minimum setback requirements, most property owners choose to combine nonconforming lots of records into legally conforming lots, which would comply with our Comprehensive Plan.
The proposed change to the Unified Development Code will allow developers to count the tiny lots as ‘density’ which is not allowed in our codes and combine that number into multiple homes on a parcel. The developer lawyers claim they can ‘reduce density’ if they promise not to use all of the old nonconforming lots of record on a parcel. The proposal to allow this is in violation of our Comprehensive Plan that requires the County to follow the 1989 Zoning regulations for barrier islands. In 1989, the zoning regulations did not allow for the developers to change the nonconforming lots of record lines or count it as density. The proposed change in Ordinance 2024-034 will violate the Comprehensive Plan as we described in our letter to the County Commission.
- Link to PSK letter opposing UDC amendment 2024-034
- Link to PSK Attorney Richard Grosso letter to BCC
The Board of County Commissioners is scheduled to hear this proposal on
Tuesday, July 9th. Location: Board of County Commission Chambers R.L. Anderson Administration Center, 4000 S. Tamiami Trail, Venice, Florida
To write your objections to the County over this proposal or to just state to the County that they MUST NOT pass zoning laws that violate our Comprehensive Plan,
send an email to Commissioners@scgov.net
Or to each commissioner with a copy to the planner:
jneunder@scgov.net, nrainford@scgov.net, mhsmith@scgov.net, mmoran@scgov.net, rcutsinger@scgov.net, planner@scgov.net
Thank you.
Lourdes |
No comments:
Post a Comment