Firmenich Proposal to Be Reworked; Commissioners Want Fewer Stories
After four and a half hours, the commissioners unanimously agreed to allow the developer to come up with a new proposal that fits their criteria.
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Four and half months after the Richman Group of Florida brought their first proposal for the Firmenich property to the city, and four and a half hours after the Safety Harbor City Commission convened to decide its fate Monday night, the issue is going back to the drawing board.
On a night when it appeared as if a final decision was going to be made regarding the developer's plan to put a 276-unit residential apartment complex on the old citrus center property, the commission told the Richman Group to try, try again.
The commission unanimously passed a motion to continue the application being presented to them during the special meeting at City Hall, rejecting the latest development agreement and asking the company to come up with another reworked proposal.
"I'm open to some sort of multi-family (development) on this property," Mayor Joe Ayoub said as the clock approached midnight. "But I'm not comfortable with the four-story plan ... and I would like to see the number of units come down.
"So I am open to some sort of compromise."
The commissioners discussed what parts of the proposal they would like to see changed, and most agreed reducing the building height and number of units were top priorities.
"I was really disappointed to see after our discussions that basically everything remained the same, twenty units were dropped," Commissioner Nina Bandoni said of the latest proposal. "I thought we were going for three-story product."
"I like the idea of a smaller footprint and I like the idea of three stories," Vice Mayor Cliff Merz said. "But I'd still like to see it at around 200 units."
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Commissioner Nancy Besore, who had been a staunch opponent of the proposal, said she would be agreeable to looking at a reworked plan from the developer.
"I'm uncomfortable with the adverse impact, and I'm uncomfortable with the traffic," she said. "I like to continue with the same footprint ... take it down a floor, and make it attractive to Safety Harbor."
After a consensus was reached, Mayor Ayoub told Richman Group representative Robert Pergolizzi what they would like to see happen if the project is to move forward.
"I'd like to see nothing higher than three stories ... the footprint to remain as is or smaller...a reduction of at least 30 units and assurances the buildings will be of the highest architectural standards that Richman is capable of."
Pergolizzi readily agreed to the requests.
"I believe your next meeting would be Monday the 18th?" he asked. "We will be here, with two- and three-story buildings."
With that, a marathon meeting that featured testimony from lawyers, residents, experts and city officials wrapped up with most everybody satisfied with the outcome.
"Before this meeting tonight I thought this was going to get approved, hands-down," Mike Brundage, an attorney who unofficially represented area residents, said afterwards. "The way the commission decided this meeting was clearly in reaction to what they heard tonight."
"I feel like the commission listened to the public, which is very gratifying to me."
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So Harborites, what do you think about this latest twist to the Firmenich saga? Are you happy the commission listened to the residents, or would you have liked to have seen the whole issue scrapped forever? Let us know in the comments below.
TODD
7:11 am on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
A reasonable compromise is in order. The property as is remains a looming eyesore, but a modern 4-story apartment complex isn't necessarily better. More traffic on McMullen Booth Road and 590 is not something this Safety Harbor resident looks forward to either. I hope a balanced approach that positively impacts all residential & business constituents and tax rolls of our community will be found and when the dust settles, we'll have an attractive additional community of residents to enjoy the wonderful attributes of Safety Harbor.
arlene olson
7:40 am on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
so glad they listened to the residents
Barbara W. Hugg
7:41 am on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Absolutely shocked, but so happy with the outcome of the meeting. Certainly feel like we were heard loud and clear, except for the traffic on 590. Reduction in the number of units will help, but it will still be a burden on the two lane road.
Would still like to see an exit/entrance on McMullen, as well as the current one on 590. Reducing the number of units will help, however, as it was reported by the traffic guru, that intersection is already in failure mode. If its already failing with current traffic, what will the additional number of cars really do? I believe she reported it will be much worse.
Standby for the next iteration.
Jimmy p
7:43 am on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The people speak and continue to speak and local government listens. Lets hope they come back with a better plan. Congrats to those who made it out last night.
Harborite
8:01 am on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The residents have spoken loud and clear that 4-story apartment buildings and excessive amounts of traffic are not compatible with the small town character of Safety Harbor. This commission meeting shows that participating in the democratic process can make real changes for the residents of Safety Harbor. Congratulations to all of residents who cared enough about Safety Harbor that they spent 4 1/2 hours at a commission meeting in order to preserve the quality of life and special character of our City. If everyone continues to keep up the pressure and participates in the process, we will eventually get the Firmenich property redeveloped into an attractive property that will properly fit within Safety Harbor and will not produce excessive amounts of traffic on SR 590.
Fritz Kirsch
10:12 am on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
"Go in and propose 4 stories and then we can look like heroes when we let them talk us down to 3." Gee- Do you really think a three story set of complexes fit the way Safety Harbor looks throughout the community or do you think this is what we have to accept? It's still out of scale to the nature of the town. 270 some units with no guest parking and only one and a half parking spaces per unit? Is this reasonable. Get the property back on the selling block and see what else can be offered.
Mike Brundage
11:42 am on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Something to keep in mind is that the approval by the City of a devlopment of this scale is a process, not an event. The fact that the commission did not approve the applications last night, especially given the momentum the developer had by getting zoning and planning board approval, is a good result for opponents to the project. Certainly, one could view the result last night as nothing more than an expected outcome as part of a calculated negotiation by the devloper. I do not think this is the case. I think the devloper was actually surprised that it was not able to ram home approval of the applications. Public commentary clearly impacted the commision's decision. If there is to be hope of development of something other than multi-family on this site, a credible developer needs to step forward now so that the commission has realistic options to consider other than just Richman group.The Safety Harbor business community has a legitmate interest in seeing the Firminech site deveoped in a positive way that will bring more spending dollars into the city. geeting the property back to the selling block is going to require, in my opinion, someone else stepping forward now..
Gisela Bennie
12:34 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
I am still uneasy with imagining the impression one will get upon entering Safety Harbor: that seemingly huge apartment complex that is so unlike the rest of our town. Scaling them down some more could help, and I know there are good reasons for building multiple units there, ex. gaining tax revenue.
Michael
1:57 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
As a resident of OHP and business owner in Clearwater for 31 years I was surprised at the wisdom of the Commission last night. I thank the folks that spoke out against the Richman proposal and ask those residents who spoke in favor to reconsider in light of the positive results that came from the meeting. Mike Brundage is correct, this is a process and we should not get too exuberant in our small win. If we are not able to find developers like Saxony or DiGiovanni to build resident owned dwellings we will still need to contend with the prospect of apartments. The Richman Group will push the limit on density in order to make their project viable to their investors. It would be much more acceptable with 200 units versus 246 units as suggested by the Mayor. I respectfully disagree with the Wilder Oaks suggestion to mandate access onto McMullen-Booth. In my daily travel experience heading south out of OHP onto MacBooth the U turn traffic would become far more dangerous for those that want to head south from an exist for the Firmenich property, trying to avoid the south bound SR 590 left turn fiasco. Not to mention the walking traffic going to the Publix shopping center from the apartment buildings. Old folks and kids would need to have eyes in the back of their heads to survive MacBooth. One thing I saw last night is that the most affected residents are not against development, only over development inconsistent with the neighborhood. Lets keep up the pressure next meeting.
Robert "Bobby" Saltzman
3:53 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Everyone that spoke last night was great. Everyone was prepared and savvy. Go Safety Harbor!!!...but let's tread carefully we have won the battle.
Gary Moos
4:42 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Just so that everyone knows what we are dealing with, 200 units, if populated at 2010 levels for rental property would add about 2.8 % to our population, on less than 1.3 % of the land in Safety Harbor. That being said I would like to hear why the mayor and each member of the commission believes anything approaching 200 units in 3 story buildings is OK. If they had t justify themselves what would they say?
Lynn Marksberry
10:30 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Our great democracy at work. Congratulations to the residents and kudos to the Mayor and Commissioners for listening to the citizens of our community.
Russell Norman
11:21 am on Friday, February 8, 2013
if they take 1 sory off every building that is -74, inaddition the commission said they didn't want it so big at the entrance two story down another -16 puts it it 186. This would still be almost a 3% growth for the city all in that one area. Also we nee to see the layout of the road. Is the new left hand turn lane make it no left turn out of the appartments which would not be good for business downtown.
Gary Moos
5:25 pm on Sunday, February 10, 2013
I just think this is so ill conceived that it is ludicrous. I really would love to see their justifications in writing!
Russell Norman
8:10 pm on Sunday, February 10, 2013
I believe we need to show the commission again that this needs to go slow. I was dismayed that the Mayor just wanted to give them a number instead of listening to what the other commissioners we saying. Why was he in so much of a hurry to bless this instead of telling them no and to let it go back thru the P&Z and reset the starting point. Also I think the residents should be able to get a look at what SR590 will look like before a decision is made there should be a plan and drawing for that just like the apartments.