How big should buildings be in downtown St. Petersburg?
By Timothy J. Baker

This is the central question that is being asked as the city rewrites its zoning codes. Those of us who live downtown need to help provide the answer.

So, take a walk around the Parkshore Plaza, the highrise that is going up on the 300 block of Beach Drive. Yes, it's a tall building. You have to crane your neck to see the top of it, and before it's done it will be a few more stories tall. But, height isn't the only measure of bigness.

Imagine, for example, a row of people, all of whom are 5 foot ten inches tall. Holding down the left end of the row is a wispy female fashion model. Next to her is a more normal-size woman. A little more to the right and we come to a normal male, say 170 pounds. At the far right of the row we encounter the glare of a ferocious sumo wrester. But the sumo wrestler isn't the last person in the row. No, that spot is reserved for (if this can even be imagined) - a sumo wrester on steroids! Remember, all of these people are the same height, but they are surely not all the same size. Some of them are small, some are medium, and some are really big.

So, back to the Parkshore Plaza. Where on the line would we put that building? It's obviously well fed enough that we wouldn't mistake it for an anorexic fashion model. On the other hand, it's no sumo wrestler, either. After all, the tower portion of the building could get quite a bit wider. So, we will say that this building falls somewhere in the middle of the row. This is not a value judgment, by the way. It just acknowledges that the building could remain the same height that it is, yet be bigger or smaller, depending mostly (but not entirely) on the width of the tower.

This also makes us realize that there is something to this building besides the tower. The tower sticks up out of the middle of the lot on which it is being built. But, all around the tower is a base that extends pretty much to the edges of the lot. That base is three stories tall, and will contain the parking needed for the tower, along with some retail stores, restaurants and a few condominiums. But, what would happen if the tower was wider than it is now? Well, that would mean that it would contain more condominiums, and thus more parking spaces. So, if the tower got wider, the base would have to get higher.

Back to our row of people. Let's refine this a bit by saying that each of the people is standing on a 4x4 foot square. These people are actually plastic figures, and they need a base to keep them standing. The base is allowed to cover all of the square on which a person stands. However, the squares themselves are separated by one foot of distance. The model at the left end of the row doesn't need much of a base to hold her up, because she doesn't weigh very much. So, her base is just six inches thick. In the middle of that row we have our average male, who weighs twice as much as the model and so needs a base thatis twice as thick. It goes on this way until we get to our sumo wrestler on steroids, who needs a base that is four feet thick.

So, the complete picture is this. At the left end of the row we have a base that is four feet square and six inches thick, with a fashion model standing on top, taking up very little space. Next to her is a more normal size woman, with a somewhat thicker base. There is a fair amount of space between the two women. At the far right, we have a base that is four feet square and almost four feet high, topped by an enormous, glaring wrestler who is almost as wide as the base on which he stands. And next to him is the guy on steroids, who is just as wide as his base. In fact, with this guy it's pretty hard to tell where the base ends and the person begins. And, there is very little space between the two sumo wrestlers, just an inch or two beyond the one foot that must separate the bases.

And now we get to the point (with an apology for how long that took): there are land speculators in St. Petersburg who want our zoning codes to allow sumo wrestler-on-steroids buildings, and to get this done they are lobbying the city official who is in charge of the project to rewrite the zoning codes. (That would be Bob Jeffrey, the city's Manager of Urban Design and Historic Preservation.)

Without getting into the grisly details, the size of buildings downtown is regulated by something called FAR, an abbreviation for Floor/Area Ratio. The Parkshore Plaza has an FAR of 4. So, if the zoning code had a maximum FAR of 4, that is the largest building that could be built. The Florencia also has an FAR of 4, and so does the Cloisters. So, an argument can be made that 4 is a reasonable limit. After all, land along Beach Drive is the most expensive downtown. So, if buildings of that size can successfully be built there, they can successfully be built anywhere.

The speculators mentioned above, along with some developers, have been telling Mr. Jeffrey that there should be no maximum FAR at all, or that if there is a maximum it should be somewhere around 14. That would mean that the Parkshore Plaza could be three and a half times as large as it is now. Oh, and by the way, the tower portion of the building can't get any taller because of the proximity of Albert Whitted Airport. So, to get to our sumo wrestler size, the tower would have to get a lot wider, or there would have to be three towers. And, of course, the base would have to get a lot higher to accommodate all that parking. In fact, the base would probably have to be eight stories tall, from sidewalk to sidewalk. Picture the result: an 8-story parking garage topped by three towers, each as large as the one that's actually being built.

The group in question by no means includes all of the city's developers. Some developers would be happy with an FAR maximum of four. Others think it could go higher than that, to maybe six.

What else is this group of lobbyists asking for? Well, they would like to eliminate the requirement for green space from the zoning code. After all, if you're putting up sumo wrestler buildings, there isn't much room left at the edges for a tree or a flower or patch of grass. And, they would like the area in which the biggest buildings are allowed to be stretched out to include not just the downtown core, but the area extending out to Martin Luther King Street, from 5th Avenue N to 5th Avenue S. After all, some of these guys own property in places other than the downtown core, and there's no reason not to jack up property values there, too.

Of course, property values are really what this is all about. Land speculators don't actually build anything, after all. They buy property and then hope the value goes up, so they can sell at a profit. They also may help things along by seeking increased development rights through rezonings and such. Developers, on the other hand, actually build things. A developer might look at that sumo wrestler building and worry about how many years it would take to build the darn thing, and about how difficult it would be to find enough suckers to buy all those units on top of a gigantic parking garage. The developer might also wonder about the wisdom of paying inflated prices for property on which he or she really wants to build something of a reasonable size. Believe it or not, some developers, maybe most of them, do want to put up buildings of which both they and the neighborhood can be proud.

Land speculators have a perfect right to engage in the business that they do. (How many people buy a house with the hope that they can later sell at a profit? Quite a few, so we don't want to get too huffy about this.) The speculators also have a perfect right to tell Bob Jeffrey how they think the downtown zoning code should be written. But, the land speculators should not be the only ones to be heard. The zoning code should not be written just to please them.

Fortunately, everyone has the same right to be heard. You, too, can pick up your telephone and let Bob know your views on sumo wrestler buildings (551-2534). Or, you can send him an e-mail (bob.jeffrey@stpete.org). Or, you can write him a letter (PO Box 2842, St. Petersburg FL, 33731).

One very interesting sidelight of this debate arises from the current code, which under some circumstances allows buildings of unlimited FAR. So, the land speculators can look at this provision in the current code and argue that any maximum at all is a reduction in their property rights. By gosh, that proposal for a maximum of 14 is actually a great sacrifice! We should be applauding these people for asking for so little!

Uh huh. Trouble is, this provision has existed for more than 20 years, but has not affected even one real project. In that 20 years, only one developer sought approval for such a project, and that plan was later dropped. Exactly zero projects were approved with that provision, and exactly zero projects were built. In other words, taking away that supposed right is taking away nothing at all, and no applause is necessary.

Note: The one project for which "unlimited" FAR was requested was the Bayway Lofts, proposed by Grady Pridgen for 3rd Avenue North between 2nd and 3rd Streets. That proposal received initial approval from the city in 2004, but an appeal was filed by neighboring property owners and the project was dropped, at least for the time being. The approved Bayway Lofts plan had an actual FAR of about 9, quite a bit below the level of 14 that is now being sought for the new zoning code. Mr. Pridgen is one of those who are lobbying Mr. Jeffrey.

Note 2: Do we actually have any buildings with an FAR as high as 14? Yes, we have one such building—the Bayfront Tower. That's a very large building, but fortunately sits on the smallest block downtown—about one fourth the size of the site on which the Parkshore Plaza is being built. If you drive by the United Bank property on 4th Street N, imagine about six Bayfront Towers.

Note 3: The most recent revision of the proposed new codes is available on the city's web site at http://www.stpete.org/LDRproposed.htm.