VENICE NEIGHBORHOODS COALITION

c/o 421 Darling Drive Venice Florida 34285

www.veniceneighborhoods.org

April 1, 2005 

Mayor Dean Calamaras and Council Members

cc. Marty Black, City Mgr.

City of Venice Tom Slaughter, Plan. Dir.

401 W. Venice Avenue, Venice, Florida 34285

Honorable Mayor and Council Members:

As you know the Venice Neighborhoods Coalition was formed a year ago to address common concerns of Venice and South Venice residents such as the airport and also building height and density. In November the Coalition decided to initiate a petition drive to demonstrate our concern with building heights, especially with the Special Exception route to increasing height. A sub committee was formed, headed by Peter MacDonald and language drafted. In January 2005, the Coalition approved the petition language and began obtaining signatures.

To date over 2,140 signatures have been collected. Signatures have been collected through community associations, at public events, at the library, etc. We have found great public interest in this issue. Of the 2,140, we estimate 75 % are Venice residents or persons staying in Venice; the remainder live in nearby surrounding areas. We have not insisted that all petitioners be full time residents of the city of Venice since we felt it reasonable to use the same rules/rationale that others including Envision Venice have utilized. The original signed petitions have been delivered to the City Clerk with a copy of this letter.

We believe that these petitions represent a very strong sentiment for keeping Venice the small, hometown city for which it is known. Our petition teams were welcomed everywhere, and, even congratulated for bringing this question to the citizens. Recently, at the Envision Venice workshops, similar sentiment was clearly evident and documented by city staff.

You will notice that our petition has focused on the granting of "Special Exemptions" related to building height. We chose to highlight this part of the building code because we believe that in recent years, it has resulted in structures that are out of character with Venice. For both residential, as well as other areas, we believe that this escalation in building height is contrary to the values of most of our residents and visitors, and to the quality of life in Venice.

Since Special Exceptions are not "a matter of right" for property owners, we believe the City has the right to eliminate, re-define, etc. these provisions including the authority to grant them. Recently at the urging of Council, City staff prepared a proposed ordinance for a Height Overlay District at the western end of West Venice Ave. including the elimination of Special Exception provisions for increased building height in this area. We understand that a related ordinance is being submitted that would transfer authority to City Council for approval of all height increases beyond code under a proposed Conditional Use plan. We support both approaches to control building height in Venice and per our petition we request that Council consider eliminating Special Exceptions and/or Conditional Uses for additional height in all residential districts, and, limiting additional height granted by Special Exception or Conditional Use in other districts to no more than 15 percent of the height otherwise permitted.

Please give our petition all due consideration. It has been our pleasure to contribute to this issue, which is so critical to the future of Venice. Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely, 

Sue Lang, Chair

Earl Quandt, Vice Chair