Home Sellers Seek Conversions

Home sellers seeking conversions

More Sarasota property owners want to turn their houses into office space
var ArticleTools_Title ='Home%20sellers%20seeking%20conversions';

By Zac Anderson

Published Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.

The house next door could soon become your local doctor's office, as homeowners in high-traffic areas, stung by the housing boom and subsequent slump, look for alternative property uses.
Sarasota County is experiencing an upswing in applications to rezone residential property into office space, with 19 conversions planned in Englewood, Venice and Sarasota.

Three of the six rezoning petitions before the Sarasota County Planning Commission today seek to convert homes into offices.

In most cases, the primary factor driving conversions is the region's explosive growth over the past decade, which has eroded the residential character of some roads, said Crystal Allred, manager of current planning for the county.

The housing downturn may also be playing a role, as property owners unable to sell their homes as residences seek other options.

Some homeowners worry that the trend could add more traffic, bring vagrants and otherwise hurt the character of their neighborhoods. Proponents argue that offices increase property values in blighted residential areas and serve as a quiet, daytime property use.

Sarasota land planner Brian Lichterman negotiated an agreement recently in which the property owners arranged with neighbors to provide increased security around offices planned for two homes on Beneva Road.

"We're trying to make this work for everyone," Lichterman said.

The changing land use patterns and neighborhood tensions are nothing new, Allred said.
High-traffic areas such as along Bee Ridge Road and University Parkway switched to commercial from residential years ago. But more roads have been expanded to accommodate recent growth.
Lichterman said his clients have trouble renting out their homes on four-lane Beneva.

"Nobody wants to live on a busy arterial road," he said. "And we consider office space a step-down land use between commercial and residential."

Sarasota land planner Peter Dailey has a client with two homes on Laurel Road that are not selling. The homes, next to a 7-Eleven on the busy four-lane street, are ripe for office conversion, Dailey said.

"These people are trying to find a good use for their properties, and offices make sense in that area," Dailey said.

As these areas grow, changes in land use are inevitable, Lichterman argues. The decline in the housing market is just speeding the process along.

"With residential development waning, people are turning their attention to things like office space," he said.

Allred said her job is to balance the integrity of residential neighborhoods with changes that are occurring.

"It's a real tough call," she said. "In some areas residential stays workable, and in some areas it doesn't. We have to look at a lot of factors."

www.InvestSmarter.com
www.RandBCoastalRealEstate.com