ST. PETE BEACH — City planners presented a design guidebook Jan. 8 intended to help Pass-a-Grille property owners navigate historic preservation ordinances when remodeling or building in the overlay district.
Senior Planner Brandon Berry showed Historic Preservation Board members examples of the guidebook, which includes photographs and detailed descriptions of acceptable new construction, renovated or elevated historic structures, and additions to contributing buildings. Board members approved of the concept and design.
When the city’s consultant finalizes its portion of the guidebook, staff will compile the content and present it to the board before seeking City Commission adoption and a public hearing on related Land Development Code amendments.
Berry said Pass-a-Grille’s historic housing and commercial buildings face threats from sea level rise, increasing storm intensity and redevelopment pressure.
“Much of the neighborhood’s historic character is defined by similar form, massing and folk features of its buildings, rather than strict adherence to a particular architectural style,” he said.
Redevelopment that meets floodplain requirements — placing new residential living levels 6 to 8 feet above ground — “will inherently eliminate some of that character without proper massing controls to preserve the neighborhood form,” Berry said.
The neighborhood has seen substantial increases in land values since the last National Register Historic District survey in 2003, he said. While positive for property owners, the neighborhood lacks strong historic preservation controls and permits both demolition by neglect and voluntary teardowns.
“These pressures are particularly threatening to Pass-a-Grille’s apartment houses, developments which contain multiple units of a few hundred square feet, which are a unique development type for the neighborhood,” he said. The small apartments are seen elsewhere in St. Pete Beach only in the western downtown area.
In September and October of 2024, hurricanes Helene and Milton destroyed dozens of Pass-a-Grille’s historic homes and damaged hundreds of others. While the city’s status as a Certified Local Government has helped dozens of property owners voluntarily list their residences as historic resources, allowing restoration with original form and features, dozens of historic homes have been demolished, Berry said.
“Promoting redevelopment that fits the historic character of the area is important to ensure that forthcoming redeveloped structures continue to support Pass-a-Grille’s extant contributing and locally designated historic housing and commercial building stock,” he said.
The guidebook provides descriptive and photographic examples of accepted development styles, including frame or folk vernacular primarily developed from the late 1890s through the 1920s, with some homes built through the 1950s.
Common features of this style include front gable or hip roofs and structures elevated less than one full level on piers enclosed with lattice or continuous screen.
The guidebook also describes Craftsman-bungalow style, particularly common in Pass-a-Grille from the 1900s through 1920s. The structures were common on small lots nationally, fitting well with the 4,000- to 5,000-square-foot platted lots of Pass-a-Grille.
Common Craftsman-bungalow features found in Pass-a-Grille include brick chimneys, double-hung sash windows or multipane upper sashes, tapered piers and overhanging eaves in full-width or incised porches, and exposed rafters supported by beams or columns.
The guidebook will also serve as a tour guide to architecturally significant residences in Pass-a-Grille.
One listing describes 1601 and 1603 Pass A Grille Way as “featuring two of the few Tudor Revival-inspired residences in St. Pete Beach.” The property contains two separate residences constructed in the 1930s with living levels elevated substantially above grade. The steep roof pitch and vertical orientation of 1601, supported by its turrets, “would likely make a modern elevation of the living level to the same or greater height appropriate for the home’s design.”
The residence at 1603 features a ground-floor garage and Tudor-inspired frame vernacular design “replete with similar ground-floor features provides a sensitive accessory dwelling to the primary residence.”
As a guide to new construction, the guidebook describes the architectural influences of homes like the one at 105 Gulf Way.
Built in 2004, the coastal/Key West-style residence “is a good example of effective three-story construction that provides adequate architectural detailing and upper-story recession to avoid a building massing that is dramatically out of scale with its surrounding, more modest, historic neighbors.”
Large open entry and seating decks at the first and second stories help recede the building’s walls “to avoid a towering effect when viewed from the sidewalk, and the orientation and pitch of the center roofline helps to give the appearance of a half story, despite the third story possessing nearly the same square footage as the second story.” Significant landscape screening of the ground floor complements the architecture.
The city doesn’t require any particular architectural style for new development in Pass-a-Grille but generally requests that styles be appropriate for the block or neighborhood, Berry said. More modern designs, while permitted, may face challenges meeting required frontage features and design rhythms.
The guidebook will provide recommended architectural styles to help property owners and developers understand preferred development character. However, architect-prepared alternatives are permitted “provided that new development continues to exemplify the design requirements of the Pass-a-Grille overlay district.”
The finished guidebook will be presented to the City Commission in a few months, coinciding with adoption of new historic preservation ordinances.