Cocoa Beach tables discussion on building-height increase

COCOA BEACH, Fla. – Cocoa Beach will re-look at the possibility of adding the option to increase building height limits back on the ballot. 

At a meeting Wednesday night, the topic was tabled until December, the Cocoa Beach mayor said.

The Charter Review Committee that examines possible amendments to the city charter will discuss the height and density limit.

The building height ordinance currently limits sructures to 45 feet tall. Developers can build above that limit if a majority of the city commissioners approves the project.

The ordinance has kept Cocoa Beach from booming into a strip of high tower hotels, like other Florida beach cities.

Several of the high-end condominiums like Xanadu and Stonewood Towers East, built in the 1980s, were constructed before the building ordinance was in effect.

Almost 70 percent of Cocoa Beach voters backed the 45-foot restriction in 2002 and a 2015 amendment to increase the building-height was rejected.

Isadora Rangel, a columnist for News 6 partner, Florida Today asked residents on Facebook if they would support the increase and received a resounding “No.”

Many cited concerns with the city losing its “charm and nostalgia.”