## Facts

- Citivest sought a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) to build a 24-story residential condominium tower on Bayshore Boulevard within the Hyde Park Historic District in Tampa.
- The property was zoned RM-75, which permitted high-rise multifamily development and regulated height through a height-to-setback ratio rather than a fixed height cap.
- The Hyde Park Historic District was predominantly composed of one- and two-story single-family homes and low-rise apartments; the project site was near the district’s southern end and adjacent to an existing eleven-story condominium.
- The City’s Architectural Review Commission (ARC) denied the COA, focusing primarily on the proposed tower’s height and incompatibility with the historic district’s character under historic-preservation criteria (including scale, massing, and height).
- The Tampa City Council affirmed the ARC’s denial on administrative appeal.
- On first-tier certiorari, the circuit court held the City failed to follow the essential requirements of law by relying on ARC guidelines rather than controlling zoning provisions, and it reversed the COA denial.
- The City petitioned the district court of appeal for second-tier certiorari review of the circuit court’s order.

## Issues

1. Whether the circuit court departed from the essential requirements of law by treating the zoning classification as preventing the City from applying historic-district compatibility criteria (including height) to deny a COA.
2. Whether the circuit court exceeded the limited scope of first-tier certiorari review by misapplying the governing legal framework for reviewing the City’s quasi-judicial decision.

## Decision

- The district court granted the City’s petition for second-tier certiorari.
- The court quashed the circuit court’s order that had overturned the City’s COA denial.
- The court held the circuit court departed from the essential requirements of law by concluding the City was legally barred from using historic-district criteria to evaluate and deny the COA based on height.
- The effect of the decision was that the City’s original denial of the COA remained in place.

## Legal Principles

- First-tier certiorari review of a local quasi-judicial land-use decision is limited to: (1) procedural due process, (2) observance of the essential requirements of law, and (3) support by competent, substantial evidence.
- Second-tier certiorari review is narrower and addresses whether the circuit court afforded due process and applied the correct law; it does not reweigh evidence.
- Municipal historic-preservation regulation may operate as an additional layer of control alongside zoning, requiring a COA and permitting consideration of compatibility factors such as height, scale, massing, and relationship to surrounding historic resources.
- A zoning classification that permits a use or development intensity does not, by itself, preclude denial of a COA under lawful historic-district compatibility standards.

## Conclusion

The court held that Tampa could apply historic-district compatibility criteria to deny a COA for a 24-story tower even though underlying zoning allowed high-rise development, and it quashed the circuit court’s contrary ruling as a legal error within Florida’s limited certiorari framework.


City of Tampa v. City Nat’l Bank of Fla., 974 So. 2d 408 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007)