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An effort to amend the waterfront redevelopment agreement to allow smaller developers to move forward has been met with opposition from master waterfront redeveloper iStar Financial.

The City Council directed City Manager John “Jack” Kelly Wednesday to write a letter to request iStar agree to amend the waterfront redevelopment agreement to allow developers to move forward on a lot-by-lot, rather than the current block-by-block, basis.

The amendment would allow smaller developers who own property within individual blocks to move forward without having to wait until all of the waterfront redevelopment amendments are negotiated, a process that began before the current Council took office over a year ago. An advisory committee on changes to the waterfront agreement issued their report in 2011.

Councilwoman Amy Quinn, who has been getting emails from property owners within the waterfront zone that cannot build on or sell their property, said the proposed amendment “allows all of these smaller developers who own properties an opportunity to develop without feeling like they are being held hostage.”

“This way, none of the smaller developers are going to be hung up if it takes us a little bit of time to go through the all the waterfront redevelopment amendments,” Quinn said, “which appears to me, at this point, to be a bit of a lengthy process.”

The advisory committee report of 2011 strongly recommended the lot-by-lot development, said Deputy Mayor Susan Henderson.

“The redevelopment advisory committee advised and recommended that we do the smaller lot-by-lot [development], and that was a very big recommendation,” Henderson said. “Don [Sammet] will tell you everyone — including the developers — were in agreement.”

Sammet is the city’s director of planning and redevelopment.

But iStar’s Vice President of Land Brian Cheripka said the master waterfront redeveloper would not consent to the amendment. Comprehensive changes to the whole redevelopment plan must first be agreed upon, he said.

“While we understand the convenience of assuming an individual element of the 2002 plan can be easily changed, it is in the city’s best interest to finalize and adopt a comprehensive plan amendment as soon as possible,” said Cheripka.

IStar’s objection is that development controls are in place for block-by-block development, but not yet in place for individual lots, he said.

“Block-by-block development is the cornerstone planning principal of the 2002 waterfront redevelopment plan, and the use, height and design standards of the plan cannot be easily adapted to the development of individual lots,” Cheripka said.

“Allowing lot-by-lot development without providing for proper development controls would expose the city to considerable litigation,” he said. “Our team has worked closely with the city, and its professionals, for the past few years to develop a comprehensive amendment to the waterfront redevelopment plan which allows for lot-by-lot development,” he said.

Councilman John Loffredo also said that consistent development controls must first be in place for lot-by-lot development.

“Personally, I am not against lot-by-lot development, so long as we have some kind of consistency there,” he said.

City resident Pat Fasano, who owns several pieces of land on the waterfront, spoke in favor of the move to lot-by-lot development during the public hearing portion of the August 6 city council meeting.

“I have 10 lots that I’m paying taxes on and cannot develop,” Fasano said. “but I have site plans ready to go.”

In the current plan, multiple property owners on one block would have to form a development entity and get approval from Asbury Partners as subsequent developers which causes further delays to the development process, said Sammet, the city’s director of planning and development.

“With cost of property acquisition rising, it becomes more difficult to acquire and assemble the properties needed to obtain an entire city block,” Sammet said.

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