Neighbors upset new 'home' with 3,620 SF garage and 880 SF of living space is anything but

Picture a typical single-family home. The image that comes to mind probably isn't the building at 517 Chadwick Street in the Woodland Heights neighborhood of Pensacola, but the city permitted its construction last year as a single-family home.

Residents of the Woodland Heights neighborhood, especially those who live on Chadwick Street, feel the city allowed the owner to get around the city's zoning laws.

The new building, which was granted a certificate of occupancy in March, looks more like a private fire station or car-repair shop than the 1950s-style ranch homes that predominate the Woodland Heights area. The building has three large garage bay doors and a single regular-sized door along its front.

The episode highlights the limits protection zoning offers residential neighborhoods as the city is undertaking a comprehensive review of its entire zoning code later this year.

The 4,500-square-foot building has an enclosed "base area" of 880 square feet of living space and 3,620 feet of garage space, according to the Escambia County Property Appraiser's website.

The lot the building sits on is zoned R-1AAA, a residential zoning in the city that only allows for the construction of buildings like single-family homes, schools, community centers and churches.

David Coughlin, vice president of the Woodland Heights Neighborhood Association, lives near the property on Chadwick Street and said the neighbors are very concerned the building was allowed to be built.

"(The building) is not the neighborhood," Coughlin said. "It doesn't fit in. It doesn't look right. It's not a good thing."

Coughlin said from his observations, no one appears to live in the building, but he's seen multiple cars come and go, as well as building material for a neighboring construction site owned by the same company.

Residents complained about the building in November, and city Code Enforcement monitored the property for any violations, according to city spokesperson Jason Wheeler.

"We monitored the property for close to two months to see if there was ever any type of activity other than what would be allowed," Wheeler said in an email to the News Journal. "There was never anyone on site or any vehicles during any of our visits to indicate any business activity. During our investigation there was overgrowth in the rear yard and right-of-way and a commercial trailer being stored openly. A (code enforcement) case was initiated and has since been corrected."

Biological Holdings II LLC purchased the 1-acre property for $357,000 in 2021, according to property records. The company also owns two more lots on Wynnhurst Street, which border the Chadwick Street property. One of those properties is zoned for commercial at the corner of Wynnhurst Street and Davis Highway.

Quint Higdon owns Biological Holdings and another business, Performance Prosthetics & Orthotics, which is building a new office at the Wynnhurst Street and Davis Highway property.

Higdon told the News Journal via email he didn't believe the issue was newsworthy and did not say what the building was used for.

"The city is correct, there is absolutely nothing about the property that is commercial," Higdon said in the email. "The design was approved, and the building inspected and built with city approval."

Pensacola Building Inspections Director Jonathan Bilby told the News Journal that if a building's plans meet the requirements of a single-family home in the Florida Building Code and there are no aesthetic review provisions in the zoning code for the area, then the city has no choice other than to approve a certificate of occupancy.

"It's pretty rare," Bilby said of the building's design. "You don't see that look very often, especially in the middle of a residential zoning district."

Florida Building Code requires that single-family homes have a kitchen with a sink, a bedroom with at least 70 square feet with equipment like a water heater, and a permanent heating source for the building.

Bilby said there are no limits under the code when it comes to the size of a garage.

After the building is approved, making sure it is used for residential purposes is left to the city code enforcement division.

Coughlin said it's concerning that this type of building was so easily approved.

"I know in the long run the building is not going to disappear, but I also don't want it to happen any further in our neighborhood," Coughlin said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: New Woodland Heights 'home' shows limits of zoning protection