On June 21, we wrote to Kelly Klepper of Kimley Horn, asking for an update on timing of the DR Horton submission of its plan for 160 homes on the Raymond Road farm to the County's development review coordinating committee (DRC). Still waiting to hear back.
Here's a story from Marketplace.org that offers the kind of vision, common sense, awareness of science, and human ingenuity that we could use more of in Sarasota.
It's about restoring wetlands along the northern Mississippi River in Wisconsin. They're finding that wetlands protect developments that banks are invested in. In fact, banks love these wetlands, and some even offer better interest rates to developers who restore them.
Mike Sertle, who manages wetlands restoration projects on the Mississippi River for Ducks Unlimited, motions how high the water can get in a roughly 250-acre restored wetland behind him in Southern Illinois on May 24.Eric Schmid/St. Louis Public Radio
Is there something here we might apply to our Celery Fields, and to the proposed DR Horton heap of homes across Raymond Road from them?
I've put some notes below, but the story is available at this link - it's only a couple of minutes long:
The river is a tourist draw - parks, kayaking, fishing, birding
Developments - multi-million$ want to tap into natural river activities.
Wetlands restoration to manage water - Raskie slough - 60 acres of tall grasses, shallow ponds - birds abound - this slough can hold excess water, but eventually it flows back into the Mississippi -
This Mimics a natural system - $250,000 to restore wetland
Stem flooding from snow melts - Lacrosse Wisconsin - pumps move from lower areas to wetlands, stores it there - marsh in the city
Having nature "work for them" reduces risk, plus, banks offering loans - give better interest rates on developments that preserve wetlands because the “wetland creates a natural buffer to protect what we’re buying/paying for.”
A developer's proposal to build 160 single family homes on Raymond Road opposite the Celery Fields will be presented on Tuesday, May 23, beginning at 6 pm. The workshop will be online only. Concerned residents must use this Zoom link to attend:
The land immediately south of Palmer Boulevard and across from the nesting area of the Celery Fields wetland has been mostly empty except for a few cows for many years. The property appraiser lists it here.
Kimley Horn will present the Workshop, which will have no in-person gathering.
Although the Celery Fields is a publicly owned asset, the Planning Department only advertised the Workshop to homes within about 750 feet of the property.
About Neighborhood Workshops:
Neighborhood Workshops are a preliminary step in the planning process -- it gives the developer an opportunity to present a proposed project to the public, and receive public comment.
1. Online, the presenters have made very brief presentations, leaving out important context. A complex plan for a Benderson project was presented in less than 10 minutes.
2. The public has no chance to view the maps and other data first hand.
3. Some residents are not familiar with Zoom, or Microsoft Teams. In a recent meeting that utilized Teams, all that could be seen were small, blurry images, while the sound cut in and out. About half the meeting was inaudible.
4. The online meeting is under the control of the planning firm hired by the developer. Some agents allow time for questions and follow-ups, but others end the meeting before attendees have all their questions answered.More on this here.
5. Advocates for fair land use planning have been asking the County Commission to return to live Workshops, but this one is still online only. The Zoom link should be live at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 23.
We saw a remarkable example of the ecological imagination bear fruit in Sarasota. The brainchild of a few people who paid attention to need - an overflowing, failed drainage system - and to potential - digging water retention on a huge scale - and to inspiration - piling up the muck to create a large plateau.
That sort of attention made the Celery Fields a place of public safety (from flood), public health (340 acres to walk, exercise) and general well being (for birds, nesting areas; for people, birding areas).
At the moment the Celery Fields was maturing into a thriving natural asset, drawing people from overseas to its Audubon Nature Center, a developer nearly persuaded the Board, its planning department, and two of our five commissioners (Moran & Maio) to approve building a huge open-air dump next to the nesting areas of the Celery Fields.
It took a community to turn away that big money exploitation.
Ecological imagination won out thanks to the people who live here. It was a close call. The environment will lose out to the rampant growth pursued by Pat Neal, James Gabbert, Carlos Beruff, Gary Kompothecras, Rex Jensen and their myriad mechanical minions if we don't feed, seed, and cultivate the ecology of our political imagination.
Via a conference call on Thursday, Christine Johnson updated progress on the Quad parcels and other projects.
Quads: The CF has met three times with County staff and there is confidence they will have permanent easements in place by the beginning of summer on the three parcels (1,2,4) which the County has agreed to give in perpetuity.
Parcels 1 and 4 - the Eastern quad parcels - are to be left natural for the most part. Johnson did say there could be some work to bring the canal that runs between the SE parcel and the Celery Fields to a better level of development. I.e., it has paths where people walk, run, bicycle - these might be improved.
Parcel 2 (SW) could have some development component that would allow for parking. One of the major issues with the entire area is how little parking and other welcoming facilities are there for visitors.
Once these easements are in place, the property will be left to the CF and Audubon to develop and maintain. It is anticipated there will be no county funding. Here's where the community is likely to be invited to step up and help out.
The Foundation is also working toward solutions for other properties, including the giant Orange Hammock near North Port. The latest on this 5,500-acre site is that the CF has until June 1 to come up with $1.5 million for it. Johnson said this is a key project in that it not only means fewer homes, but also protects drinking water, serves as animal habitat, protects against floods, and still offers recreative and eco-tourism uses. Amazingly, Johnson says the CF is already 41% on its way to the $1.5 million needed. More here.
Updates on other projects, including Bobby Jones, the Felts preserve, and more - can be found via links here.
The Sarasota County Commission is forcing a county-wide redistricting that every thinking resident opposes. It's doing it for one reason only -- to retain the corruption that has run things for many years:
This is the Board that selected Bob Waechter's curdled map that carves out Blacks and stuffs District 1 with white & right voting blocks.
This is the Board that was pleased to give our public lands at the Celery Fields to industrialists Jim Gabbert and Bob Waechter -- until the people spoke out.
Board of Sarasota County Commissioners
This is the Board that approves super-sized developments like Siesta Promenade for Benderson Development Inc., and grants outmoded community formats to Pat Neal, Rex Jensen, Carlos Beruff and their ilk. Wealthy developers, builders contractors and Realtors bankroll the powers that keep control of Sarasota in the hands of the few.
At Phillippi Park on Friday 12.13, tell the Board their attempt to protect Mike Moran's seat in District 1 will not work. We know who Mike answers to:
And whom they all answer to:
Come out and tell them their rotting dominion of broken infrastructure, rampant development, Red Tide and regressive power lunches with oligarchs is over.
Friday morning, the Board will be meeting at the mansion in Phillippi Park. Let's be so loud they'll hear themselves being tossed out of office in November 2020.
Development Interests, Redistricting, Water Management and the fate of the Celery Fields all converge in this excerpt from Oct. 26, 2019 Herald Tribune article entitled: Redistricting criticism mounts as big vote nears" by Zac Anderson:
. . . [Commissioner Mike] Moran is viewed by some political observers, including GOP insiders, as being more closely aligned with the business community, including development interests.
Some believe the redistricting effort is not simply about protecting Republicans, but protecting the Sarasota County power structure and development interests.
Dist. 1 Sarasota County Commissioner Mike Moran
Moran is an insurance agent who moved to the region from Michigan in 2002 and became active in local politics, serving in a succession of roles that involved key decisions on development proposals.
A former president of the Sarasota Republican Club, Moran was appointed to the Sarasota County Planning Commission — which reviews development applications and has been a springboard to elected office — in 2012.
Rick Scott
In 2013 Moran was picked by former Gov. Rick Scott to serve on the Southwest Florida Water Management District board, another position that reviews major development proposals. Prominent developer Carlos Beruff, who is close with Scott, served on the board at the same time.
Development interests appeared to view Moran as a friend when he ran for the County Commission in 2016. They donated heavily to his campaign.
The Herald-Tribune wrote in 2016 that “Almost half of the more than $72,000 in contributions Moran’s campaign has received through July are tied to developers, attorneys who work closely with developers, other politicians, contractors, investors and real estate agents, according to campaign finance records.”
Developers who give generously to local political candidates
“Those donations include at least $7,600 from 38 separate $200 donations (the cap for local campaign contributions) from LLCs with addresses listed at the offices of Lakewood Ranch, Schroeder-Manatee Ranch and Medallion Homes — companies owned by highly influential developers Pat Neal, Rex Jensen and Carlos Beruff.”
Waechter, his wife and corporations that Waechter controls gave a total of $1,800 to Moran’s 2016 campaign.
Waechter is a real estate investor who is aligned with key figures in the Sarasota County power structure and has been one of the most influential behind-the-scenes political players.
Moran also received extensive contributions from Sarasota businessman Jim Gabbert and his companies. After winning a seat on the commission, Moran supported Gabbert’s controversial proposal to construct a recycling facility for construction and demolition materials roughly 1,000 feet from the Celery Fields, a nature area beloved by bird watchers and other outdoor enthusiasts.
Reading H-T's front-page article of Monday, October 14, 2019, one would be left with the impression that James Gabbert's TST Ventures plan for a giant debris demolition facility had been "successfully fended off" and the insanity of a waste dump being built right at the edge of an established nature preserve had been stopped.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Butting-up right next to the Celery Fields quads in question in that article, construction of a Waste Transfer Facility is well underway.
In August 2017, multiple ad-hoc groups and hundreds of protesters did beat back Gabbert's proposed giant 16-acre debris demolition plant in the quads. In voting to oppose Gabbert's plan, Commissioner Nancy Detert observed that the time had passed for industry in the area. Everyone thought that was the end of it.
Gabbert's WTF will service more than 100 trucks per day filled with waste, adding to already congested, inadequate roads.
Where are the current traffic studies?
WTF wall 50' from canal
A facility like this should be 200' from any waterway, Gabbert's is only 50 feet away from drainage that ends up in Sarasota Bay.
Truth to power be damned, who in the county and state signed off on any of this? And why?
The thousands who protested can now bring their toxic construction debris and pesticide-laden yard waste to his facility near an established preserve and Audubon Nature Center.
To add insult to injury, on Wednesday, Nov. 6 the County Commission, stewards of this nature preserve, will consider a plan to rezone and sell our public lands for yet more industry on parcels closer to the Celery Fields.
To: County Commissioner Charles Hines
cc: SRQ County Commissioners Maio, Moran, Ziegler and Detert
cc: SRQ Affordable Housing Advisory Committee
cc: Facebook Celery Fields Group, SRQ Citizens for Sarasota, Personal Facebook Page
From: Adrien Lucas
Re: Board decision approving affordable housing on parcel #2 by July 22 / Chronic Sewage Dumps into the Sarasota Gulf waters
Commissioner Hines,
I began this email a few weeks ago when I read an article published by the Sarasota News Leader regarding the County Commission board’s latest absurd affordable housing proposal to be plopped down on Quad Property Parcel #2 adjacent to the Celery Fields. I continue to be fuming angry and I am also very frustrated that I am not living in Sarasota full time because I would, again, devote any free time, to fight the BOCC's proposal for putting affordable housing on Parcel #2.
Before I begin, I want to stress that affordable housing, even if the Celery Fields were not adjacent to the quad property you have suggested for affordable housing, is no gift to people who are in real need of affordable housing.
The road that you propose this project on has a grade rating that is as close to failure as it gets. With Mr. Gabbert’s waste transfer facility, along with other industrial trucking in the area, placing affordable homes on a street that is never going to be widened, improved or having traffic thinned out, is about the biggest insult you can gift the poor or working middle to lower class. Oh yes, let’s put these poor people on a road that is dangerous and heavily trafficked with semis. What a blessing that our children can play outside next to these traffic jams and semi exhaust fumes. Seriously, shame on you. This quad parcel is not a place for healthy living.
Time and time again, you all ignore what the public has asked, begged, written, tons of personal time spent trying to show you what these quads could do by way of enhancing the area and complimenting what already exists, to have a Quad Property back on the agenda, especially for affordable housing, illustrates how self serving politicians are. I digress.
I will be sharing Commissioner Hines' affordable housing proposal for Quad #2, coupled with the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast’s attempt to acquire acreage adjacent to the Celery Fields. It's sad that the evidence is so brightly shining regarding what the Celery Field Quads and local area can be, however, none of you are capable of seeing a Golden Nugget that exists as is and will take very little effort on your part to do what your constituents and people around the world have asked all of you and your predecessors in loud community abundance. FOLD THE CELERY FIELD QUAD PROPERTIES into the existing Celery Field storm water management lands and designate them as parkland.
If the County Commission had enforced the numerous "affordable housing" constructs they created for the top developers (who clearly run the county) then this flimsy discussion regarding selling surplus county owned land for affordable housing would not be a discussion.
Al Maio
If Commissioner Hines were truly concerned about affordable housing then he would have addressed this issue years ago when it became very clear that the Developers were ignoring any concessions they had agreed to commit to for affordable housing. Instead Commissioner Hines, you rolled over every time Christine Robinson raised an eyebrow and you folded every time. Same with you, Commissioner Maio.
Commissioner Hines clearly wants to leave some kind of redeeming legacy because he has acquiesced to every Benderson, Neil, Gabbert (etc.) request and he has never ever made the developers follow anything they had said they would do regarding affordable housing for their Sarasota developments.
Shame on you Commissioner Hines and shame on the rest of you for acting like sheep and agreeing that Parcel 2 is just a dazzling piece of property for affordable housing. It is so unctuous to think that Mr. Neal or Mr. Benderson continue to skate on by with county corporate welfare and you all think you are going to save the day by building affordable housing units on a crappy street that has D grade for its quality with large trucks now zooming up and down from Gabbert’s little stinkin’ waste transfer sty, zoned light industrial, with all of you refusing to change zoning and now all of a sudden it’s paradise for the poor? Puh’leeze. Shame on all of you. This presents as the biggest insult to every person who has contacted you to consider saving the Celery Fields Quad properties and the communities who have grown and flourished in that area. You all are failing the people who live out there.
This is not representation. Between redistricting, ignoring amendments voted in by Sarasota constituents and now this, you, the Commission, act solely based upon any self serving whim that strikes your fancy. I bet an email inquiry to public records will show how little county citizens are emailing Commissioner Detert telling her the Celery Quads should be developed into affordable housing/apartments. I bet the emails that all of you are receiving regarding the Quad properties demonstrate majority opposition to developing or selling the Quad properties will outweigh affordable housing email.
As for the Housing Affordability Initiative you all passed on November 28, 2018, seriously, this is the best scheme you can come with? And while I appreciate the members on the board trying to address this serious issue of affordability in the county, the boards should be preparing a lawsuit against Benderson, Neal and any other developer who has failed to honor the contracts they created with the county regarding affordable housing.
The Celery Field Quads are not and should not be considered for affordable housing. It is not an appropriate place for housing. Period.
Furthermore, I end this with the chronic sewage spill catastrophes that keep occuring. You are all responsible for maintaining the safety of our county and have failed us for decades. None of you do the county any favors when it comes to public relations. Your focus should be on preserving existing nature because the future of our beaches does not bode hopeful. People will be coming in land to experience nature in the future. Wake up, climate change is real, red tide will continue to grow as will this flesh eating bacteria because these “natural occurring” dangerous issues thrive in warm waters and are exacerbated by man. It is as if the county is giving a free lunch of poo flushes on a regular basis to these awful things that exist in the gulf, so please turn your attention to infrastructure and having the developers really kick in monetarily what is needed for all their new building sprawl.
Mr. Hines, you all want to leave a legacy for Sarasota? Then please, help clean it up and make the developers build affordable housing in a place, other than the Quad parcel, where parents, children and the working class will be safe.
has launched a campaign to help save and maintain rural/farm-type lands east of the Celery Fields. They are negotiating with Big Cat Habitat to put that land under conservation easement (in other words, never to go for development). They have also committed to buying the land east of East Road and north of Palmer which is currently a stables and a big pond--opposite the entrance to a housing development. This piece of land, known as Graceland, is up for sale for $2.55 million.
(All of the above does not address the Quad, although the CFGC is firmly behind the idea of no development. That is another fight that SAS is engaged in).
The Conservation Foundation must raise $650,000 in community donations by June 30, and another $650,000 by September 30 in order to meet their contract deposits, demonstrate community support, and keep this one-time opportunity alive.
MATCHING DONATIONS
Sarasota Audubon has pledged a 5% match for very dollar donated by its members to saving Graceland (topping out at $5,000 in matching funds)
Conservation Foundation or you can mail a check made out to SAS to 999 Center Rd, Sarasota, FL 34240. We will pass all donations on to the Conservation Foundation.
We deeply appreciate your generosity. Your children and grandchildren will thank you.
Yours in conservation,
Jeanne Dubi, Acting President, and the SAS Board of Directors
County Commission needs to take action on its own — perhaps selling surplus land to a private developer — to spur affordable housing projects, chair says
Hines voices frustration that, in spite of County Code changes designed to facilitate such developments, no private developer has proceeded with one
Chair Charles Hines. File photo
Because private companies have not been coming to the Sarasota County Commission to propose affordable housing projects, the board chair told his colleagues this week that he believes the commissioners themselves need to take action that will spur such initiatives.
And he wants to see some action before the board begins its annual summer recess in July. That vacation officially starts on July 22. The last regular meetings for the board are set for July 9 and 10.
During a June 4 discussion, Chair Charles Hines and other commissioners broached the idea again of selling county property for affordable housing projects. Focus centered on a surplus 10-acre parcel next to the Celery Fields that is known as the Southwest Quad, as well as a portion of a 115-acre site adjacent to Newtown Estates.
Perhaps the county could sell 20 acres of the latter, Hines said, for a workforce housing initiative.
In December 2017, Hines first talked of the potential of the Newtown property. He raised the issue as his board debated negotiations with the City of Sarasota in an effort to settle a dispute over a final county payment city staff argued that the county owed into the Downtown Sarasota Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) Trust Fund.
The North Sarasota parcel is just east of the Betty J. Johnson North Sarasota Library in Newtown.
When the county purchased the land approximately six years ago, the intent was for it to become a major athletic complex for North County. However, after the Great Recession struck, the plans were put on hold.
In December 2018, Sarasota City Commissioner Willie Shaw brought up the property in a discussion about the city board’s efforts to spur more affordable housing projects.
In response, City Manager Tom Barwin said he had asked County Administrator Jonathan Lewis about the land when he saw Lewis at a recent luncheon. Lewis told him that the land remained listed among properties for the county’s Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department (PRNR). However, Barwin added, Lewis indicated the County Commission would be open to discussing the future of the site.
When The Sarasota News Leader asked county staff for a comment on Barwin’s remarks after the City Commission’s Dec. 3, 2018 meeting, Media Relations Officer Ashley Lusby reported in an email, “The county has not changed its plan for the north county land. The county is still following the parks master plan for that location to be the North County Sports Complex.”
A 2013 graphic shows the 115-acre property planned for the North County Sports Complex. Image courtesy Sarasota County
On June 4, Hines acknowledged that county staff had continued to focus on the property for a purpose consistent with planning for future parks.
Commissioner Alan Maio said he doubted staff would come back to the board with a proposal entailing the utilization of a portion of the property for workforce housing. “We need to make those policy decisions.”
Maio also suggested that if the board were to put property it owns on the market — “and not at sky-high prices” — with the necessary rezoning completed beforehand to facilitate development, “that eliminates the last supposed obstacle to [creation of an affordable housing project],” which is the cost of land.
As for the Southwest Quad: Hines pointed out that some advocates of the Celery Fields have proposed the county keep that property free of development. “That’s not gonna happen. That’s never been one of our ideas.”
Commissioner Nancy Detert noted that she has been advocating for a project on property next to the Celery Fields for months. An apartment complex would be one possibility on the Southwest Quad, she continued. Another, she said, is a tiny homes project. “I still like tiny houses. I think that’s an absolute perfect spot for tiny houses, because [such a project] goes with the whole ambiance [of the Celery Fields].”
In April 2018 and again in September 2018, representatives of a group called the Fresh Start Initiative worked — at the commission’s behest — to propose what they characterized as compatible uses of the four county parcels known as “the Quads” adjacent to the Celery Fields.
A graphic prepared for the Fresh Start Initiative in early 2018 shows potential for compatible development near the Celery Fields. Image courtesy Fresh Start Initiative
Although the Celery Fields began and still functions as a major county stormwater project, it has acquired an international reputation for the vast variety of birds seen there throughout the year, especially during the winter migratory season.
Yet a third surplus county parcel that potentially could serve as an affordable housing project site is close to the county’s Emergency Operations Center on Cattlemen Road, Hines pointed out on June 4. “It’s been sitting there [for about 10 years].”
The land once was home to the county Building Department, he said.
Frustrations, fixes and a new focus
Exactly six months ago, Hines reminded his colleagues on June 4, the commissioners expressed frustration that ordinance changes they had sought in an effort to make affordable housing proposals more enticing to developers were not coming fast enough from staff in forms for them to enact.
“I don’t think anyone on this board is satisfied with the progress that’s been made,” Maio said at the time.
Since then — on March 13 — the board has approved one further change in the county’s Unified Development Code. That modification allows half-dwelling units no larger than 750 square feet, enabling developers to double the density of projects if they construct the smaller apartments or condominiums.
Altogether, Maio pointed out on June 4, the board has voted on about half-a-dozen changes to county regulations — reducing impact fees and capacity fees and reducing parking requirements, for other examples — to encourage private companies to build workforce housing.
This is an example of a half dwelling unit, as presented to the County Commission in May 2018. Image courtesy Sarasota County
Two more measures are in the works, he continued. One involves accessory buildings, such as dwelling units over garages; the other pertains to creation of apartments in upper stories over retail centers, especially those older complexes that might no longer be as active commercially but still have plenty of available parking.
Yet, those two latter changes would not be necessary, Maio stressed, if the board were to try to work with a private developer on a sale of property it owns.
Referencing the Newtown land Hines had mentioned earlier, Maio concurred that 20 acres might be appropriate for a project. “I just don’t think [developers] realize what they could build there and how affordable it could be.”
“What has been holding up a private sector developer from coming in here and saying, ‘I’ll do a 300-, 400-unit project” designed for workers such as firefighters, law enforcement officers and teachers, Hines asked. “The impediment’s been fees, regulations and land costs.”
Referring to the ordinance changes Maio had noted, Hines said he felt that it was even more important for the county to make land available.
The ombudsman proposal and a tangential request
This is the cover of the 2018 Blueprint for Workforce Housing. Image courtesy City of Sarasota
“I wouldn’t be opposed to one dedicated staffer [in the county’s Planning and Development Services Department],” Maio said, preferably if the person’s salary could be covered by permitting fees. If that funding source could be used, Maio added, “Hire them as soon as possible.”
Yet, Commissioner Detert responded, the Office of Housing and Community Development already has that responsibility, and that department is a joint initiative of the City and County of Sarasota.
She also brought up the fact that the county used to help first-time homeowners by providing down payments on houses.
For 25 years, she pointed out, she owned a mortgage business in the county. She talked about one client who was able to get help through the Down Payment Assistance Program. “It gives people a hand up, not a handout,” she explained.
To qualify for the help, she said, a person had to learn how to manage a budget, for example.
The money the county lent the homebuyer became a lien, she continued. When the house was sold, Detert added, the money for the down payment came back to the county, which could put the funds to use for another person’s down payment.
She wanted to know what became of that program, she said.
This information is included in a March fact sheet that county staff provided about affordable housing initiatives in the county. Image courtesy Sarasota County
Deputy County Administrator Steve Botelho, who was sitting in for County Administrator Jonathan Lewis, told her that staff would check on that. He added that he expected a memo with the results of the research could be provided to the commissioners prior to their next regular meetings, in July.
Botelho replied that he would make certain that information was in the memo, as well.
Detert pointed out that Don Hadsell, the long-time director of both programs, recently retired. Detert said she recently asked her county assistant to contact the new director, saying Detert wanted to set up an appointment for a meeting. The response Detert’s assistant received, Detert continued, was a question about why Detert wanted to have that meeting.
“What does it say on the outside of that building [where the Office of Housing and Community Development operates]?” Detert added of her reaction. “That ought to be a tipoff.”
Detert then asked Matt Osterhoudt, director of the county’s Planning and Development Services Department, to ensure that the memo Botelho promised the board also would have a “fleshed-out summary” of how both the city’s Housing Authority and the Office of Housing and Community Development function. She suggested that the results could lead to County Commission tweaks about the operations of the latter agency.
