Largest Development East of I-75 set Neighborhood Workshop for June 4

Stretching from Fruitville Road to Clark Road, "Hi Hat Ranch" will be the largest planned village east of I-75 with 12,000 dwelling units:

Hi Hat Ranch

A neighborhood workshop will discuss a Master Development Order for approximately 9,943 acres to be developed as a 2050 Village project within the Central Village Area for approximately 12,000 dwelling units and 450,000 sq. feet of commercial development. 

The workshop will be held Tuesday, June 4, 2019, at 6:00 p.m. at St. Margaret Episcopal Church, 8700 S.R. 72 (Clark Road), Sarasota, Florida.

For more information please see the information here.

Two other large East County developments already approved and underway are:

Rex Jensen's Waterside, between Fruitville and University, from I-75 to Lorraine, will have 5,144 homes:

And the Turner family's LT Ranch south of Clark Road plans 3,450 units, built by Taylor Morrison:

UPDATE: Four housing tracts will overrun east Sarasota County without a public long range plan

Updated as of July 24, 2018:

If you live in Sarasota east of the Interstate, or if you like to experience the country roads of rural Florida, prepare for the shock of large-scale development. Several super-sized housing tracts are coming to East Sarasota. Four projects alone will add nearly 28,000 housing units on 20,705 acres.

Major developable swaths of east Sarasota County are either already underway or set to be approved before the inevitable next crash in the Sunshine State's housing cycle.

Sarasota County Map of developments to the East of I-75, north of Palmer Boulevard 

One of the four largest, Lakewood Ranch (LWR), ranks #5 among the "fastest growing suburbs in the US":

Sprawl: Fastest burbs in the US: LWR = #5

The four largest are Waterside at Lakewood Ranch (Rex Jensen), Hi Hat (Turner), LT Ranch (Turner) and Grand Lakes (Pat Neal). Stretching from University down to 681 near Venice in East Sarasota, these ambitious projects will replace East Sarasota's rural ranchlands and open space with huge tracts of housing.

And more gated housing projects are coming, including Lindvest, Lakepark Estates, Worthington, Palmer Place, Sylvan Lea, Hidden Creek, Rivo Lakes and more.

While quickly granting concessions to private developers, Sarasota County's elected Board displays no evident awareness of its civic responsibility to gauge cumulative impacts, nor, as the public steward of the land, to integrate these impacts within a larger vision of intrinsic tradition and commitment to public uses. One looks in vain for a discussion of bringing greenways or waterways into alignment to create walking paths, wildlife corridors, kayakable sloughs and riding trails that could offer the people of Sarasota public recreation North to South, and East to West.

During a public discussion of a County proposal to reduce open space requirements for developers, one resident put it this way: "If we make changes like this, it changes the character of Sarasota County that was the reason many of us came here."

Here's a brief overview of the four largest developments that are either underway or whose plans have received approval:

Rex Jensen's Waterside at Lakewood Ranch

It’s the first project coming to fruition in Schroeder-Manatee Ranch’s Waterside at Lakewood Ranch, a 5,144-home, 5,500-acre development in Sarasota County set around a series of seven large lakes left over from SMR’s aggregate mining operations. 

The Waterside project generally runs from Interstate 75 to east of Lorraine Road and between University Parkway and Fruitville Road. It is located south of the Sarasota Polo Club and the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park.

"Waterside"

"Waterside" will add 5,144 units, 5,500 acres

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Turner Family: Hi Hat Ranch 

Stretching from Fruitville Road to Clark Road, this 10,000-acre mega-development of a former ranch will add an estimated 12,000 homes. 

Hearing July 11, 9 a.m. County Commission Chambers.

UPDATE: Board Action: Hi Hat Petition Approved July 11.

Add: 12,000-13,000 units, 10,000 acres

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Turner Family: LT Ranch

This former ranch is approved and underway. It will start with 3,450 units.

LT Ranch

". . . the 1,725-acre property owned by the Turner family will break ground in the “2050 South Village” mixed-use development plan for the largely rural stretch leading out to the Myakka River State Park. 

"The massive project includes up to 3,450 residential units throughout the neighborhoods, up to 300,000 square feet of commercial space at the corner of Clark Road and Bee Ridge Extension, and a host of environmental and road improvements throughout the area, according to the plans." Herald Tribune 11.9.2016

UPDATE: Apparently this wasn't "massive" enough, because the Sarasota County Board in 2014 deviated from the Comp Plan to allow a more ambitious development:

Property owners planning to add a village on 4,672 acres near Clark Road and Interstate 75 got a lot more leeway Wednesday on how and when they build. 

County commissioners decided to amend the county’s 2050 growth plan to allow the owners, 3H Ranch LLC and LT Partners LLLP, to create 9,344 homes on the land, roughly 5,500 to 6,300 more than the guidelines permit. Herald Tribune 3.5.2014

        Update June 2024: Pat Neal's 3H Ranch proposal plans to construct 6,576 units. 

Skye Ranch + 3H Ranch together will add some 10,026 units on 4,672 acres.

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West of LT Ranch, Pat Neal's "Grand Lakes" proposes to put 1,000 homes on 533 acres south of Clark Road at Ibis. The number of Pat Neal dwellings all told in Sarasota County will soon approach 10,000 units.

Hearing continued to July 11, 1:30 pm at Commission Chambers.

UPDATE: Board Action: Neal's Grand Lakes approved despite one-road access* was approved. The action raised a potential public safety issue for this giant cul de sac -- an issue acknowledged, but not addressed, by the Commissioners. Neighbors are considering options for an appeal, and say the Board ruling could open the way to sprawl across East Sarasota County.

See also the Letter to the Editor titled "Something is suspicious in Neal project approval":

All of the 300 current homeowners on Ibis were confined to their property earlier this year when a fire closed the road for hours. Now the county approves 1,100 additional homes, nearly a 400 percent increase, without fixing the egress issue on a dead-end street.

Grand Lakes

Add: 1,000 units, 533 acres

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If all these tracts are approved as planned, they'll add more than 27,600 units to 20,705 acres of a rural area sparsely connected by two-lane country roads, which has no commercial, park or recreational areas. More are on the drawing boards -- including the 450-acre Lindvest tract at Fruitville and Dog Kennel Road, with 900 units. Changes to the 2050 Comprehensive Plan have helped Lindvest progress. Is Sarasota County going to answer these private developments with a balancing vision of public uses -- open spaces, trails, adequate roads and and recreational areas available to all? 

Here's a December 2017 Sarasota County map of developments between Fruitville Road and University Parkway:

Developments in NE Sarasota County: Source: Sarasota County

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It's time to ask our elected officials: What are you thinking? Are you even thinking? What is this Board, as our representative, doing in response to this appetite for rampant growth? 

Here, for example, is a map of East County, with athletic fields open to the public. For those living east of the highway, one must drive 9-10 miles to the west or south.

Will our elected commissioners address the need for public planning and adjust impact fees to prepare for the coming demand for roads, trails, amenities, commerce, arts and recreation, or will they abdicate responsible governance, do nothing, and have us all go hang?

*Sarasota News Leader story made available through kind permission of the publisher.

State and local planning - or, not

Perhaps someone can unravel this knotty puzzle:

The prevailing ideological drift in Florida for the past 20-odd years has been to dismantle top-down planning regulations that were put in place in the 1980s. The folks who created those rules foresaw that without them, Florida would sprawl into one big Broward County.

LT Ranch

As former Commissioner Jon Thaxton made clear in a presentation to CONA recently, the reduction of the role of state and regional planners essentially left planning to local government. This is in line with standard Conservative thinking that locals know best what is good for them -- they'll foresee and provide the best solutions to avoid overpopulation, sprawling development, overburdened roads, failed services, stranded assets like parks no one uses, or worse -- a completely incoherent maze of random development, with no public sense of place.

So is local Sarasota government doing this? East County is about to become a series of rather large gated housing tracts. The appetite to privately develop land is at its peak -- just four housing projects (many more are coming) will produce more than 27,600 homes stretching from University Parkway down to 681 near Venice. This would seem a moment for local government to step up, study the big picture, and make due provisions. Have they done so? 

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The other part of the puzzle is this: despite the State's dismantling of any oversight of large-scale development, it seems comfortable making decisions that will affect millions of residents -- without consulting local authorities. For example: FDOT was in town last week to offer a public presentation of its plan for an $86 million Diverging Diamond at Fruitville Road. This diamond is just part of FDOT's vision of a series of Diverging Diamonds extending from Tampa down an expanded 12-lane I-75 all the way to Naples. 

At the agency's presentation the other day, several local heads of HOA's as well as representatives of the locally planned Fruitville Initiative said this ambitious project is unnecessary; that in fact it will destroy the primary basis of the Initiative -- a grid of walkable streets that connect people to businesses, residences, and recreational spaces. While media were there, if Sarasota officials or their representatives came to this meeting at Selby Library, we failed to notice them. FDOT said it had no knowledge of the Fruitville Initiative - although its former district head certainly did, four years ago.

In sum: Vast housing tracts and FDOT gigantism could change the face of Sarasota County. One is driven by the developers' economic cycle racing in high gear before it hits another downturn. The other is a massive deployment of state power. It's unclear whether FDOT sees any responsibility to work with the best laid plans of local communities. 

So here's the puzzle: If the State has demolished state control to have regulation to occur at the local level, how does that jive with the grandiose plans of FDOT? And in Sarasota, bereft of regional or state oversight, where are the representatives of our local communities when we need them?  

FPL: Three current options for power lines

(Eds. note: Details about the comparative quantities of residential housing on each of the three main roadways for the power line options have been clarified and updated.)

This is quick summary of the March 26th meeting of FPL reps with the Bee Ridge neighborhoods at Laurel Oak regarding possible routes for new powerlines. For more on the plan, click here.

Each of the three possible routes would connect the Howard substation at Proctor by I-75 with the Bobwhite station at Lorraine Rd. on East Fruitville Rd. The project is deemed necessary to provide for present capacity in the area. Future construction, such as LT Ranch and Hi Hat Ranch, ultimately will add over 20,000 homes south of Clark Rd. and east of the Bee Ridge Extension, and will require further power installations at some point in the future, FPL spokesmen said.

Uwe Hinrichs chair of the Bee Ridge Neighborhoods Committee, opened the discussion by noting that representatives of more than a dozen communities had worked with Sarasota County for 15 years on the improvements to east Bee Ridge Rd. - widening, roundabouts, and low-impact landscaping were among the results that transformed East Bee Ridge into a quality thoroughfare. Hinrichs and others noted that this would be an unfortunate time to site tall power lines along Bee Ridge Rd.

Although FPL didn't ask for a show of hands or voice vote on which of three routes (shown below) is preferred, one man asked those who oppose siting the power line along Bee Ridge Rd. to raise their hands.

Pretty much every hand in the room went up.

The image below shows the three routes, but the Bee Ridge route shows two options at the right - east from Bee Ridge Extension. The FPL reps said the first choice had been for the route east of the extension to go north past Artistry, but after meeting with an unidentified advisory council made up of businesses, nonprofits, and residents (they declined to provide names of their council advisers), FPL decided to prefer the south option, going south of Rothenbach park, north of Misty Creek.

Lines will be 80-130 feet high

A woman from Aberdeen Pines noted that her research on Google Earth showed that the longest "footprint" for the power lines would be along the communities of Bee Ridge -- approximately 13,000 feet. On Clark, they would run by neighborhoods for 7,000 feet, and on Fruitville for 1,500 feet (or a little more if you count Sun 'n Fun).

To a question about the impact of tall power lines on property values, an FPL rep said that FPL studies show that the impact on the market for home sales and the values of homes was often "insignificant," eliciting a strong skeptical guffaw from the crowd.

Power lines typically might disrupt AM radio, but do not affect cellular service or FM transmissions, according to Daniel Hronec, an FPL engineer.

The ultimate decision on where the route goes is up to FPL and is not subject to higher approval. The company will decide by mid-year, said Rae Dowling, FPL manager for this area. More background here.

It takes mixed uses to make a Village

Tracking toxic development

Some of the developments we're currently tracking:



James Gabbert (TST Ventures LLC) thinks a nifty place for a 12-acre recycling plant is right next to the Celery Fields, a haven for birds and birders from around the world. Here's Gabbert's proposal.

MOSAIC proposes strip mining in Manatee County. Sierra Club, Suncoast Waterkeeper and more organizations plan to be at the Manatee County Commission on Jan. 26, 9 am, to stand against MOSAIC. In advance, write to the Manatee Commissioners - addresses and sample letter here.

Sinkhole by MOSAIC

Neighbors are fighting tooth and nail to halt construction on sites that have already been torn up at Foxfire West for new developments by Medallion Homes (Carlos Beruff) and Meritage, a large Arizona Builder. Stay tuned.




Citizens for Sarasota County and other groups are looking into the County's approval of a 3,450-home housing project on Clark Rd. It seems the County will allow Taylor Morrison at LT Ranch to build homes that will encroach upon a floodplain designated AE where, according to a clear policy of the 2050 Comp Plan, no housing is permissible. (2050 Policy RMA 1.1. – Resource Management Area Ideals includes “Direct population growth away from floodplains.)






Finally, how do you like The Vue so far? BGA discussion Feb. 11 2 pm at Selby.

Two visions of East Sarasota County

Last week, the Sarasota County Commission approved LT Ranch -- a 3,450-home project to occupy 1,700 acres a little bit east of I-75 on Clark Road. The vote was 4-1.

Many questions about the exceptions, bent rules, and questionable environmental judgments surround that approval -- more may be forthcoming (Video BCC, Nov. 9th). What deserves mention just now is not the plan, but rather the plea put forward by Commissioner Charles Hines. Hines voted against the project, though he said many of its elements were "great."

Charles Hines
 Photo from SarasotaNewsLeader.com

The reason for his vote was simple: The developer wanted to come in east of I-75 on Clark Rd, which currently has the look and feel of an old country road, and remove a 500-foot buffer requirement in order to locate a 300,000-square-foot shopping center at roadside with a 10-foot buffer.

Such a radical change would destroy the entire look of the road, said Hines. It would also set a precedent for future developers who will seek the same exemptions, exceptions, and bent-out-of-shape-rules for their projects east of the Interstate. There is no need for giant Walgreen signs looming over Clark Road -- the eastern sector of Sarasota county was supposed to be different, Hines said.

Charles Bailey, attorney for the Turner family that is selling the parcel to Taylor Morrison, one of the largest homebuilders in the nation, huddled for a few minutes with his clients, then returned with a counter-offer -- instead of a 10-foot buffer, he said, how about 20 feet?

Hines looked stunned. Red-faced. "I'm offended," he said.

Hines went on to describe a vision of an old country road -- you drive along, heading to Myakka and Arcadia, and as you look from your car, you see open fields, or homes in the distance. It sounded idyllic - but with a shopping center 20 feet from the curb, not very likely. The Turners and Taylor Morrison - and the four other Commissioners - Maio, Caragiulo, Mason and Robinson - didn't seem to get it. Sure, maybe the 2050 Plan had called for a 500-foot buffer, but when has that ever stopped a wonderful project?

In brief, there is an ontological gap between the vision of old Florida, as it still remains, both in memory and in a few places in real life, like Clark Road -- between this Florida and the ambitions of folks like the Turners, Taylor Morrison, and the four Commissioners, who see real estate, widened roads, and commercial buildings in place of vacant pasture.

Between these two opposing imaginings of Sarasota East, you might think there could be some bridge, some mediating point. But attorney Bailey wasn't going to let his clients down. They came back with the offer of a 50'-foot buffer and a tall hedge. Hines opposed, got no second -- the Commission was not going to postpone approval -- those pasture lands were itching to be developed. The plan with its 50-foot buffer was approved, Hines dissenting.

Hines in fact admired much about the LT Ranch proposal. He just didn't want the entire look of the County to resemble Fort Lauderdale.

"This was such an overreach to jam this commercial right up in front, right on that road," said Hines. "I don’t see the benefit."

This approval was but the crack in the seawall. More developers will soon appear before the County, seeking to bend the 2050 Plan to their profit-driven "density needs." Led by a monolithic Republican business cadre, developers and government will make each other happy as cows leaping for joy. They'll just do their leaping in a Publix parking lot.

We appreciate Commissioner Hines' solo effort to get a developer to honor the 2050 plan and a vision of East Sarasota County. Commissioners Robinson and Mason are gone due to term limits. Commissioners Caragiulo and Maio will stand for election in 2018, when Sarasotans can decide their "future development."

LT Ranch on Clark Rd.

Impact Fees, Large Development, Celebration for Wade Matthews

from Dan Lobeck

Important Meetings of the Week

Tuesday, November 8, 1:30 pm, Anderson Center, 400 S. Tamiami Trail, Venice
Sarasota County Commission
Public Hearing on Increasing or Delaying Various Impact Fees

The County Commission will act on a consultant’s recommendation to finally update and increase – after 10 years – impact fees on new development to help pay for expansions of various facilities to serve that development.  The fees are for parks, libraries, fire, emergency medical services, law enforcement, justice (courts and jails) and general government.  They do not include impact fees for schools and transportation, which remain seriously lowballed.

The consultant has recommended that the miscellaneous impact fees rise for an average single family home less than 38%, from $4,397 to $6,061.

The County Commission has delayed this adjustment repeatedly over the past year but is finally poised to vote. 

The biggest problem is that although staff has for many months recommended full funding without delay, they are now proposing that the adjusted fees be phased in over three years (80% effective April 1, 2017, 90% April 1, 2018 and 100% April 1, 2019), based on push-back from some County Commissioners. 

This comes at a time when the County Commission plans to borrow tens of millions of dollars, to be funded with probable tax hikes over time, for expansion of government facilities for which there is insufficient money due to the impact fees being too low for too long.  The borrowing will be divided by projects to fall below the bonding cap beyond which the County Charter requires a voter referendum, which the County Commission previously planned but abandoned.

A further delay will cost the taxpayers substantial needed funds, just to serve the developers who control County government.



Wednesday, November 9, 1:30 pm, County Administration Building, 1660 Ringling Boulevard, Sarasota

Development East of I-75: LT Ranch

Sarasota County Commission
Public Hearing on LT Ranch/ Clark Road Properties Village Development

Maps for LT Ranch 

This huge Sarasota 2050 “Village” would be east of I-75 south of Clark Road where it meets the Bee Ridge Extension – 3,450 dwellings and 300,000 square feet of nonresidential development (mainly a large shopping center on Clark Road) on 1,725 acres.  Severe traffic problems would be created on Clark Road from Proctor Road to the Bee Ridge Extension and on Proctor Road from Cattlemen Road to Clark Road, requiring the widening of those roads from four to two lanes.  The development would however only contribute a share of that expense, leaving the rest on the taxpayers. It also is not clear who would pay for a southern extension of the Bee Ridge Extension to serve the development.  Also, the Greenbelt setback along Clark Road would be reduced from 500 to 10 feet (a matter within the discretion of the County Commission), destroying the rural ambiance which that setback is intended to serve. 

The development would destroy much natural habitat, including 20 acres of mesic hammock, 86 acres of mixed wetland hardwoods (100% of the ones on the property), 30 acres of freshwater marsh,11 acres (again 100%) of streams and waterways, and apparently an eagle’s nest on the commercial site.  This is in addition to the fact that the County Commission previously excused this development from getting its densities by buying and transferring them from off-site Greenways, just giving them to the site instead when the developer complained that the Greenway requirement was “too expensive.”

The requirement that Sarasota 2050 Villages be walkable New Urbanist communities would be destroyed and replaced with a standard subdivision and shopping center by 15 “modifications”, including by allowing gated communities, changing public civic uses to private clubhouses, allowing longer cul-sacs and dead-end streets and changing requirements for setbacks, block configurations, intersections, roadway designs, alleys, street trees, multiuse trails and sidewalks and the public greens, square and plaza for the commercial center.


The fiscal neutrality analysis employs tricks to conclude that the development will pay its own way by the usual taxes and impact fees, such as by assuming no special costs for law enforcement and emergency rescue to reach this eastern sprawl, and assuming no need to contribute to capital repairs and renovations of existing schools despite the fact no new middle or high school is planned for the development, from which 598 new public school students are expected.  Also as to schools, impact fees are deemed fully adequate for the development’s share of the seven new elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools which the School District projects will be needed by the time this development is built out, even though the School Board and County Commission have only set school impact fees at 26% of what the consultant says is needed for that purpose.

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 7 pm
Michael's on East Wine Cellar, Midtown Plaza,1283 Tamiami Trail South, Sarasota 

Sarasota County Council of Neighborhood Associations 55th Anniversary Party,
A fundraiser benefiting CONA’s college scholarship fund, honoring Wade Matthews, retiring Sarasota Audubon Society conservation chair -- hors d'oeuvres, music, c ash bar, special door prizes.  Ticket donation: $50/ person.  RSVP to CONA Here.