Sarasota at Risk: Lobeck on Final Oct. 25th Hearing

Nature, Neighborhoods, Mobility and Taxpayers at Risk

Giving It Away to Developers

Final County Commission Public Hearing

Tuesday, October 25   1:30 pm

1660 Ringling Boulevard, Sarasota

The rules of the game may be about to change, in terrible ways for anyone who cares about reasonable controls on development.

They call it an “Update” of the Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan. 

What it really does however is gut numerous important protections of neighborhoods, nature, traffic mobility and good planning, to serve the developers who bankroll County Commission campaigns.  Their slogan is, “Today, Tomorrow, Together” but the only people moving together on this are our County Commissioners and their patrons in the development industry.  The rest of us get left behind, with traffic gridlock, threatened neighborhoods and increased destruction of the natural environment.

Many of the worst changes were written by developer attorney Bill Merrill for a coalition of development interests that include the Argus Foundation, of which County Commissioner Christine Robinson serves as Executive Director.

This Comprehensive Plan “Update” is up for its final public hearing on October 25, at 1:30 pm, at 1660 Ringling Boulevard in Sarasota. Citizens will be allowed to speak for up to five minutes each.

Also, you can email the County Commissioners at Email to County Commissioners.

It would be well to identify specific changes you oppose, together with comment generally on the others.  You have a broad choice of topics from those identified in this handout.  It is possible the County Commission could relent on some of the changes.  At least one County Commissioner, for example, recently expressed reluctance to support the proposed change to the neighborhood compatibility policy, although he voted for it at the first hearing.

You can also send a letter to the editor of 250 words or less to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune at Letter to the Editor Link Here.  Do it right away, however, as time is growing short.

Among the many measures on the chopping block are the following:

• Neighborhood compatibility protections
• The square foot limit on the size of commercial centers
• Concurrency, the rule that developers must produce traffic studies and pay their proportionate share of needed road improvements -- without the replacement policy allowed by state law which would keep traffic studies and limit rezoning and Plan changes that overcrowd our roads
• The level of service C standard for county roads, lowering it to D and thereby accepting more traffic congestion
• The requirement that the County plan for needed infrastructure over a ten-year period, leaving only planning for five years at a time
• The requirement that affordable housing built with density bonuses in mixed use centers remain affordable, be built to green standards and have a jobs-housing balance
• Current protections of wetlands and other natural habitat from development impacts
• Environmental and other “quality of life” standards for new businesses sought for the County

A fuller analysis of this proposed destruction of important protections of the public interest is set forth on the following pages.  It's a lot to digest, I know.  However, I hope you read through enough to get as upset as I am about this and to give you enough ammunition to speak out against this injustice at the public hearing.

Thank you for your consideration.

  -- Dan Lobeck
Join Control Growth Now

Click below for details . . .

Mele on the blinding of Sarasota County - through language

Andy Mele:

Sarasota County's New Vision is . . .


Vague, imprecise and unenforceable 

. . . In many places (such as policy 1.3.6, allowing native habitats to be destroyed by development), the plan substitutes the word “encourage” for the word “shall.” “Shall” is precise, compulsory and enforceable. “Encourage” renders the entire section unenforceable and moot, and that is its intent. Again, both commissioners and county staff are adamant about keeping these changes, attributed to “public input,” but introduced at the behest of private interests.

For insight into this blurring of the lines between private and public interest, I went looking for confirmation in law that this distinction actually matters any more. 

I found it in Article II, Section 8 of the Florida Constitution.Turns out that in the state’s principal legal document, a county commissioner is responsible for, and accountable to, the public trust. 

The wording of this section is interesting, in light of the changes to the comprehensive plan. “The people shall have the right to secure and sustain that trust against abuse.” In the Florida Constitution, there is a bright and shining line between private and public interests. 

Yet, this plan “update” makes clear that both staff and the commission have been mingling public with private in a manner that contravenes the letter and spirit of the law.

I doubt that you would find 10 people in the county, outside the tight circle of beneficiaries, who think private interest is in the public’s benefit. Conflating the two in policy is called corruption, and here in America, we may practice corruption, but we don’t like it, and it is against the law. More here . . .

Andy Mele: Follow-Up: Tiny Comp Plan Win

We got a little something from the Sarasota BoCC on Friday.  Apparently they decided to extend the Comprehensive Plan Update process by a month.  Wholly inadequate, but better than nothing.

Considering that the Comprehensive Plan is The Law governing land use, development, open space, bays and rivers, basically everything that people value about this region, we need top pay a lot more attention to it.

There were exactly three people testifying for the environment at the BoCC hearings: Jono Miller, Dan Lobeck, and myself.  If that's the best we can do, we deserve the landscape destruction we get.

The Plan is a daunting volume.  And we all know that the fix is in, as always.  But we have to fight it anyhow --- as always.  And it's a lot more efficient to fight it at this stage than after the fact.  

Take one section of the plan.  It's in twelve sections, many of which you won't be able to engage with.  It's all on line.  Some sections are brief, some run over 100 pages, but taking it one bite at a time, analysis is far more manageable and attainable.

The Update is a nightmare, a morass of ambiguous language and last-minute developer-introduced changes to language that was somewhat more efficient and functional.  This draft appears hell-bent on forcing much more of the decision-making onto the courts for interpretation.  A prime example is the new sentence introduced by notorious developer minion Dana West into VII 2 f of Wetlands policy, calling for zoning decisions to be based on a "landscape context." This is an invention of, by, and for the developers.  They are imagining that they will point to all the development around a wetland and say, "It is surrounded, therefore cannot possibly be worth saving," and oil up the chain saws.  In fact, they will drag the County into many more cases like the Whole Foods wetland, and look to the taxpayers to pay the bill for the fuzzy language.

We can't rely entirely on Dan Lobeck for analysis.  I will be taking some parts.  I hope you will too, and contribute your comments.  I will be happy to forward them to my list.

Best wishes,
Andy  

June 8th Comp Plan Transmittal Hearing

June 10th not yet available online.

Going Stupid

Anyone who has spent half a day in S. Florida knows that the folks over there blew it. Growth created hell, and it extends even to public lands. Here's an advisory from a public parks site near Avvventura:

* ALERT: PARK CAPACITY 

Once the park reaches capacity no one will be allowed to enter until space becomes available. If you have rented a pavilion, hosting an event or have been invited to an event please plan accordingly because you will not be allowed to re-enter until space is available. 

This is, simply put, stupid growth. For years, Sarasota County has tried to rein in cupidity and stupidity -- to allow for a slower, more organic, thoughtful pace of development.

Dan Lobeck's analyses of the new Comp Plan heading for State review convincingly show that smart growth is over:

Neighborhoods, Mobility under Attack

Nature at Risk

And Jono Miller notes a change that could make hunting in parks not the exception, but the norm:

On Friday the tenth of June 2016, the County Commission may consider amending PARKS Policy 1.1.5 to allow recreational hunting in areas voters were promised would not experience consumptive uses or activities that were not ecologically benign.

Jono's complete post is here.

What's behind all this?  

Start with Cathy Antunes on the dark money propelling these changes. 

And listen to Cathy's new show Friday at 2 pm on SRQ.

Is this the year Sarasota County officially goes Stupid?

Mobility is the next Comp Plan Cycle - June 17, 20, 25

Comprehensive Plan Update:  Cycle 2 - Mobility Mobility refers to the movement of people. It effectively and efficiently moves people and goods, shapes urban form, affects economic vitality and impacts quality of life. Cycle 2 Mobility starts on May 4 and runs throughJune 30, 2015.  This Cycle's topic areas include bicycle and pedestrian networks, trails, traffic circulation, public transit, aviation, water transit and rail. Click here to take the survey!