The flow of developer wealth and power in Sarasota: A powerpoint

The above is taken from this powerpoint by a citizen. The slide depicts contributions from James Gabbert to candidates in one county commission race.

The statement by James Schebel that accompanies the slides is here.

The complete powerpoint is here.  A pdf version is here.

When the maker of these slides attempted to present them to the Board of County Commission at a redistricting hearing, he was shut down.

Development interests seek to protect Moran -- Herald Tribune

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.

James Gabbert

Seidman: Citizens speak on Siesta Promenade ... but nobody’s listening

With approval of the controversial project, once again residents’ concerns take a back seat to development interests.

Carrie Seidman, Herald Tribune


Before last week’s County Commission hearing on the proposed Siesta Promenade project by Benderson Development, Sura Kochman was feeling hopeful.

For almost two years, using the tools she’d developed over a decade of chairing a New Jersey planning board, she’d spent “almost every waking moment” gathering research, talking with officials, building alliances and working to disseminate information about the mixed-use plan for the 24-acre site near U.S. 41 and Stickney Point Road, neighboring her Pine Shores home. Now it was time for Kochman — and dozens of other residents who also saw the mix of hotel, retail and residential development as incompatible with the surrounding area — to share their concerns before commissioners took a vote last Wednesday.

“I truly felt in my gut that, with the mountain of evidence we had gathered and the testimony of eight organizations representing thousands of people’s voices, that the commissioners would listen and understand the issues regarding this very unique area,” said Kochman, who formed the Pine Shores Neighborhood Alliance to advocate for reducing the project’s height and density.

Siesta Promenade site at US 41 and Stickney Point

Others, aware of the commission’s history of siding with developers, were more cynical. A chorus of voices chimed in on the group’s Facebook page: Don’t even bother going. You’re wasting your time. They’re going to approve it anyway.

Kochman responded with all the fervor and optimism of a high school cheerleader.

“I said, ’Don’t give up, you have to make your voices heard, give it your all!” she recalled earlier this week, sounding a little defeatist herself after commissioners approved the project. “But they were proven right. So maybe people shouldn’t bother anymore. Because they hear our voices, but they don’t hear us.”

Commissioners listened to almost 90 residents, just eight of whom spoke in favor of the project. Speakers said it was incompatible with a comprehensive plan that calls for “walkability” and reducing negative impacts on surrounding residential areas. They pointed to conflicts with elements of the newly-passed uniform development code. They noted flaws in the traffic studies that were conducted and expressed fears of a gridlock that would be not only a hassle but a danger and, in the event of an emergency, potentially life-threatening.

But after nearly five hours of testimony, the vote (4-1) was swift and unequivocal. Benderson’s request for a rezone and a hotel exception was granted, without modification.

“The fact that they totally ignored us and didn’t make one change, it’s very discouraging, very disheartening,” said Kochman, who was born and raised in Sarasota. “The whole process is just so disingenuous. Did they already know when they walked into the meeting that the whole thing was for naught? Was the fix in?”

When I asked her exactly what she meant by that, Kochman didn’t pull any punches.

Sarasota County Commission: In bed with the developers?

“Any rational person would have seen that this application should not have been approved in its proposed form,” she said dismissively. “So the only answer, I assume, would be to go to sarasotavotes.com and see where the (commissioners’) campaign contributions have come from. You hate to think our commissioners can be bought off, but there’s no other way to look at this. That’s the only reason I can think of.”

Kochman has a lot of company. In my year-long tenure as a columnist, this is the refrain I hear more than any other: Local government is in bed with the developers and it’s ruining Sarasota.

I’ve heard it from the grassroots advocacy group STOP, fighting to change the “administrative approval” process that grants the city the right to green light downtown development projects without citizen input.

I’ve heard it from people living on S. Palm Avenue , who formed SHOUT over concerns about safety hazards from construction debris and practices on new developments and who have encountered resistance in trying to get the city to take proactive measures to protect residents, their pets and their vehicles.

I’ve heard it from homeowners in Venice, objecting to the placement of a new hospital in an area the comprehensive plan intended to be residential, and one that lacks the infrastructural capacity to handle increased traffic and emergency vehicles.

I’ve heard it from those fighting the city’s plan to lease the pavilion on Lido Key to private investors for development of a restaurant and additional amenities that would decidedly change the ambiance of Sarasota’s most laid-back, family friendly public beach.

And I’ve heard it from “Reopen Beach Road” advocates who objected to the county’s ceding a once-public thoroughfare to private property owners, allowing for increased density on their buildable land. (Even though an amendment calling on the county to regain ownership and reopen the road passed in the recent midterms, it is already facing pushback — leading to the conclusion that even if you win, you’re not done fighting.)

Almost daily I get mail from readers complaining about everything from traffic congestion to red tide, flooding to impassable sidewalks — all of which they blame on uncontrolled development and injudicious planning. They write to inform me of meetings and public forums and petitions and ask if I can help rally the troops. Many say they are reluctant crusaders.

“I moved here to retire, I didn’t plan on becoming an activist,” one told me recently. “But I can’t stand to see what they are doing to this paradise.”

But when the fattest wallet can buy the loudest voice, even a substantial citizen chorus is like background noise. And how long will residents continue to protest if they know it’s pointless?

“I guess that’s why so many people in Sarasota just live in their little bubbles,” Kochman said. “Go out to dinner, see a show, come back home and don’t get involved. It’s discouraging people from wanting to get involved because they think ... to what end? There is a total disregard here for the voices of the citizenry.”

For more on the projects Seidman alludes to, see This Could Be You.

Contact columnist Carrie Seidman at 941-361-4834 or carrie.seidman@heraldtribune.com. Follow her on Twitter @CarrieSeidman and Facebook at facebook.com/cseidman

This could be you

A large hall -- standing room only. A developer's representative is making the case for a big new project with far more density and intensity than the neighborhood can handle. People are aghast. They protest. The developer's proposal goes to the Planning Commission, then to the Board of County Commissioners, where it is approved.

Sound familiar?

If this is happening to your community, you're not alone.

Benderson "Siesta Promenade" Neighborhood workshop

Aggressive developer encroachment, county complicity, neighborhoods suffer

The 2050 Comprehensive Plan was designed to temper the pace, density, existential impacts and economic burdens of big-money development. It stood for a shared sense of responsible, intelligent growth.

Throughout Sarasota County, however, elected and appointed officials are offering concierge services to powerful developers. They bend, break, or eliminate rules intended to protect the public from oversized developer impacts. On Nov. 6, you can turn this around.

Thousands of homeowners are in the same predicament. Here are a few examples:

Arbour Lake 
Reserve RZ 18-09

STOP BOLEYN RD REZONE  

A neighbor: "This subject parcel already has a recorded, perpetual conservation easement and a binding site plan of 25 homes, but they want almost three times more! Do the words “perpetual” and “binding” have any meaning at all?

"If conservation protections can be extinguished with the stroke of a pen, where does that leave the public trust?"  More here.

Oct. 24th, 9 a.m. -- Cancelled until further notice

County Commission

SAY "NO"

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Benderson at Siesta Promenade 
8,379 more trips per day 

Benderson is asking for density 65% over what they would be allowed, with heights up to 80', with 414 apartments, 140,000 sq ft of retail and a 130 room hotel.. . . Stickney and 41, the gateway to Siesta Key is impassable in season, and already is a threat to the health, safety and welfare of the residents in the general area. Additionally, Benderson is feeding their traffic through a quiet residential area. -- Sura Kochman

Fight over proposed mixed-use development heats up in Sarasota
      Planning Commission - 11.15.18 5 p.m.
      County Hearing - 12.12.18  9 a.m.
Sign the Siesta Promenade PetitionBlock Benderson

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Pat Neal at Grand Lakes

Neighbors sue County for failing to follow Comp Plan

Grand Lakes: a 1,097-home cul de sac

• Rezone Oral Arguments 11.14.18
• Administrative Hearing  12.4-5.18

“Pat Neal’s Grand Lakes project, will impact homeowners’ rights in Serenoa, Serenoa Lakes, and the Ibis Street area with little regard for our safety and land values.

Growth is being allowed before safe and sufficient traffic management capabilities are in place.  The safety of thousands of children and their parents who use Twin Lakes Park will also be impacted. 

Neal’s changes to Sarasota 2050 create urban sprawl.  The commissioners clearly have little or no regard for the rights of taxpayers or their own official plan for long term growth. It is a shame when citizens have to dig into their own pockets just to make sure the planning officials follow their own rules."  Serenoa Lakes President Dave Anderson.

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LT RANCH: 5,500 more homes than Comp Plan allows

County commissioners decided to amend the county’s 2050 growth plan to allow the owners ... to create 9,344 homes on the land, roughly 5,500 to 6,300 more than the guidelines permit.

“Twenty-fifty doesn’t work for us as it was meant to,” said Jim Turner, one of the property owners. The characteristics of the land referred to as the Clark Road Properties make it tough to meet the density requirements, he said. Herald Tribune

See also: Four housing tracts will overrun East Sarasota County

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Selling Public Land to Industry at the Celery Fields

"What you in fact are planning is a slow motion car wreck -- a collision of industry and human lives that will imperil people, property, and community."  - Fresh Start

Why do certain commissioners want to sell our public land to private industrial developers?  

Tale of a timeline

Gabbert waste transfer operation still planned for Porter and Palmer (SNL)


Fresh Start Opposes Industrialization


County to try new plan - Public input essential

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Nokomis: Prime Public Land Giveaway

Nokomis Area Civic Association: "How can we believe, trust, and have faith in these individuals and the institutions they represent when we know the truth about their thinking and lack of candor?" 

Prime land handed to Sheriff for garage - yet we have a budget shortfall necessitating the sale of public lands at the Celery Fields?

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Venice Regional Hospital Site

East Venice residents push back on proposed hospital near Jacaranda, I-75 "Neighbors...have opposed the re-designation of Venice Regional’s chosen site as commercial rather than moderate-density residential, arguing that the extra traffic and noise of a medical campus will have adverse effects. But the county Planning Commission and staff have recommended approval." Petition opposing Venice Regional site

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Tourism money reallocated for stadium repairs

The Sarasota County Commission on Tuesday decided to shift money from the tourism promotions budget to pay for repairs on the deteriorating Ed Smith Stadium, despite pleas from local merchants devastated by toxic red tide who claim the marketing money is vital to keeping their businesses alive. (Herald Tribune)

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Reopen Beach Road

 If the road is NOT REBUILT, SARASOTA TAXPAYERS ARE EXPECTED TO HAVE TO SPEND OVER $5,000,000 (Five Million Dollars) JUST TO PROTECT THE VERY SAME DEVELOPER'S LAND WHO OPPOSES THE PROJECT. ReopenBeachRoad.Org

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Beruff gets OK to build over golf course at Gulf Gate

Medallion Home, a Manatee-based homebuilder owned by Carlos Beruff, filed a request with Sarasota County planners in October to rezone the 49-acre course for more housing density. Previous attempts to rezone the golf course failed, but Gulf Gate homeowners fear Beruff’s political influence and the current county commission’s pro-growth stance could make this attempt different. (Herald Tribune)

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Whole Foods gets OK to build on living wetland

Astoundingly, a company representative told our current crop of mostly developer-hugging commissioners that Whole Foods really needs to pave that wetland because, golly, there is just no other site that would do around here. That’s right, there’s no other possible place Whole Foods could build!

I wish I could report that the Sarasota County commissioners all responded in skeptical unison and shouted, “Oh come off it. You think we are that stupid? - Tom Lyons

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Developer Kompothecras gets OK for big zoning change on Siesta Key

Opponents claimed the zoning change opens the floodgates for more developers to litter the skyline and compromise the island’s tranquility. Traffic would become worse and potentially dangerous; ambulances would experience life-threatening delays. Herald Tribune   

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Nathan Benderson Park working to be self-sufficient

Nathan Benderson Park under construction 2013 

The still unsustainable private entity that runs Nathan Benderson Park . . . outlined to the Sarasota County Commission several ways [it] is making headway to formulate a business strategy to become self-sufficient to avoid another subsidy from the county. The commission in June granted SANCA a $400,000 subsidy to keep the organization afloat beyond Oct. 1, when the county was to cease covering costs of personnel and events. Herald Tribune

The Benderson rowing park has come under strong criticism from Sarasota residents who say the financing "partnership" went terribly awry.

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Sarasota County turns ownership of parks to cities, and its an expensive headache

SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) - Sarasota County is handing over control of many of its public parks back to the cities and it is causing quite a headache.
In the city of Sarasota, taxpayers are being met with sticker shock because many of the parks are in disrepair.
For the past 30 years, Sarasota County has maintained virtually all parks county-wide. So it came as a surprise a year ago when the county decided to save money by giving the parks back to the cities. News Channel 8.

Instead of facing facts, finding gumption, and developing a reliable and sustainable revenue stream, the county is cutting services, selling off public lands, and fobbing off responsibilities it once ably handled. Why?

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Here's the thing:

Many who deeply care come to the public hearings, wear green, red or blue, bring signs, speak their minds, and experience Full-Frontal Board Indifference for their pains. Some leave thinking their failure was their fault.

This is a county-wide pattern -- ongoing for years. Our collective awareness of this is fragmented because each community experiences it within its own boundaries. They don't see the many other citizen-voters experiencing brazen disregard for the public good.

And it's all for the same reason: The people placed in power -- not all, but most -- are there at the pleasure of the wealthiest land gamblers in the county. 

Big 5 developers

These players have the resources to dilute regulation, lower impact fees, and weaken public oversight that could put a crimp in their business models. They like their government small and weak.

Moran     Caragiulo      Detert            Maio         Hines

The failures of planning, the decisions incrementally eroding our Comprehensive vision, all the sorry excuses made while politely declining to stand up to supersized projects that enrich the developers at the expense of the quality of life around them -- all rest on this refusal to work for the public.

In the coming election, use your vote, informed by the collective experience of your neighbors around the county, to bring new voices and new vision onto the Board -- candidates that will work for the public interest.

Actualize your power.

It's your call - if you Vote.

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Click for the outcome of the Siesta Promenade hearing of 12.12.18

November 6th is almost here.

Inform your neighbors.

Support intelligent growth policies.

Vote for candidates who will: 

       
 - Reject rampant growth. 
- Protect the environment.
- Respect the people.

Traces of corruption in Sarasota County?

Two excellent letters to the editor:

Text messages provide chilling glimpse of politics

The recent text messages between Sarasota County School Board member Eric Robinson and Sheriff Tom Knight provide an unpleasant yet much needed glimpse of local politics.

Mr. Robinson should theoretically favor a balanced budget, with more money spent on education. Instead he is caught trying to undermine the institution he should protect.

Clearly the public life of Sarasota County is run by political “elites” in conjunction with the real estate developers who fund them. The methods are chilling.

Public support? No problem. Sheriff Knight can start a “letter writing campaign” to deceive residents into thinking the public agrees with him.

More pressure? Evidently the county commissioners are in the bag for Robinson. He makes a few calls and the puppets move as directed.

Need county staff? Another Robinson phone call assures their support. Manipulate the press? Covered.

If this is only one public document request, what have we missed?

We are entitled to elected officials who actually support the institutions and boards they are elected to serve and whose first concern is the public good.

If Mr. Robinson controls county commissioners and staff, we deserve to know it. We are also entitled to believe that public input actually reflects people’s opinions, instead of a manufactured “letter writing campaign” meant to deceive.

I urge voters to carefully research political candidates, including their campaign finance reports on the supervisor of elections website, sarasotavotes.com.

Let’s hope more comes out of this than officials talking on the phone to avoid a public-records request.

Deborah Anderson, Venice

Development interests are influencing court system

I want to draw attention to the latest attempt by developers to gain influence in Sarasota County civil institutions, in their never-ending scramble for profits. Their latest target is the one institution that should be above politics and special interest — our court system.

Judge Judy Goldman submitted her “surprise” resignation letter shortly before the qualifying date for potential candidates, to become effective four days before her term ends. The timing precluded a November election, allowing our governor to pick the next judge instead of the voters.

Who suggests judicial nominees to our governor? A committee that includes developer Pat Neal and several attorneys who list real estate and construction as their specialties. Why bother to sue a developer when they help pick the judges?

So what do we have here? A judge who times her resignation to prevent voters from exercising their right to vote, a governor with a demonstrated affinity for developers based on his previous appointments, and a judicial nominating committee dominated by development interests.

The losers in this situation? The residents whose right to vote has been stolen and who will predictably end up with another judge who owes his or her job to development interests.

The rule of law is the foundation of our country. We are entitled to a fair, unbiased judiciary that is above politics and special interests. I urge residents to educate themselves about the wholly inappropriate influence that developers have in our community and vote accordingly.

Deborah Anderson, Venice