UDPDATE: Urgent action item from Sura Kochman regarding Siesta Promenade Hearing

From Sura Kochman:

FDOT has confirmed that there will be a hearing on 12/11. I have learned that 200-ish people e mailed Mr. Purvis and requested that the hearing take place. Thank you all so much. Parking is limited at the Siesta Key Chapel, so you may wish to car-pool.

The public hearing will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday, December 11, 2019 at the Siesta Key Chapel, 4615 Gleason Avenue, Sarasota, FL 34242. The formal hearing begins at 6:00 p.m. FDOT will hold this hearing to give interested people the opportunity to review displays and talk one-on-one with staff. This public hearing will only address the transfer of jurisdiction of the roadways. If you wish to speak, please arrive prior to 6 p.m. and register as a speaker at the check-in table.

NOTE: It should be understood that FDOT has NO AUTHORITY, to override the Siesta Promenade application directly. What we can bring out, is the deficiencies in how the traffic is to be handled, per what was stated in the Siesta Promenade hearings, the Kimley Horn engineering reports, and the County transportation reports.

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Dear All, 

This is an urgent, time sensitive matter! Action must be taken by December 3 – next Tuesday!

As many of you know, there is an agreement being worked on between FDOT & Sarasota County to transfer responsibility for Stickney Point and the roadways described in the attached notice in today’s paper, from FDOT to the County.

The Florida Department of Transportation has indicated that there are

 “…growing safety and operational concerns related to the intersection of US41 and SR 72.  The department has a responsibility to provide a safe and efficient roadway for our residents and the thousands upon thousands of visitors and tourists that come to our great state each year.”  This quote is from a letter dated 7/25/16, from Keith Slater, FDOT, Traffic Services Program Engineer.

It has been stated that should the road swap take place, that FDOT would have the opportunity to “weigh in”, but the ultimate decision would be the County’s.

FDOT’s  requirements are intrinsic to the evaluation of what is, or could occur in this 1 mile section of roadway.  Decisions made here will affect public safety and the economy of Siesta Key and surrounding areas. The responsibility for Stickney Point belongs under the jurisdiction of FDOT from US41 completely across the bridge and ending at SR 758.

FDOT’s oversight of this segment of SR72 (Stickney) should not be relinquished. 

PLEASE immediately email Kyle.Purvis@dot.state.fl.us and indicate that a hearing must be convened on December 11, 2019 and that you are interested in attending. 

This is our only opportunity to voice our concerns that FDOT, an independent agency, should be the controlling voice as to what is feasible traffic-wise on the Stickney Point approach to Siesta Key and on the key.

Sura

Write to Kyle.Purvis@dot.state.fl.us 

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?  

Big "Diamond" will diverge from small town plan

A Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) plan to create a large Diverging Diamond interchange at Fruitville Road could render impossible a design for an innovative, walkable small town that's been gathering momentum for nearly 10 years.

From WWSB's Taylor Torregano:

More than 10 years ago, [a group of] property owners began working on the development with Sarasota County Commissioners and one common goal. 

"[It was] designed around pedestrians walk-ability, mixed use and dispersing traffic through a whole street grid," said Steve Suau, the engineer working on the Fruitville Initiative. 

The Fruitville Initiative would resemble a new downtown that was all set to break ground by the end of this year. 

That is, until Thursday (6.21.18) when the Florida Department of Transportation unveiled its plan to put a diverging diamond here at a public hearing. 

Comments from community leaders and developers of the Fruitville Initiative:

Channeling more traffic through the proposed Lakewood Ranch / Fruitville Road intersection could "implode" the walkable street grid that is essential to the plan, said Steve Suau, a stormwater expert who was part of the original community effort.  

"That just defeats the whole purpose of dispersing traffic and walkability," he added.  

 "I think it would destroy it entirely," said Keith Gelder, vp of Stock Development, which recently purchased land to develop within the Initiative. He added:

"There was a very significant effort, a planning effort for the Fruitville Initiative, conducted over the last eight or nine years, with a tremendous amount of community input to try to create a nice new urbanism concept of a walkable community. What FDOT is proposing simply destroys that."

A public meeting at Selby Library on Thursday, June 21, apparently didn't answer anyone's questions. FDOT representatives said they were hearing these concerns for the first time, despite a paper trail going back years. It includes a 2014 letter from the former head of FDOT, Billy Hattaway, which states:

Our goal is to design an interchange . . . that is not only safe and operationally efficient but contextual to the planned Fruitville multi-way boulevard and surrounding compact, walkable, mixed-use development. We welcome the opportunity to continue working with the County and stakeholders in achieving that objective. (Italics added)

 FDOT's site on the project can be found here.

FDOT plans Diverging Diamonds at Fruitville, Bee Ridge, and Clark Roads

Right now, the Fruitville Road project is in the design phase. It's not funded for construction but FDOT officials will meet in the summer to discuss development for the year 2024 or sooner if Sarasota County makes the project a priority. Once approved, construction is expected to cost $86,000,000.

WWSB Erika Jackson story

FDOT Diamond could "destroy" Fruitville Initiative

Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has released a Notice to the public of a Public Hearing on June 21:

The Florida Department of Transportation District One will hold a public hearing for the l-75 / Fruitville Road Interchange project. The meeting will be held on Thursday, June 21, 2018 at the Selby Public Library located at 1331 1st Street, Sarasota, Florida from 5 p.m. in the Jack J. Geldbardt Auditorium.

FDOT's project calls for a Diverging Diamond at I-75 and Fruitville Road (see detailed excerpt below). 

The plan as currently configured would destroy the basic premise of the Fruitville Initiative, say  those close to that project. The Fruitville Initiative came about in 2010 as an innovative compromise between landowners, the community, and planners. It was adopted by the County in 2014 to create a walkable, mixed-use area on a tradition grid of streets.

Video: Fruitville Commons

One planner/engineer familiar with the Fruitville Initiative sees major negative impact from the FDOT proposal:

this is probably the one single action that will can destroy the Fruitville Initiative in that it undermines the Interconnectivity Plan intent to disperse traffic and promote walkability.  It will force/funnel almost all traffic onto Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and through its single mega signalized intersection at Fruitville Road. 

FDOT image of scope of Diverging Diamond at Fruitville Rd and I-75

Excerpt from FDOT Notice:

. . . this project will now propose to reconstruct the existing interchange with a Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI). This project proposes to widen about 2 miles of I-75, from Palmer Boulevard to north of Fruitville Road, to an eight-lane highway with four through lanes per direction and proposes to replace the existing bridges over Fruitville Road and proposes to widen 1.6 miles of Fruitville Road from Honore Avenue to east of Coburn Road to provide for a six-lane to eight-lane highway with three to four through lanes per direction as well as bike lanes. Minor right-of-way acquisition is required at the southwest corner of Fruitville Road at Cattlemen Road. The existing median opening at the eastern entrance to the Southgate Shopping Plaza proposes to be closed, as well as the existing median opening at Old Coburn Road.

Along with the Notice, FDOT released a tentative project schedule that calls for planning and acquisition in 2019-2020. Construction is as of yet unfunded and not scheduled.

The June 21 hearing at Selby Library will feature a presentation followed by public comments, which can be spoken or submitted in writing:

The hearing begins with an open house at 5 pm and follows with a formal presentation and public comment period at 6 pm. People attending the hearing can review project displays and speak one-on-one with project team members. Written statements or exhibits submitted at the hearing, emailed, or mailed and postmarked by Tuesday, July 3, 2018, will become part of the official hearing transcript. 

Additional information may be obtained by contacting the FDOT Project Manager, Ryan Weeks at 863-519-2837, by e-mail to ryan.weeks@dot.state.fl.us.

Naples-based Stock Development, which recently purchased a tract of the Fruitville Initiative, is said to be opposed to the FDOT plan.

Rendering of one segment of the Fruitville Initiative
 showing mixed uses on a walkable street grid

A 2014 letter from the district secretary of FDOT explicitly states that the Dept. of Transportation is committed to working with the Fruitville Initiative's plan:

FDOT, in partnership with FHWA, is currently developing design plans for the ultimate l-75 interchange configuration at Fruitville Road. Our goal is to design an interchange within the existing LA line that is not only safe and operationally efficient but contextual to the planned Fruitville multi-way boulevard and surrounding compact, walkable, mixed-use development. We welcome the opportunity to continue working with the County and stakeholders in achieving that objective.

A Road to Nowhere

The Ibis Street Thoroughfare Comprehensive Plan Amendment No. 2017-F comes before the County on Wednesday, April 25 -- it will be found under item 7 on the Board agenda.

Comment by R.N. Collins:

The Sarasota Board of County Commissioners will take the first step towards building a road to nowhere if it approves the Ibis Street Thoroughfare Comprehensive Plan Amendment during an April 25 public hearing.

The county transportation planning department believes that the traffic congestion south of Twin Lakes Park will be so severe in the year 2040 that we need a new thoroughfare to connect Clark Road to a full interchange at State Road 681 and I-75 via another north–south roadway.

But neither the full interchange nor the north-south roadway exist today, and neither is considered financially feasible by the Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization.

If the interchange is built, FDOT will design and fund it, but FDOT hasn’t even looked into the need for the interchange yet.

And while the north-south roadway is part of a plan to provide an alternate route from Venice to Manatee County, the project is unfunded.  The project recently suffered a setback when the commission rescinded an important funding request for the segment connecting Lorraine Road to Bee Ridge Road Extension.  That segment is a sorely needed connection needed to support development already under construction at the 5000-unit Waterside Village, the 600-unit Artistry community and the 3,500-unit LT Ranch Village.

So it is highly unlikely the proposed thoroughfare will have anything to connect to for many years or decades to come.  Instead of providing connectivity, it will be a road to nowhere.

Actually, that’s not an entirely accurate statement.

The new thoroughfare will go somewhere.  It will dead end at Manatee County-based developer Pat Neal’s 533-acre sod farm where he wants to build 1,100-home subdivision on land zoned for only 258 homes.

Unfortunately for Neal, county regulations prohibit him from building a large development unless the property has direct access to a major road—one that is part of the county thoroughfare plan.

Normally thoroughfare plan additions are considered after the county prepares an in-depth analysis and after the public has multiple opportunities to weigh-in on the proposal.  In fact, the transportation planning department had wanted to consider several changes to our thoroughfare plan during the 2016 comprehensive plan update.  But those changes could not be processed because the county had not held the required public input sessions.

With the county’s holistic thoroughfare evaluation on hold due to a lack of department resources, Neal convinced the county to let him “adopt” Ibis Street and pursue a privately-initiated amendment.

The private process enables Neal to fast track the proposal to designate his access road as a major road.  It bypasses almost all the public engagement that must occur when the county initiates such a change.  And this case, avoiding a lengthy series of feedback sessions and workshops allows the developer to quickly overcome the prohibition on rezoning his property.

I wouldn’t object if putting a line on a map and saying a dead-end country road is a major road was the only effect of Neal’s proposal,

But it does much more.

It allows Neal to divert impact fees away from curing today’s traffic jams and use them instead to improve a dead-end country road that will be used only by his subdivision for years to come.

We believe road improvement priorities should be determined with more, not less, public input.  And we believe impact fees should be spent on real traffic problems we face today, not on ones that are imagined to occur more than 20 years in the future.

Call or email the Sarasota County Commission today and ask them to vote against the Ibis Street Thoroughfare Comprehensive Plan Amendment on April 25.

-- R. N. Collins

Documents relating to the Ibis Street Amendment are here.

Letter to Sarasota Planning: Traffic and construction

It is time that health and safety be at the front end of ANY building proposal and approval process. Although there are other health and safety needs, the traffic issue needs to be on the forefront. Nothing should be considered or approved without a thorough look at the proposed impact on traffic. The data is there but hasn't been used in that fashion. It's time that the County and the FDOT traffic and accident data be studied together for this purpose. 

It must become a priority component of the building approval process.
If you have thoughts on how to make this happen, I am all ears.
This step is a win win for all. The developers can't say it's a costly study because it isn't and the data just needs to be pulled in that fashion so the planners shouldn't complain either and the residents and visitors all benefit. And instead of spending additional tax payer dollars to modify high accident intersections and roads after a tipping point of accidents occur, new building will be approved on the merits of it not adding further burden to high traffic/ high accident areas. 

I have yet to hear any good reason why this shouldn't happen. 

The only feedback I have gotten is that one entity feels this change fits better with another entity. In other words they say, I don't know what to do with this and it looks like it's someone else's problem to fix. Please take this on! 

Sincerely, 

Vicki Nighswander MAT, MPH

Public responds to FDOT's proposed changes for I-75 at Bee Ridge

via the Herald Tribune

ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Residents question plan for I-75 and Bee Ridge interchange

Hundreds of people attended an information session hosted by the Florida Department of Transportation about plans for reconfiguring the Interstate 75 and Bee Ridge Road interchange.

STAFF PHOTO / DALE WHITE

By Dale White

dale.white@heraldtribune.com

Published: Thursday, February 11, 2016 at 7:49 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, February 11, 2016 at 7:50 p.m.

SARASOTA - An extensive project to overhaul the interchange at Interstate 75 and Bee Ridge Road went under the public's scrutiny for the first time Thursday evening.

The idea of adding an exit ramp for southbound I-75 traffic at Cattlemen Road and Wilkinson Road generated the most attention, especially from residents in that area south of Bee Ridge who worry about additional traffic on Wilkinson.

“We're dumping traffic on a 30 mph road with one lane each way,” said Tony DeSoiza, a resident of Center Gate Estates who was among the more than 200 people to come during the first hour of the two-hour information session.

He noted that 600 apartments are under construction southeast of that intersection. “That will add 600 more cars” to the traffic the new exit will bring, DeSoiza said.

Staff members of the Florida Department of Transportation displayed diagrams and discussed details with residents wanting to know specifics.

The project, which is still in the design phase and not yet funded for construction, involves:

■ Widening I-75 between Fruitville Road and Bee Ridge Road from three lanes to four lanes in each direction. The right lane in each direction will be exclusively for traffic leaving at the next exit.

■  Redesigning the interchange into a “hybrid diverging diamond” to make easier left turns onto I-75 from the eastbound lanes of Bee Ridge.

■  Creating the new exit ramp at Cattlemen and Wilkinson.

■ Redesigning the Bee Ridge and Cattlemen intersection to divert traffic turning north and south onto Cattlemen to the left.

“I think it's a good plan coming off at Wilkinson,” said Tracy Lux, who resides in the Crestwood Villas at the corner of Wilkinson and Honore Avenue, of the proposed new I-75 exit. “I don't think it will get a lot of traffic down Wilkinson. It's very narrow.”

She would like to see Sarasota County widen the two-lane portion of Honore Avenue between Proctor and Clark roads to eliminate a bottleneck. “That would manage the additional local traffic while this FDOT project is constructed.”

Yet many of DeSoiza's Center Gate neighbors shared his view.

“This is the most insane idea to put an exit on Wilkinson,” resident Marilyn Winstead said. “Webber would be better.”

Sandy Snyder, also a resident of Center Gate, agreed that Webber Street, which is north of Bee Ridge, should have been considered as an option for an exit. “Webber would be the ideal way to come in.”

“The noise level will be tenfold what it is now,” resident Cindy Miller said of the additional traffic at Cattlemen and Wilkinson.

Traffic in the area functions smoothly now, Center Gate resident Bob Pitre said. “My main concern is do we need any of this. We don't have problems now.”

FDOT spokesman Robin Stublen said the agency may be ready for a public hearing about the project in late March. “We'll present the final concept at that time.”