Help Save Old Miakka: Email the Sarasota County Commission

This email from Becky Ayech provides some of the background on Old Miakka, the rural NE corner of Sarasota County. Comprehensive Plan Amendment 2022-B would transform the land use in the Northeast to allow 5,000 more homes to sprawl eastward, basically paving 89% of what is now Old Miakka. 

The future of the rural area would be canceled - the opportunity for current and future generations to live on, learn from and love the land would be gone forever.

Ayech urges all who care about the county's history and legacy to write to the Board  -- the Commissioners' emails are below. It's fine if you wish to copy the text and send it as is. Becky writes:

It is important they know about Old Miakka. To know it is to save it.
PLEASE SHARE this email with your social media friends and ask them to email this to the County Commissioners.

The "drop dead " meeting is August 31st.  I do not yet have a time.

Becky Ayech

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Mike Moran  mmoran@scgov.net
Al Maio     amaio@scgov.net
Ron Cutsinger  rcutsinger@scgov.net
Christian Ziegler  cziegler@scgov.net
Nancy Detert  ncdetert@scgov.net

Subject:  OLD MIAKKA

Good day Commissioner,

Founded in 1850, the rural Community of Old Miakka predates Sarasota County. Nevertheless, this is a uniquely special place in Sarasota County. Special to the people who homestead there, special to all the residents of Sarasota and surrounding counties and special to Sarasota County.

In the early 80’s, John McCarthy, Sarasota Historical Department, wrote this:

The project focuses on the unique lifestyles and the values which Myakka residents shar… a portrait of the people who live in the small rural communities of Miakka and Myakka City.
 
In 1989, Sarasota County funded A HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEY OF OLD MIAKKA AND SELECTED PORTIONS OF THE MYAKKA RIVER, SARASOTA COUNTY, FLORIDA.
 
In 2005, the Board prioritized the Old Miakka Neighborhood Plan. County Staff set the boundaries of the Old Miakka study area. These boundaries have never been disputed. 

They are the Manatee County lines to the north and east, the Myakka River State Park and Myakka Valley Ranches to the south and west by Dog kennel Lane known now as Lorraine Road.

The community spans approximately 57 square miles or 36,590 acres.  The western edge is approximately 5.8 miles from the city of Sarasota and occupies the northeastern corner of Sarasota County.

“Old Miakka is particularly rich in local history. With historical records dating further back than many areas of Sarasota County, and the county itself, the area not only prides itself on its impressive history but also its ability to continue to preserve it.” This is a quote from Sarasota County Staff.
 
Many stories and articles have been written about the Community of Old Miakka:

• 1976 A HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE OF SARASOTA COUNTY FLORIDA
• 1986 Better Homes and Gardens
  
• 1987 Beall’s Sunday insert
• 1988 Publix TV commercial
• 2000 Old Miakka article by Linda Maree
• 2003, 2018, 2020 2019 Sarasota Herald Tribune articles
• 2019 Sarasota Alliance History and Preservation Coalition chose Old Miakka as one of the “Six to Save.” Spotlighting the most threatened historic properties, archaeological sites, and cultural resources in Sarasota County! The preservation community in Sarasota County wants to bring awareness to historical resources at risk.
• 2019 Recognized as a “This Place Matters,” part of the Place Matters national campaign that celebrates special communities in the U.S.
• 2020 Sarasota Magazine
  
• 2020 Bitter Southern magazine
• 2020 ABC local station Mike Modrick's story on Old Miakka

 
All these stories/articles are about what a uniquely special place Old Miakka is and how it needs to be preserved. NOT ONE said it should be paved over!

Linda Maree stated it best: 

“Heavy population density is not a component of true rural living, so we can’t all live in places like Old Miakka. But even us city folks like to know that the “country” is there when we want to visit it.”

Comprehensive Plan Amendment 2022-B is an intrusion into this 172-year-old rural and agricultural Community, i.e. Old Miakka.

The Amendment is NOTHING reasonably close to the lifestyles/homesteads in Old Miakka.

Keep the Country … Country for current and future generations to live on, learn from and love the land.

Deny CPA2022-B.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

______________________

(Your name)

What really matters: Tradition vs. development in Old Miakka

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing 

which stands in the way…  William Blake

Before our elected officials voted on a motion from Nancy Detert to sell out Old Miakka's rural corner of east Sarasota, Bill Zoller penned an eloquent letter reminding us that what was at stake is our connection to the past.  

Nothing clearer than the difference between Bill's view and that of Jim Gabbert and other developers who came to the Old Miakka hearing to say that what matters is not a community's integrity: Not the 170-year-old way of life of Old Miakka, but his investment (video). 

Becky Ayech led the effort to protect rural heritage lands. After the hearing she said: 

"There are many ways to skin a cat and one is to VOTE!"

Speaking of which, the local Sierra Group has released its candidate recommendations in all local races for November. 

While our "mainstream" media choose to offer no debates or forums, private organizations including the League of Women Voters, Tiger Bay, Control Growth Now, and WSLR are doing what they can You'll find links to upcoming forums here, and recorded recent forums here.

Also near the Celery Fields - Restaurant Depot proposal

UPDATE: The proposed "Restaurant Depot" passed unanimously in the Planning Commission Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017. Charlie Bailey, attorney for the applicant, "said there would be no environmental impact," and that there are no natural habitats on the property, according to one resident who watched the meeting. Restaurant Depot is expected to come before the County Commission in March for final approval.

The Planning Commission hearing can be found here. Audubon and neighborhood representatives speak around 33 min., and there is a complex discussion of concurrency, zoning, and critical area plans at the 1 hour point.

Ownership records for the applicant are shrouded in some mystery. The proposed structure will have 60,000 sf with room for an additional 10,000 sf expansion.

This is a notice of a Planning Commission hearing scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 2, on a proposal for a Restaurant Depot next to where James Gabbert wishes to install a recycling center (see here) at Apex and Palmer Rd., within short distance of the Celery Fields:

Restaurant Depot Public Hearing This Thursday, February 2nd, 6:30PM
The Sarasota County Planning Commission will hear conduct a public hearing this Thursday on a separate project which is already much further along in the process: Rezone Petition 16-33, for the proposed “Restaurant Depot” on the northwest corner of Palmer Boulevard & Apex Road.
Since this is a formal public hearing, and not a Neighborhood Workshop, comments from residents who attend will be much more likely to have an impact. Please consider attending this meeting. 

Restaurant Depot

You can see all the details of this Rezone Petition here. 

Northwest corner of Apex & Palmer - current site of fire station 

Where: Sarasota County Administration Center, 1660 Ringling Boulevard, Sarasota (Map)
When: Thursday, February 2nd, 6:30pm What: Public Hearing

Credit: Liz Barton

An Audubon Notebook about the Celery Fields by Jeanne Dubi

“This is the best birding spot in Sarasota County,” says Stu Wilson, who has organized the bird-counting event the past four years. “It has gotten statewide and even national recognition.” Sarasota Magazine

More about the Celery Fields 

Jeff LaHurd: With rampant development, Sarasota's charm is gone

via the Herald Tribune

By Jeff LaHurd, Guest Columnist

Published: Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 1:02 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 1:02 p.m.

Sarasota has always been about growth and development. They are the threads that run throughout our history, extending from the Scot Colony, which arrived in 1885, expecting to find a town, to the construction of the high-rise buildings being shoehorned throughout the community. Today, though, it is rampant.

There was a hiatus after the real-estate crash of 1926 that continued through the Great Depression and World War II. But that was an unintentional aberration.

In May 1955, Professor Ellis Freeman, who had been vacationing in Sarasota since the 1930s and who built the Four Seasons Apartments on Ben Franklin Drive, wrote of the beauty and atmosphere of the area: “The town had the tone and charm of a fishing village ... Artists and writers and professors like myself loved it for the complete absence of resort commercialism. It was what one hoped to find on Cape Cod and never did.”

Too bad the Sarasota he described did not take a page out of the handbook that Boca Grande planner's used. Better yet, an entire chapter: The one titled, “When Is Enough Enough?” That beautiful community to the south did not sell out; it did not build itself into extinction.

Instead, we embrace wholesale development on a scale certain to erase the very qualities that made Sarasota so singularly beautiful, relaxed and appealing to tourists and residents.

Look at an aerial photograph of the Sarasota core of 1955 and compare it with a contemporary shot. You do not have to be a misty-eyed sentimentalist to understand how much was sacrificed.

The lovely aesthetic that characterized yesteryear is continually razed in favor of a mind-set that believes that more is better. Despite some political resistance, in the end Sarasota never met a developer or a project that it did not embrace wholeheartedly.

It is worse than ever, and there seems to be no end in sight. Adjacent to already clogged streets, more hotels, apartments and condominiums, housing developments and shopping centers are planned. For motorists already angry and frustrated at the interminable delays, it is akin to stuffing 20 pounds of potatoes into a 10-pound sack.

Yesterday's charm has devolved into today's congestion.

During the post-World War II boom of the mid-'50s, local author Mary Freeman warned that Sarasota might turn into “an imitation Miami.” She offered hopefully, “But we can still take things in hand ... but the citizens must make a more intelligent and louder noise than the speculator. Otherwise he'll destroy our unique assets ...”

And we have raised our voices. When U.S. 41 was cut through Luke Wood Park in the mid-'50s, writer Betty Burkett spoke for many when she called it “A deed so ugly that it will remain like a welt across the minds of our people for decades to come.” It made no difference.

And it mattered not at all when there was public outcry against the removal of the Memorial Oak Trees beginning in 1955 — it was in the name of progress, we were told. Same with the years of struggle to save the John Ringling Towers and the Karl Bickel House in the late 1990s. Oftentimes citizens railed against the demolition of a cherished part of their past and to no avail. We even voted to save the Lido Casino — it was razed.

Perhaps the Jack Cartlidge sculpture outside City Hall explains it best. It's called “Nobody's listening.”

I read in the Herald-Tribune recently that, in spite of all the new construction, some of the millennials are having a difficult time finding affordable housing and are leaving Sarasota.

I empathize with them, but for me and my generation of Baby Boomers, we don't have to worry about leaving Sarasota. It has left us.

Jeff LaHurd is a Sarasota resident, historian and author.

Comment by Bill Z:


Those of us who grew up here, or have been here for a long time, know exactly what Jeff is talking about. Bit by bit, development nibbled, then chomped away at those things that gave Sarasota its sleepy charm. Florida boosterism continued its incessant message to "come on down", and, sure enough, they came. For a long time, the numbers were not too alarming, and development proceeded fairly slowly and in small bites. Soon, though, the rumble of earthscrapers, bulldozers, and the like was a constant hum as roads were widened, new roads were built, and more and more houses grew. It became very profitable to grow houses instead of food, so agricultural uses were pushed farther and farther out, which meant to the east. In the "old days", folks had chickens in their back yards...no special CLUCK ordinances needed.


As development and its costs, in loss of environment and in money, continued apace, voices were, indeed raised in calls for better plans, for control, for better rules of the game. For a long time, these voices were actually listened to, and bad proposals were often turned down. It did not take too long, though, for those who wanted free rein to do what they wanted, to figure out that the easiest solution to the getting rid of pesky limitations would be simply to elect those who made the final decisions...the city and county commissioners. They realized that all it took was a lot of money to get enough publicity out for the candidates they wanted, and against the candidates they did not want, and, voila, a docile board of commissioners! Before they learned how to play this game very skillfully, we actually had some commissioners who had the long-term interests of the entire county at heart...Jon Thaxton comes to mind immediately. After Jon was termed out several years ago, he applied to be appointed to the Planning Commission...and was denied a seat! Jono Miller, one of the top environmentalists here, ran for County Commission and was targeted by development interests in an exceedingly vicious advertising campaign...he was defeated. Lourdes Ramirez, another leading neighborhood advocate and an expert in Sarasota's land use issues, ran for County Commission and was not only targeted in another vicious advertising campaign, but Bob Waechter, a development activist, actually committed a felony identity theft thing in order to discredit her with voters. Think about it: given the experiences of those who oppose rampant, unchecked development in recent elections, would you want to subject yourself to the same thing?


There is one thing, though: citizens can propose charter amendments, get 13,000 petitions, and get them on the ballot... it is the only thing that cannot be controlled by the FOD (Forces Of Darkness). They can mount advertising campaigns against them, as they did when Citizens for Sensible Growth proposed its amendments, but the amendments passed overwhelmingly, because the voters understood what was at stake.... Even county commissioners cannot overrule the charter!


Any ideas for amendments??