On rational planning in Sarasota

Does Sarasota County employ reason when it plans? It used to.

More than 20 years ago, the stewards of the county saw a problem with flooding in Phillippi Creek. They did the studies, got the grants and assessed homeowners. They put in place a by all counts highly successful regional stormwater system. It won awards.

Birds found the open space. People liked the mound that was made from the earth moved to create stormwater capacity. More and more people flocked to it for all sorts of purposes. At first there were no rules, no bathrooms, no benches, trails or trees. You could walk your dog there without a leash, and find bicyclists, horseback riders, Tai Chi practitioners, birders, power skateboardists, lovers of open vistas and inclined planes. There was a whiff of unplanned life. A free style not designed on creaky marketing storyboards.

Over time the Celery Fields have grown - matured - become more beautiful, and a bit tamer. Audubon has a terrific center that's drawing locals and international visitors.

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In the wings is another fascinating project - the Fruitville Initiative. The nucleus of this goes back to 2005 or so, and involved some creative interaction between the county's planning dept. and the Duany urbanist firm. 

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Fruitville Initiative "Riverwalk" - Polyzoides

The waterway? That's the northern cell of the Celery Fields. The concept, spanning an innovative mixed use community that would retain the rural character of East County while bringing major employers, perhaps an Audubon-themed hotel, a Riverwalk as well as shops and cafes - took detailed form over a year in 2010-11, achieving a compromise vision and a $500,000 plan that was officially approved in 2014 by the County Commission.

So far, this sounds like a serendipitous convergence of local innovation, gracefully evolving nature, and superb practical engineering. A basis for real economic development (no handouts, thank you) seemed underway. Now, with the help of developer-agent Bo Medred, a giant waste processing plant is proposed on public land at Apex Rd. and Palmer Blvd., just west of the Celery Fields.

A less propitious idea is difficult to imagine. 

At the Jan. 30 neighborhood meeting where over 200 concerned residents came out, questions on a host of issues were asked. Not all were dignified by either Bo Medred or his client James Gabbert with a response:

FEMALE AUDIENCE: If there's so much land that's just vacant, just swampland all over Florida, why can't you go out where there's no homes? There's lots of acreage all over Florida that are just parked, nothing there. (Applause.)

JIM GABBERT: The next question? (Jan. 30 workshop transcript here)

Does this "plan" square with the Comprehensive Plan's vision of Economic Development? Of compatibility with surrounding neighborhoods and uses?  Of the county's avowed mission of "protecting a community's health, safety and welfare?" 

Ask our county planners. Ask Kirk Crane, who sees no problem here. A demo waste center on weak roads near an international tourist center -- of course. Giant concrete crushing activities audible at a distance - why not? Diesel engines running non-stop from 7 am to 5 pm, six days a week? The assiduous Mr. Medred got the county to change the law so that other such facilities can come to residential areas near you.

Does Sarasota still use reason in planning? Or is there planning, and "planning"? A timeline might help.

Neighborhood residents are meeting Thursday, May 25 to talk about the Medred proposal and the Celery Fields:

On June 1, the county's Planning Commission will hold a hearing and vote on whether to recommend this curated catastrophe to the Board of County Commissioners. It's at the Admin building at 1616 Ringling Blvd. - there's an informational gathering at 4 pm. The hearing begins at 5 pm.

If planning in Sarasota is no longer rational, what is it?

To review:

• How did we get here?

What is at risk?

• Health and Safety
• Economic promise

What can we do?

• Come June 1
• Send a sample letter (modify as you wish) to the Planning Commissioners.

Thanks.

Sarasota County "needs our voices" on the Comp Plan

Now that the Comp Plan has been amended, Sarasota County seems to want to introduce citizens to its concept. 

Would it not have been more logical to get the people's' input before huddling with the developers and amending the plan beyond recognition to favor those same developers?

Kinda sounds like . . . poor planning.

SARASOTA COUNTY - Sarasota County will kick off the next Comprehensive Plan Update with a public event from 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, in Conference Room AB of the Gulf Gate Library, 7112 Curtiss Ave., Sarasota.

The Comprehensive Plan is updated regularly to reflect existing community characteristics and demographics changes, with an understanding of anticipated future trends. It also guides future development and growth.

"Over the coming years, southwest Florida anticipates an influx of new residents and seasonal visitors who will bring with them the need for commercial and residential development," said Sarasota County Administrator Tom Harmer. "Planning for this growth is a vital part of ensuring a good quality of life for those living and working in Sarasota County."

The goal of the update process is to encourage healthy dialogue between citizens and government, and help citizens understand the importance of the plan. The kick-off event is just the beginning of an 18-month-long series of cycles that will address individual themes ranging from environmental systems to quality of life.

"We want to emphasize that the Comprehensive Plan is not just about land use and urban design," said Planning Division Manager Allen Parsons. "Planning for a successful community is just as much about the future of our libraries, educational systems and infrastructure. Each priority fuels the others, and no community can call itself a success unless it carefully considers how each theme can ultimately serve all of its citizens. The Comprehensive Plan is a tool we use today to plan for a resilient and thriving community that will serve all of our citizens into the future."

The update begins in March with the first of seven cycles which address major community themes such as environment, mobility, economic development, public utilities, land use, urban design & quality of life. Each cycle will last approximately eight weeks (although some may last longer) and will begin with an online survey and materials to educate the public about the plan and gather input on the respective cycles.

After each cycle closes, staff will evaluate the goals, policies and objectives for that cycle, combine all the public feedback into an end of cycle report which will be loaded to the website for review. The end of the cycle reports will inform the Comprehensive Plan.

The county will allow distance participation via a website that will illustrate each cycle of the update and include a survey section, public meeting announcements, an events calendar and documents pertaining to the update process.

At the end of the process in 2016, staff will use all the feedback gathered to draft a Comprehensive Plan that is simpler to use and understand.

For more information about the Comprehensive Plan update call the Sarasota County Contact Center at 941-861-5000 or visit 

www.scgov.net/CompPlanUpdate.

Andre Mele: The Trouble with the 2050 Amendments

News flash: residential sprawl subdivisions lose money. They take more than they give. In community after community across the nation, since World War Two, infrastructure for sprawl has been subsidized by taxpayers lulled into believing that the temporary jobs and insufficient tax revenues will create an economic boon. The Sarasota 2050 chapter of the County’s Comprehensive Plan was designed to remedy that. It was supposed to create healthy development incentives while keeping profit-seeking developers from reaching into taxpayers’ pockets, and to preserve both agricultural and wild habitat in keeping with the State Constitution and the County Charter. But 2050 is being systematically dismantled by a series of developer-sponsored amendments. Taxpayers, guard your wallets!

Sarasota County has been creating land-use plans for over thirty years that envision a fully rural character east of the Urban Services Boundary (roughly contiguous with I-75), and encourage smart development within the urban corridor. 2050 is an optional alternative development model in Sarasota County’s Comprehensive Plan, and it steers rural (green-fields) development toward walkable and bikeable 2-4-story population centers with parks and greenways, in trade for more undeveloped land, and reduced sprawl.

By the terms of Sarasota 2050, all new development is required to be “fiscally-neutral.” But the landowner / developers have concluded that fiscal neutrality, in which all infrastructure and community services are paid for by the development project, must be eliminated. Citing unwieldiness and unpredictability, making little or no effort to find a work-around, the developers have fallen back on the time-honored tradition of back-room deals that force surrounding communities to share the bill.

On October 22, after a pro forma public hearing with zero prospect of making substantive changes to the amendments, Sarasota County’s Commissioners will be voting on whether to subsidize profiteering developers and big landowners looking for a payday at taxpayer expense. The subsidies won’t just be in the form of dollars. They will include our willingness to tolerate dramatic increases in traffic, significant loss of important wildlife habitat, impaired water quality in the County’s streams and bays, and to say a final good-bye to the remarkable rural character of eastern Sarasota County. Farm fields, ranch pastures, greenbelts, greenways, wetlands and wildlife corridors will be lost, and the patchy, fragmented habitat that remains will rapidly degrade.

Let one thing be clear: there is absolutely no demand for all this proposed housing. There are at least 50,000 sites available for development and redevelopment west of I-75 – inside the Urban Services Boundary. The most recent and credible population projections call for 16,000 new units in the county over the next decade: tapping just one-third of the capacity that already exists inside the Urban Services Boundary.

New development in the east will not only destroy the rural character of the region, it will siphon investment dollars away from the existing urban coast, leaving blight untouched and redevelopment opportunities wasted. It is a lose-lose proposition. Urban development built to current standards, however, would be much kinder to the bays and other coastal waters than the existing mashup of decaying, runoff-inducing impermeable surface. The miles urban residents walk, bike, and ride aboard public transportation benefit everyone, reducing traffic and lowering Sarasota County’s carbon footprint.

If the County Commissioners vote for these amendments, they will be on the wrong side of history, and will be voting for a de facto tax increase for their constituents. They will be responsible for the degradation or destruction of habitat that is home to endangered and threatened species such as the Bald Eagle, Wood Stork and Florida Panther, leaving the county open to potential litigation from environmental groups, and possible EPA injunctions. They will also be degrading a threatened species called Old Florida.

If you would like your voice to be heard, the Commissioners’ email addresses are here.

Attend the October 22 hearing, at 1:30 in the Commission Chamber, 1660 Ringling Blvd, and sign in to speak. For more information, go to sarasotavision2050.blogspot.com.

Andy Mele is the SunCoast Waterkeeper, an affiliate of the Waterkeeper Alliance, with 220 bay, river and sound Keepers worldwide. Visit www.suncoastwaterkeeper.org or www.waterkeeper.org.

More letters of opposition can be found here and here.