Update: Benderson "Trojan Horse" could allow hotel development countywide

Further Update (posted Dec. 20, 2023)

We've just received notice from the Kimley Horn agent working with Benderson Development that cancels the Dec. 21 "neighborhood" workshop. The new date for the workshop is January 8, 6 pm.  The workshop is supposed to explain Benderson's effort to change the county Comp Plan in order to allow a large hotel on Siesta Key. 

The emailed notice from philip.dimaria@kimley-horn.com shares a personalized link that cannot be shared. We have asked Mr. DiMaria to send a universal link that would allow anyone to use.

The webinar information for "Siesta Key Village Hotel Neighborhood Workshop" which you previously registered for has been updated by the host.

Please submit any questions to: philip.dimaria@kimley-horn.com

Date Time: Jan 8, 2024 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device: 

Mr. DiMaria offers a Zoom link, but adds: "This link should not be shared with others; it is unique to you."

If you've not received an email with a personalized Zoom link, please contact Mr. DiMaria to ask for a link: philip.dimaria@kimley-horn.com 

.  .  .  .  .   

With startling speed, Benderson Development Inc. has scheduled an online workshop to tell the public why Sarasota County should not only allow it to build an 85-foot-high mega-hotel on Siesta Key, but also why it should change the code to allow such large hotels countywide. 

A letter sent to County Planning Director Matt Osterhoudt from Benderson's agent first justifies the change to Siesta Key's Code by pleading that tourism requires more hotels, and asks for speedy processing:

Mega-hotel out of scale with modest SK village?

We respectfully request that you forward this request for an out-of-cycle, privately-initiated UDC text  amendment to the Administrator at your earliest possible convenience with your approval and a  recommendation that the proposed amendment be processed and proceed immediately. 

After describing the amendments it wishes the County to approve on Siesta Key, the letter seeks to expand the specific area it is concerned with to include the entire county:

The Applicant also intends to propose a text amendment to the UDC to provide that Transient Accommodations are considered a non-residential use throughout Sarasota County. . . 

"It’s a Trojan Horse amendment!" says Siesta Key resident Neal Schliefer, who objects to Benderson's effort to reclassify transient accommodations. In an email to Citizens for Sarasota County, Schliefer wrote:

“A simpler, more straightforward classification” has no relevance for the definition of transient accommodations, which were defined as a residential use to help control density and intensity of use to protect residents and visitors in environmentally sensitive areas, such as flood zones.

If Benderson's proposed changes to the Comp Plan are adopted, they would basically undo the basis of Lourdes Ramirez's court victory, which found that the County's willingness to allow developers to circumvent density restrictions to build mega-sized hotels on Siesta Key violated the County's own code and rules for barrier island development.

In an emailed response to the new, lightning-fast Benderson proposal to change the rules, Ramirez wrote:

The truth is the rules that Benderson wants changed or removed have protected our island for decades. These laws were put in place for a reason which is to protect the lives of those who reside and visit Siesta Key.

A Dec. 15th Sarasota News Leader story describes what Benderson is proposing:

 . . . a 147-room hotel that would stand up to 85 in height, with six habitable floors over parking levels.

It then adds detail:

The project is to encompass retail space and a restaurant, as well, the box notes. The total square footage, the box shows, would be approximately 136,900 square feet. The box identifies that as “nonresidential,” in keeping with Benderson’s proposal for the Comprehensive Plan amendment to eliminate the counting of hotel and motel rooms for residential density purposes.

Anyone wishing to help with the Siesta Key legal bills can do so here.

Wetlands can protect developments (but developments can destroy wetlands)

On June 21, we wrote to Kelly Klepper of Kimley Horn, asking for an update on timing of the DR Horton submission of its plan for 160 homes on the Raymond Road farm to the County's development review coordinating committee (DRC). Still waiting to hear back.

Here's a story from Marketplace.org that offers the kind of vision, common sense, awareness of science, and human ingenuity that we could use more of in Sarasota.

It's about restoring wetlands along the northern Mississippi River in Wisconsin. They're finding that wetlands protect developments that banks are invested in. In fact, banks love these wetlands, and some even offer better interest rates to developers who restore them.

    Mike Sertle, who manages wetlands restoration projects on the Mississippi River for Ducks Unlimited, motions how high the water can get in a roughly 250-acre restored wetland behind him in Southern Illinois on May 24. Eric Schmid/St. Louis Public Radio

Is there something here we might apply to our Celery Fields, and to the proposed DR Horton heap of homes across Raymond Road from them? 

I've put some notes below, but the story is available at this link - it's only a couple of minutes long:

As Mississippi Riverfront development booms, wetlands become crucial to stave off flooding

NOTES 

• Climate change - Riverfront developments
• The river is a tourist draw - parks, kayaking, fishing, birding
• Developments - multi-million$ want to tap into natural river activities.
• Wetlands restoration to manage water - Raskie slough - 60 acres of tall grasses, shallow ponds - birds abound - this slough can hold excess water, but eventually it flows back into the Mississippi - 
• This Mimics a natural system - $250,000 to restore wetland 
• Stem flooding from snow melts - Lacrosse Wisconsin  - pumps move from lower areas to wetlands, stores it there - marsh in the city

Having nature "work for them" reduces risk, plus, banks offering loans - give better interest rates on developments that preserve wetlands because the “wetland creates a natural buffer to protect what we’re buying/paying for.”

Your thoughts are most welcome. 

160 Homes Proposed next to Celery Fields Wetlands

A developer's proposal to build 160 single family homes on Raymond Road opposite the Celery Fields will be presented on Tuesday, May 23, beginning at 6 pm. The workshop will be online only. Concerned residents must use this Zoom link to attend:

Zoom link:  https://kimley-horn.zoom.us/s/98962380195

The land immediately south of Palmer Boulevard and across from the nesting area of the Celery Fields wetland has been mostly empty except for a few cows for many years. The property appraiser lists it here. 

The paperwork submitted by the planning firm calls for 160 homes to be built by D.R. Horton on the 49-acre site, but also suggests the number could be higher. 

Kimley Horn will present the Workshop, which will have no in-person gathering.

Although the Celery Fields is a publicly owned asset, the Planning Department only advertised the Workshop to homes within about 750 feet of the property.

About Neighborhood Workshops:

Neighborhood Workshops are a preliminary step in the planning process -- it gives the developer an opportunity to present a proposed project to the public, and receive public comment. 

With the arrival of Covid-19 in 2020, many public meetings moved online, including these workshops. This has led to a degradation of the value of this step in the process, for a few reasons:

1. Online, the presenters have made very brief presentations, leaving out important context. A complex plan for a Benderson project was presented in less than 10 minutes.

2. The public has no chance to view the maps and other data first hand. 

3. Some residents are not familiar with Zoom, or Microsoft Teams. In a recent meeting that utilized Teams, all that could be seen were small, blurry images, while the sound cut in and out. About half the meeting was inaudible. 

4. The online meeting is under the control of the planning firm hired by the developer. Some agents allow time for questions and follow-ups, but others end the meeting before attendees have all their questions answered. More on this here.

5. Advocates for fair land use planning have been asking the County Commission to return to live Workshops, but this one is still online only. The Zoom link should be live at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 23.

             Zoom link:  https://kimley-horn.zoom.us/s/98962380195 

Benderson and Kimley-Horn want to revise the Fruitville Initiative

At a public workshop on March 30, 2021, the Kimley-Horn urban planning firm presented a series of proposed changes to the Fruitville Initiative. The key change would open the door to larger retail spaces within the Initiative, an experimental mixed use development at Fruitville Rd. and I-75.

Proposed changes would allow more large
retail on all sectors of the Fruitville Initiative

The changes appear to come from the Benderson Development Inc., which acquired a 40-acre parcel within the Initiative from the County at the bargain price (approx. $3 million) several years ago, then proposed a truck depot. Now Benderson is proposing another idea that would change the constraints that seek a walkable place for people to live, work, and play.

The key documents are below.

Planning documents:

Pre App DRC Comment Fruitville Initiative

Correspondence from Kimley-Horn Planner Philip DeMaria Jr. 

Public Input at the online workshop:

Questions from a private planner regarding the Benderson plan

Recorded comments at the 3.30.21 workshop - partial audiofile