Mike Hutchinson: Protect existing neighborhoods!

Mike Hutchinson opposed incumbent Mike Moran in the Republican Primary in August. Hutchinson is strongly in favor of protecting Rural Heritage lands like Old Miakka, a 170-year-old community whose way of life and zoning could be severely compromised by proposals for new, more intense rezonings. This is his statement on the Old Miakka Comprehensive Plan Amendment. It contains a video.

------

Dear Commissioners,

A number of you have expressed concern about property rights being taken away from developers by CPA-2019-C. If you look at the law, I think that concern is misplaced. The developers bought the property zoned as 5, 10, 160 acres. They got to treat it as agriculture land for years to save on taxes. They planned to make a profit and they will if they develop the property as 5, 10, 160 acres. There are a number of developments on Fruitville that have been done that way. Bern Creek and Oak Ford are two examples. At the end of the Commission meeting, where Lakepark Estates was approved as a hamlet, I said to the owner I guess you needed the increased density to make a profit. He said no, he could have made a profit with the lower density!

In the Observer on Sept. 3, 2020 "I'm not anti-property owner,” Detert said. "But to me, you've got what you bought." Property owners of large parcels cannot expect to get the County to change the rules, after the fact, to allow them to make a bigger profit.

The real taking of property rights is the impact on existing homeowners of rezoning to put urban sprawl into a rural area. A good example is the homeowners on the eastern side of Bern Creek. They bought their property with the zoning of the neighboring property being 5 and 10 acres. They could expect that someday that property would be developed and they would have a neighborhood similar to theirs (5 and 10 acres) behind them. They were more than surprised years later when the County reneged on the promise that the land next door would be rural and instead it was approved as a hamlet called Lakepark Estates.

The link below is a video that starts with scenes of Bern Creek, a 5 and 10 acre development. In the second section you see scenes showing what a hamlet will look like with homes on small lots all lined up next to each other.

https://berncreek.net/CountryVideo.html

When the Lakepark Estates hamlet is built the view behind the eastern homes in Bern Creek properties will be drastically changed. With the view damaged do you think these home will sell for what they should sell for? This is a real taking of property.

This is exactly what zoning was designed to prevent. Keep the current zoning by passing CPA-2019-C and protect existing neighborhoods!

Sincerely,

Mike Hutchinson

See also: Irreplaceable impact of Old Miakka lifestyle by Carrie Seidman in the Herald Tribune.

Jono Miller on Shakett Creek rezoning

For the past thirteen months I have been working as a volunteer to help a local couple rezone a parcel on Shakett Creek. My file folder on this matter is 885 megabytes and there are over 850 individual files in the folder. I got involved because I'm retired, I'm frequently willing to help people out when I can, the outcome will be better for the environment, and I think this case has the potential to address some serious systemic problems with County Planning.

This is all heading towards some resolution at 1:30 on Wednesday September 9th when I make a presentation to the Board of County Commissioners. Although I am very optimistic, ya never know what will happen with the Board and we have to contend with an online petition opposing (501 signatures) and a 7-0 vote against from the Planning Commission. 

If, in addition to the basic cover letter summary stuff (page 1737), you only read two things, I'm recommending an email I sent to the county on March 16th (page 2108) and a Special Report I produced (How Sarasota County Mistook a Wetland for an Upland, an Upland for a Wetland, and Why it Matters) starting on page 1949. 

Here's a link to the Board Packet.

This links to a website created by the owners of the parcel. 

To view/listen on Wednesday click here and scroll down to the 9/9/20 meeting. 

Wish us luck.

Jono

PS By my calculations it will be 50 years to the day that Julie and I arrived (separately) in Sarasota to attend New College. 

After the Nov. 2 Rally for the Celery Fields

A question:

What town, what community would receive the gift of an extraordinary water management system that not only protects our homes from floods, but also provides a fertile environment for birds, and a pristine open space beloved by people for its tranquil beauty -- what community would receive this inspired gift, and then direct public planners to put heavy industry right next to it?

We know the answer: The people elected as custodians of Sarasota County have never shown they have a clue about the evolving genius of the Celery Fields.

Board of Sarasota County Commissioners

In January it will be three years since James Gabbert brought his waste processing proposal to the Church of Hope. Three years since the community came out in force to tell him and the County: NO WAY.

Now, after saying little and doing less, the Board can come back on Wednesday Nov. 6 at 1:30 pm and direct the Planning Dept. to rezone these parcels for industry, offices, or affordable housing.

There are a lot of reasons why industry is wrong here. Here are two:

First, anything like what Gabbert wanted, or like the warehouses Bob Waechter owns, or a Restaurant Depot, would involve more big trucks or car traffic. Gabbert’s rising WTF there will soon be adding 100 trucks a day to Palmer Blvd., in and out, all day long.

Second, this is a gateway. Gary Walsh and others have noted the dramatic impact that they experience when, heading west on Palmer Blvd, they come through the underpass -- the world suddenly changes. The cramped corridors west of I-75 open up, turn green, then suddenly it's wetlands, birds, a huge open space and that radiant hill. 

Gary Walsh

This landscape is telling us a story - it’s introducing us to East County, to the rural Sarasota that's ranching, nurseries and farms, but increasingly getting sold and subdivided into single-family gated communities. East Sarasota's rural life is disappearing -- although Becky Ayech and others out East are fighting to protect it, with intelligence and determination.

If we rezone this gateway to allow industrial uses, this beautiful introduction to East County could also disappear. Instead of entering a prelude to a pristine open space, we’ll find a concrete barrier of 80,000-square-foot-buildings and parking lots. Instead of a walkable central open space drawing people and nature into communion, we’ll have Gabbert’s WTF, So and So’s What the Hell, and some other guy's Vision of Mordor piling on noise and traffic, devouring the light, and despoiling our landscape's story.

On Wednesday Nov. 6, the Board can try to “split the difference” by taking parcels 1 and 4, east of Apex, out of surplus lands and designating them for passive recreation or an urban forest. Great, so long as that’s a permanent and irrevocable designation.

But it’s still not adequate. Parcels 2 and 3 west of Apex should not be rezoned for industry, or for anything except simple uses that serve the community. They are public land.

Here's the chess game we're dealing with:

If the Board orders Planning to rezone parcels for industrial use or offices, the process will take several months, and then return to the Board for a vote. At this point, a public hearing will be necessary.

Note: the Lambert Advisory report the Board paid for to justify sale to industry did not consider actual conditions - neither surrounding land uses, such as the nearby Celery Fields, nor the poor roads, nor the community's input, nor the market's trending toward residential in the area. Its spreadsheet price study is also out of date.

Here's the big thing: The public hearing for the rezoning is likely to be entirely gratuitous -- that is, there will be no applicant. The Board will simply be voting on an application originated by itself. And yet, if for example they vote to approve industrial rezoning on Parcel #2, then it's a fait accompli: Gabbert, Waechter or someone else can buy the land from the County and build, so long as it meets whichever zoning the Board has approved. 

We see what they are doing here. They are pre-approving the sale of rezoned public land to a private developer, and once that rezoning is approved, the public has no further say, no public hearing. 

That's why, if the Board votes to rezone in ways the community feels are inappropriate, it will be essential to step up when Planning brings its plans back for approval. With no specific applicant named, Bob Waechter can wait in the wings till it's a done deal. This is just one way it all can go down. Let's call it the Waechter way.

Here's the thing: We've told our elected officials all this and more repeatedly over the past 35 months. We've told them that our wildlife area will need to expand and evolve to accommodate more visitors, some who come from overseas to explore this treasure.

We need to keep saying it:  Keep these parcels for public uses. We need our public lands to remain free from an industrial zoning concocted in 1975. For our central park to fully realize its potential, our planning process must totally be free from the degradation of developer greed and backroom cronyism.

We might have to give our commissioners hell so Sarasota’s Celery Fields can remain a heaven.

Elian Rosaire

Let's do all we can protect this beautiful place, and secure a healthy future for all of Sarasota County. We can start by sweeping out those who think it’s still 1975, and bring in people of vision, spirit, integrity, and common sense. 

Think of this not as our last stand, but as the first spark of restoring human sensibility and intelligence to Sarasota County in 2020.

Have you signed the Petition?

Board rezoning and sale of public lands at the Celery Fields

Wednesday, Nov. 6

1660 Ringling Boulevard

1:30 pm

Update from Adrien Lucas

County to discuss selling surplus lands Nov. 28th

Tuesday Nov. 28th, the County Commission will meet in the "Think Tank" (3rd floor, county admin bldg.) at 1:30 pm. Among the items they will think about is Agenda Item #32 - which concerns surplus lands. These are public lands that the County is considering selling to help narrow its budget gap.

The way the discussion is framed by the new Administrator, Jonathan Lewis, it appears to assume selling these lands will bring quick budgetary relief. (The causes of budgetary distress are not addressed.)

These lands include the parcels at Apex and Palmer near the Celery Fields where a developer had proposed to put a demolition waste facility.

Fresh Start is an initiative endorsed by more than 50 HOA's who believe that instead of selling off these parcels piecemeal, the County might consult the surrounding community, consider the features of the land, the potential future uses, and together work up a consensus plan that will both protect the Celery Fields and provide a greater long-term ROI.

Rational, community-based planning will enhance the value of the land many times over what some warehouse or industrial developer will pay for it, and lead to a far higher quality of life for all.

The Board's pdf with details of the discussion is here.

The meeting should be broadcast live via county video

Fresh Start's Petition is here

Page 10 of Surplus Lands Agenda Item

Links to the effort to protect the Celery Fields from Industrial Zoning

Citizens for Sarasota County Blog

Citizens for Sarasota Facebook Group

CeleryFields.org

The Detail with Cathy Antunes on WSLR

CONA Sarasota Meetings

Letter from Sarasota Audubon to Commissioner Al Maio

Sarasota Board of County Commissioners

1660 Ringling Blvd-Second Floor

Sarasota, FL 34236

February 22, 2017

Dear Commissioner Maio,

I know you are all well aware of the parcels up for rezoning, sale and development at the Corner of Apex Road and Palmer Boulevard. I also know that several groups have and are organizing protests against the sale of these sites for commercial development. This letter is on behalf of Sarasota Audubon Society which speaks for itself and no others.

A BENEFICIAL COLLABORATION

The Collaboration between Sarasota County and Sarasota Audubon was specifically entered into in order to enhance and develop the Celery Fields as a haven for wildlife and for passive recreation. Working together, we have achieved that goal. The Celery Fields is one of the most well-known birding hotspots in Florida, hosting visitors from all over the world (see attached visitor logs). The financial impact of a prime birding site cannot be overstated; birders spend lots of money in pursuit of their hobby. In order for the Celery Fields to maintain its prime eco-tourism reputation, Audubon and the County are continually improving habitat, and therefore the Celery Fields experience for all. The investment by Sarasota Audubon of $1.4 million at the Celery Fields is testament to the area's rich birdlife.

THE IMPACT OF HEAVY AND NEARBY COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

I want to make a few points about birds: The Fields provide forage for 3 Federally listed species of birds, for 8 Florida listed species and provides safe nesting for 48 bird species (see attached Celery Fields checklist). This is a phenomenal number in such an urban area. However, some of these birds (and ecotourism) will be at risk for the following reasons:

• Noise and ground vibration of traffic, especially heavy trucks, impact breeding rates of birds
• An inadequate buffer zone between the Fields and commercial development will push birds further into the Fields setting up competition for food, thereby reducing survival rates
• The eco-tourism aspects of the Fields will be degraded due to increased commercial interests

In view of our concerns for the future use of the sites at the corners of Apex and Palmer, we request the BCC deny the proposed rezone action and create an advisory group of affected citizen stakeholders to Work with County staff in determining a land use suitable to the affected parties and the citizens of Sarasota County. The recommendations of this group will be presented to the BCC for further action if necessary.

We are grateful for the BCC's Support of Sarasota Audubon over all these years and hope we can continue to work together for the benefit of wildlife and the eco-tourism sector.

Sincerely,

Jeanne Dubi, President

Letter regarding endangered species near Celery Fields public lands

Date: February 27, 2017

To Sarasota County Commission: Michael Moran, Paul Caragiulo, Nancy Detert, Al Maio, Charles Hines

To County Administrator: Thomas Harmer

Cc: Sarasota Citizens

From: Adrien Lucas, Sarasota County Resident

Re: Violations of U.S. Endangered Species Act “ESA” and Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Imperiled Species Protections

To Whom it May Concern:

Today I wish to directly address endangered and threatened birds I have personally seen on the surplus lands the county is trying to sell next to Our Celery Field.  One exception, the Everglade Snail Kite, a sighting I did not witness but has been reported seen at Our Celery Field.

As cited in my previous email about our County Comprehensive Plan, there has been a failure to employ the following in relation to protections afforded to endangered and threatened birds along with further development of surrounding county lands that surround the Celery Field.

ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS ELEMENT CHAPTER 1 – ENVIRONMENT

(Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan, 2/6/17, Policy List by Chapter

Source: CLICK HERE)

Page 15 of 54 env obj 1.6 Integrate natural elements into the built environment. env policy 1.6.1 Encourage connectivity within the Urban Service Area Boundary between green spaces creating corridors for birds, fish, and wildlife movement. Priority will be given in creating or enhancing connections that achieve greater net ecological benefit compared to maintaining existing isolated habitat fragments.

Page 17 of 54 env policy 1.8.3 The county will establish and maintain wildlife corridors and coordinate with state and federal wildlife agencies when reviewing development proposals within the Joint Planning Areas set forth in Future Land Use Map Series.

Page 18 of 54 env obj 2.1 habitat for birds, fish, and wildlife Protect habitat for endangered and threatened bird and wildlife species identified in official federal, state, or international treaty lists.

---

I am fearful that environmental county staff inspections on these properties will be skewed to assist the sales of these lands. Based on watching past county commission and planning board meetings, I have seen county staffer such as Matt Osterhoudt and others state during their environmental observations that they did not see any sign of wildlife on the lands they were surveying. I am happy to email you video clips of these reports. How a person who supposedly has a background in environmental studies cannot see a single living creature on Florida land is very difficult for me to digest, considering at any given time during the day, I look out my window and see anoles, bugs, butterflies and numerous bird species.

I will take the necessary steps to ensure that the appropriate State and Federal agencies conduct independent studies, separate from county staff, in order to provide accurate sampling in identifying endangered, threatened, and species of special concern. From nesting disruption, noise disruption any infraction within a 600 foot rate, the FWC will be concerned about these clear future violations.  I believe that full disclosure to potential buyers in the county invitation to bid were never disclosed regarding the close proximity and sighting of these birds on the lands that are in pending sales or just put up for sale.

I have listed the birds I have personally witnessed and enjoyed at both Our Celery Field and on properties that surround Our Celery Field.  The birds listed below are protected by both Federal and State of Florida conservation laws because they are in danger of Extinction or Threatened.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services ECOS Environmental Online Services

CLICK HERE for source for source.

The Everglade Snail Kite is recognized as Federally listed and are a Species in danger of Extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

Everglade snail kite

17.95(b)

Birds

Endangered

N/A

Wherever found

The Crested Caracara and Wood Stork are both Federally listed as Threatened Species, likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

Audubon's crested caracara

N/A

Birds

Threatened

N/A

U.S.A. (FL)

Wood stork

N/A

Birds

Threatened

N/A

U.S.A. (AL, FL, GA, MS, NC, SC)

---

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

SOURCE CLICK HERE for source.

Brown Pelican - FL Status: State Species of Special Concern

Caracara - FL Status: Federally-designated Threatened

Florida Sandhill Crane - FL Status: State-designated Threatened

Everglade Snail Kite - Federal Status: Endangered

Little Blue Heron - FL Status: State Species of Special Concern

Reddish Egret - FL Status: State Species of Special Concern0

Limpkin - FL Status: State Species of Special Concern

Roseate Spoonbill - FL Status: State-designated Threatened

American Kestrel - FL Status: State-designated Threatened

Tri-colored Heron - FL Status: State Species of Special Concern

White Ibis - FL Status: State Species of Special Concern

---

Celery Field Facebook Group documented bird photos:

Source: CLICK HERE (https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheCeleryFields/)

Save Our Celery Field & Celery Neighborhoods, Rally Day, Saturday, February 25, 2017, Cattle Egrets foraging for food on pending Restaurant Depot acreage.  County Staff and JDMH representative both stated that no wildlife lives on this property.  Birds visit this property daily.

I remain hopeful that you all will do what is in the best interest for everyone in Sarasota and that is to Save Our Celery Field and expand it for future use and enjoyment for all. Respectfully,

Adrien Lucas

Zoning's Fundamental Purpose is to Protect a Community's Health, Safety and Welfare. - Source CLICK HERE (https://www.scgov.net/PlanningServices/RezoneSpecial%20Exception%20Documents/Zoning.pdf)

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