The Fresh Start group presented to the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners an update on community-based proposals and for public lands at the Celery Fields, a broader vision for the Celery Fields Area that came out of five months of discussions, panels, interviews, and a round table process (all documented on this blog).
Below a slide shows possible enhancements to the area, including a footbridge linking the public parcel #1 with the Celery Fields wetlands. Also a tourist center and a parking area, all from the April 25 power point presentation to the Board.
Also on April 25, 2018, James Gabbert resubmitted his proposal for a waste transfer station on 6 acres adjacent to public parcel #2, at Porter Rd. and Palmer Blvd.
Waste transfer station stock image
Gabbert's proposed demolition waste facility for the whole of parcel #2 last year triggered an uproar among Sarasota residents and visitors who opposed placing a dump on public land near the Celery Fields. (Timeline)
Sarasota County Council of Neighborhood Associations - CONA
-monthly meeting -
Monday
March 12, 2018
at 7 p.m.
smart growth needed more than ever
On Monday, March 12, 2018please join CONA fora presentation by
the president ofControl Growth Now, Dan Lobeck, regarding recent and proposed changes by local government to the vision of our community that had been carefully-crafted for the future by citizens participating in the extensive planning process that resulted in an award-winning comprehensive plan.
These changes are compromising the smart growth goals of our vision, including those protecting neighborhood compatibility and the environment, limiting traffic congestion, constraining urban sprawl, and making growth pay its own way rather than being borne by existing taxpayers.
Mr. Lobeck will propose solutions and reforms within our government institutions and political choices that will benefit and represent the interests of neighborhoods, residents, and businesses.
Among the potential solutions that will be discussed, is an initiative toward single-member districts for county commission seats that currently is working toward placing a referendum on the county voting ballot.
Q&A will follow. A social precedes the meeting at 6:30.
at the Sarasota Garden Club, 1131 Boulevard of the Arts
neighbors helping neighborhoods since 1961
save the date - our anniversary party - November 5, 2018
CONA meetings are free and open to the public as well as members of the more than seventy associations the organization represents and its individual members.Unless otherwise noted, the meetings are held at the Sarasota Garden Club, 1131 Boulevard of the Arts in Sarasota, which is at the intersection of Tamiami Trail, south of the Municipal Auditorium. Parking and the entrance are reached from Van Wezel Way. Socials precede the meetings at 6:30 p.m., the meetings begin at 7:00 p.m.
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On March 10, Control Growth Now holds its annual lunch, this year at Marina Jacks. Those attending will hear from Glenna Blomquist and Tom Matrullo two of many who helped build community opposition to the placement of a waste processing plant at the Celery Fields in 2017. Both are now working on the project known as Fresh Start, seeking sensible, community enhancing planning for the parcels where the developer sought to build an open-air waste processing facility.
Mr. Gabbert’s Construction Waste Debris Transfer Operation will be situated at Porter Rd. and Palmer Blvd., next to the I-75 underpass, and immediately adjacent to the proposed YMCA outdoor sports complex that was part of Fresh Start's proposal to the Board on 4.25.18.
The sports fields are proposed for 10.7 acres of public land (SE corner of Apex/Palmer) which the community group feels is more suitable for uses compatible with exotic species of birds, wildlife, human recreation, children, narrow roads, and a new vision of the Celery Fields area, visible from the Interstate, as a beautiful gateway to East Sarasota.
Sarasota's County Commission has given the Fresh Start Initiative a limited time to present community-based ideas for the next phase of public lands at the Celery Fields.
We are already receiving ideas from folks who understand that thoughtful, creative planning can generate a vibrant and unique area boasting the beauty of the Celery Fields, the urban fun of the Packinghouse Area, nearby kayaking, hiking, and the clean businesses in nearby business parks. A large recreational open space near the highway and within walking distance of cafes, shops, and markets -- what's not to like?
This unique combination is possible thanks to Palmer Boulevard's I-75 underpass that connects a burgeoning urban core with generous open spaces and wetlands.
We have six months to facilitate a process that would enable the community to come forward with ideas, proposals, outside-the-box thinking for the "Quad Parcels" at Apex and Palmer. The aim: to achieve a more integrated approach to the possibilities in this area, which will be the anteroom to East Sarasota County. The next major wave of residential and commercial development has to be East County: West County is running out of land.
For more on how to shape and share your proposal, see here.
Why Fresh Start is doing this
On August 23, 2017, after a 10-hour hearing featuring a packed house of citizens opposing the proposal, Sarasota's Board came within one vote of approving a 16-acre open-air demolition waste processing facility at the SW corner of Apex and Palmer.
Public documents show that the county's planning review for this proposal ignored current conditions and based its suitability assessment solely on 35-year-old land use designations. Nowhere in the review was it acknowledged that the proposed waste plant would be a short walk from an internationally beloved bird sanctuary and recreation area, and mere steps from the shops, restaurants, and businesses of the Packinghouse District. In short, the folks whom we pay to serve as stewards of our lands went out of their way neither to look at the surrounding area, nor to speak with the people who would be directly affected by their "stewardship."
Is this the best we can do in Sarasota County?
East County is poised to explode in a new wave of housing and commercial development. The question is, will East Sarasota simply be a mirror image of the urban service area to the west? If we work together, we can provide our elected officials with community-supported options for higher uses and better stewardship.
We have an opportunity to plan an area that respects inherent features, rural heritage, and full economic and environmental potential of a critical area in transition. But only if we act now.
With creative and commonsense ideas, a set of stranded assets can turn into a lovely integrated destination, uniting East and West, and prove a catalyst for the entire area. Think of the Palmer Underpass as a door -- a threshold from the urban core, where one can stroll from the Packinghouse District shops, restaurants, and music west of the highway through the underpass and out into the wide open East, with its water, trails, 220 species of birds, and giant Florida sky.
Earlier this year, a large, heavy-industrial waste processing plant was proposed for public land at a fragile intersection in an East Sarasota district including a sensitive nature preserve, nearly 1,600 homes, an elementary school, a busy commercial area and several industrial parks.
The justification given for the proposal was that 25 years earlier, the public property was designated as a major employment center.
Sarasota County processed the proposal with no outreach to the surrounding community - the thousands of residents, stores, businesses and school which weren't there a quarter of a century ago.
Harmer
The public land where the waste plant was proposed was placed on the surplus lands list by County Administrator Thomas Harmer with no public consultation or advisory.
In processing the application, the County acknowledged none of the immediate, mid-term, or long-term consequences of placing a 16-acre waste plant at the heart of this upcoming district.
On Aug. 23, 2017, Commissioners Al Maio and Michael Moran voted to approve the rezoning and special exception for the waste plant. Commissioners Charles Hines, Nancy Detert, and Paul Caragiulo voted it down.
"To plan" means, "to decide on or to arrange in advance." Proposing to site an industrial waste facility in an environmentally sensitive area with tourist amenities because 25 years earlier it was designated as a possible site for light industry is not a plan. It's a calamitous anachronism.
How do we get from here to more commonsense, rational planning?
Commissioner Nancy Detert proposes that the county remove from its surplus list property it owns near the park, including a parcel the applicant has sought to purchase
Commission Chair Paul Caragiulo. Rachel Hackney photo
Three motions; approximately five-and-three-quarters hours of public comments; 73 speakers (out of 81 who submitted signed cards asking to address the board); and two extra rooms accommodating all the audience members who could not fit into the County Commission Chambers in downtown Sarasota.
On Aug. 23, what Commission Chair Paul Caragiulo acknowledged he had been dreading played out between 9:10 a.m. and 6:56 p.m.: a public hearing on petitions submitted by TST Ventures LLC that would enable it to construct a recycling facility for construction and demolition material, as well as yard waste. A waste transfer station — for which TST Ventures won county approval in 2015 — also would be part of the project on a 16-acre site at Palmer Boulevard, Apex Road and Porter Road, close to the county’s internationally known Celery Fields park and stormwater area.
As the board neared its 3-2 vote to deny the petitions, Caragiulo pointed to the “remarkably sensible and substantive discussion” that had transpired over the day.
For months, a group called Save Our Celery Fields had gathered thousands of signatures on petitions, organized rallies and communicated with the commissioners to fight the proposed project. Speakers on Aug. 23 pointed out that the county has invested between $25 million and $30 million in the Celery Fields — a figure county spokesman Drew Winchester confirmed on Aug 24 for The Sarasota News Leader.
In 1994, the county bought 303 acres encompassing what is now the park and the property at the heart of the TST Ventures’ proposal, county Planner Kirk Crane explained. Since then, numerous speakers told the board, the Celery Fields has become a major draw for bird-watchers because of the vast number of migratory species that appear there each year. Additionally, neighborhood leaders testified, more than a dozen subdivisions have sprung up in the immediate vicinity, with hundreds more homes planned.
In spite of several last-minute stipulations James Gabbert of Sarasota, president of TST Ventures, offered to the board — to make the project more palatable to the public — Caragiulo and Commissioners Charles Hines and Nancy Detert said they could not support it.
“This is a risky thing for me,” Caragiulo said. “It’s just a question of comfort. … The problem is … once it gets out there, it can’t be undone.”
“I’m a big property rights guy,” Caragiulo added. Nonetheless, he continued, “I don’t think [the project] squares with what an evolved vision of that area is.”
A graphic shows the site proposed for the recycling plant. Image courtesy Sarasota County
TST Ventures had made an offer on 10 county acres — what staff refers to as one of the county’s “Quad” properties — near the Celery Fields, with plans to combine that and 4.3 acres TST Ventures already owned, so Gabbert could construct the recycling facility. The county property is zoned Open Use Rural, which limits it to one dwelling unit per acre, county Planner Kirk Crane said.
Among its petitions, TST Ventures wanted to amend a Critical Area Plan (CAP) governing the property, so the entire project site could be designated Light Industrial.
Crane explained that the site has been labeled on county future land use maps as a Major Employment Center (MEC).
“If we continue to try to sell the property,” Detert pointed out of the county’s 42 total surplus acres near the Celery Fields — including the land Gabbert sought to buy — “then we’re going to have these meetings often. … I wish we’d be more clear about identifying land that we will approve [for a recycling facility]. Part of our job as county commissioners,” she told her colleagues, “is that we can design the best community that we can design. Everything’s changed out there [in the proposed project area] because of the Celery Fields. … We should take [the county land] off of the surplus list and, frankly, use it to [enhance the Celery Fields] …”
At one point, Detert asked Lin Kurant, manager of the county’s Real Estate Services Division, whether it ever occurred to Kurant that, given the growth in popularity of the Celery Fields, that the property should be taken off the surplus list.
A graphic explains the county’s ‘Quads’ parcels. Image courtesy Sarasota County
“No,” Kurant replied, because a previous County Commission directed her to put it out for bid.
Among his other concerns, Caragiulo referenced Gabbert’s final proffers — as well as an updated traffic study the project team submitted to county staff on Monday morning: “Dumping loads of information [at the] last minute is not something that fills someone like me with confidence.” Moreover, Caragiulo continued, “that doesn’t help people have confidence in government. I don’t want anything to do with something that doesn’t give people confidence in government.”
After Detert made a motion to deny the CAP amendment, it failed for lack of a second. Commissioner Michael Moran subsequently made a motion to approve that amendment.
“What keeps me grounded when you have an emotional debate on a topic,” Moran said, is “focusing on fact-based testimony.” In his years of service on the county’s Planning Commission and his time on the County Commission, Moran added, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such misinformation, exaggerations … and erroneous input coming into a hearing.”
Commissioner Alan Maio seconded Moran’s motion.
A graphic shows the site of the proposed plant and adjacent land uses. Image courtesy Sarasota County
After he and his wife moved into their house 24 years ago, Maio said, the county expanded the Knights Trail Pistol and Rifle Range, which is “less than 2 miles from my house,” the state “put a third lane on I-75, [the county] built two lanes of Honore [Avenue] even closer than Interstate 75, and you all are fortunate to have a gigantic, state-of-the-art landfill” only 3 or 4 miles from his house. “We all face this,” Maio added. “There’s no hard hearts here,” he stressed.
“This is a good business. It’s a needed business,” Hines said. “To me, it’s the location [that is a concern].”
When Hines asked the TST Ventures project team members to explain why they felt the Palmer Boulevard location was the best, Bill Merrill III, a land-use attorney with the Icard Merrill firm in Sarasota, replied, “We have demonstrated so far … that … we’re offering 950 feet of buffer from us to the Celery Fields.” That is almost twice as much as the 500 feet required in a Village development as part of the county’s 2050 Plan for residential construction projects east of I-75, Merrill added. Referring to Gabbert, Merrill continued, “He’s wiped out dust. … It’s a non-issue. The noise is drowned out by I-75. It’s less decibel meters than I-75. … This has no impact whatsoever on the Celery Fields, despite the political and anecdotal information that you have received otherwise.”
However, when Caragiulo called for the vote, Moran and Maio were in the minority. Complying with a recommendation by Deputy County Attorney Alan Roddy, Detert made a formal motion of denial on all three TST Ventures petitions. Then Caragiulo and Hines joined her in approving it.
Debating history
The project team shows the commission this information from a 1993 memo about the Celery Fields purchase. News Leader photo
Early on in the project team presentation, Robert “Bo” Medred of Genesis Planning in Bradenton talked about a 1993 memo regarding the county’s purchase of the acreage to create the Celery Fields stormwater management project. That memo says the county could sell the 42 acres it did not need for stormwater purposes and get a return greater than its purchase price, “based on growth and development of industrial sites along I-75,” Medred read.
When Caragiulo asked whether the Major Employment Center (MEC) designation for that area existed at that time, Medred responded that the designation dates to 1981.
“When we’re reviewing these applications,” Caragiulo said later, “we have discretion to … decide what might or might not be appropriate and/or good to do in a specific area, and it doesn’t necessarily come down to what somebody said in 1993.”
“I think that the area has changed so dramatically,” Detert concurred. In 1993, she continued, she would have approved the plan for the recycling facility. “Every town has an area where you send your junk businesses to. [In 1993, this property] was so far out, nobody thought about it.”
Referring to Gabbert, she said, “I think he is an honorable businessman. I think he’s being unnecessarily vilified for trying to do the business that he does, [but] I think Mr. Gabbert missed the market.”
“I never thought or intended [for this piece of county property to] be a passive use or a park,” Hines said of the county land Gabbert sought to buy for the facility. “I fully supported this piece being surplused and sold. It clearly fits in [with the surrounding Industrial Light Warehouse zoning uses].”
(From left) James Gabbert, Bo Medred and Bill Merrill III appear before the commission. Rachel Hackney photo
However, Hines continued, the only petition from TST Ventures that the board could address from the standpoint of traffic concerns was the request to amend the CAP.
In response to questioning from Caragiulo, Paula Wiggins, the county’s transportation planning manager, confirmed Hines’ remark. However, she pointed out, “those land uses [under the existing CAP] would actually generate more traffic than what [the TST Ventures team is] proposing …” Still, she continued, the traffic flow on the affected segment of Palmer Boulevard “most likely will never meet the adopted [level of service],” because the segment is so short.
“Any use will provide the environment for the road to continue to fail?” Caragiulo sought clarification.
That is correct, she said, because any use of the property is going to generate more traffic.
Trying to make it work
After the public comments ended, Gabbert offered his new stipulations in response to testimony. First, he said, “I think we could come to a way where there could be an air-quality monitoring system at the edge of the Celery Fields,” with a third party handling the data collection. He would agree to have the system checked on a monthly basis during the first year of the recycling facility’s operations, he added, and then quarterly thereafter.
Second, he would be willing to modify an earlier stipulation to reduce the height of stockpiled material from 35 feet to 20 feet. He also pointed out that if an alert indicated a major storm could threaten Sarasota County, protocol called for his employees to reduce the height of all stockpiles to 3 to 4 feet.
Third, Gabbert said he would be willing to put a cover over the waste transfer facility on the site. “But it is virtually impossible,” he added, to handle the bulk crushing of concrete in an enclosed facility.
In response to concerns Hines raised, Gabbert added that he also would stipulate for the record that no materials would be processed on the site except between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Save Our Celery Fields members hold a protest outside the County Administration Center on Ringling Boulevard on Aug. 23. Rachel Hackney photo
When Commissioner Maio asked whether Gabbert had worked with the Office of the County Attorney on the language for those stipulations, Gabbert replied that he had not.
Then Commissioner Moran asked Deputy County Attorney Roddy if he would like some suggestions on the wording.
“I would probably like some more staff input on what they think would be workable,” Roddy responded.
“I would think, before we put the staff to more trouble and delay the proceedings … that we take a vote on if those stipulations are even acceptable to us,” Commissioner Detert said. “I applaud you for trying,” she told Gabbert, “but I don’t think those stipulations solve the problem.”
Other points of inquiry
During his part of the presentation, Bo Medred explained that a recycling facility must be on a minimum of 15 acres, under the county’s zoning regulations, and it has to be at least 1,000 feet from any residentially zoned property. The TST Ventures site, he continued, would be 950 feet from the Celery Fields. The closest neighborhood to the project site, on Palmer Boulevard, is more than three-quarters of a mile away, he added. No residences would be within half-a-mile of the recycling facility, Medred added.
Early on in the presentation, Commissioner Maio said to Gabbert, “Jim, I’m going to ask you a direct question, and I expect you to look me in the eye. I buried my mother, who died of complications of asthma. I have had it my entire life. People have heard me choking up here.” Maio added that his three children have had asthma, and the two in their 40s still are dealing with problems; all four of his grandchildren have had asthma. “Are you doing anything that’s going to hurt my family when we visit the Celery Fields?” Maio asked.
“No, sir,” Gabbert responded, prompting laughter among the audience members, leading Caragiulo to chastise the offenders.
Matt Osterhoudt, director of the county’s Planning and Development Services Department, explains before the Aug. 23 meeting that people planning to speak need to fill out a card. Rachel Hackney photo
“I’ve processed concrete since 1990,” Gabbert then continued. “I’ve had my children on the picking line. They’ve worked within the facility the whole time. … I’ve never had an employee that’s had any … respiratory issues or any of that.”
Gabbert added that he always has used best practices for his recycling operations, noting, “Our dust control system is comprehensive.”
Hines asked why Gabbert’s proposal did not call for the operations to be enclosed. “Obviously, it’s going to cost more,” Hines pointed out. Other than that, Hines said, why would Gabbert forgo that option?
Medred explained that prior to a county zoning code update in 2003, a recycling facility could be located on just 10 acres — with approval of a special exception petition — and the operations did not have to be completely enclosed. When the TST Ventures team asked county staff why the change was made in 2003 to require the enclosure of recycling operations, Medred pointed out, staff had no explanation.
Then Gabbert told Hines that customers with yard waste could bring to the proposed facility a range of materials — from bags in their cars to 40-foot pine trees with stumps. “They have to unload the material,” Gabbert added. Having them do that inside a building with the processing machines creates safety hazards, he said.
Caragiulo followed up later on the zoning change, asking for verification from Medred that the TST Ventures team won approval last year for a county zoning text amendment that would enable a recycling facility to operate without being enclosed. Medred acknowledged that the amendment was not approved until December 2016, but TST Ventures submitted its application for its project in November 2016.
From dust to least bitterns
The project team included this graphic showing plans to put an 8-foot fence atop a 4-foot berm along the roads adjacent to the plant. Image courtesy Sarasota County
The speakers who addressed the board over close to six hours talked of many concerns with the TST Ventures proposal — from the potential of respiratory problems to the marring of the Celery Fields as an international attraction.
Among those who stepped to the podium were past Sarasota Mayor Suzanne Atwell, who said she was going to make her remarks “personal, passionate and about family.”
Noting her own affinity for the park, she also talked of the affection her stepdaughter and her stepdaughter’s husband have for the Celery Fields. They are veterinarians who live in Wisconsin, and they are “extreme birders,” cyclists and marathoners, Atwell pointed out. “Each time they visit us, first on their list is heading to the Celery Fields.” When the couple visited Sarasota in May, Atwell continued, they came back to her home after their initial day at the park with a list of all the birds they had seen; Atwell read it. Among the species were varieties of herons, egrets and ibis, a purple martin and a least bittern.
“Quite frankly,” she said, “I’m blown away by this. … To me, anything that puts this plethora of fauna and/or flora at the Celery Fields at risk is of great concern.”
Another former city commissioner, Susan Chapman, told the commissioners she has been a practicing attorney for 40 years, she served as a Code Enforcement special magistrate for 16 years and she was on the city’s Planning Board for five years. “I feel that the applicant has not met the burden of producing competent substantial evidence,” she added.
As for the property being part of a Major Employment Center, she noted that when that designation was bestowed, “it was an agricultural area, and it is not an agricultural area anymore.”
Adrien Lucas, one of the leaders of Save Our Celery Fields, referred in her public comments to “this year’s mantra”: The county’s zoning regulations, as provided for in the code, are “for the purpose of promoting the public health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of Sarasota County.”
A least bittern. Image from Wikipedia
On the opposing side, Angela Walker talked of her long association with Gabbert as one of his employees at the Knights Trail Road recycling plant he established in Nokomis. She went back to work for him a second time after she had a baby with special needs, and he let her bring her son to the plant with her, Walker pointed out — “an immune-compromised infant, highly susceptible to respiratory illness.” He is 13 now, Walker said, and he has had no problems from all the time he spent with her at the facility. “None of the people [who worked there] have ever suffered any ill effects [from exposure to the materials],” she added.
Bob Waechter, a past chair of the Sarasota County Republican Party, pointed to all the misinformation that had been spread about the TST Ventures proposal — from assertions that the facility would poison the groundwater and air, to statements that it would overburden the road network.
“I’m the closest neighbor to the proposed project,” Waechter said. “I share a common boundary across the drainage canal. If I believed for one second that this project would cause me harm, I would oppose it. I don’t, and it won’t.”
When Commissioner Detert asked for clarification about his neighboring property, Waechter said it is in the industrial park. “Your Barcalounger, your TV, they’re not at that location?”
“I don’t have a Barcalounger and my TV is not at that location,” he replied, acknowledging that the property was not the site of his residence.
I am a long-time resident of Sarasota County, and I am writing today to request that you deny the above-referenced petitions. Living not far from the Celery Fields since 1972, I have observed the transition from active celery production to a valuable stormwater, recreation, and wildlife facility. This property, and the open space around it, has become a very special place…to residents and to visitors and tourists alike. When the County purchased these lands from primarily the Ferlisi and Walker families for the intended purpose of preventing future flooding, it was not generally realized that this intended purpose would turn out to be just one of many important benefits to the community.
Celery Fields North Cell and "Mt. Celery"
As the Celery Fields stormwater facility came to fruition, the area to the east was largely undeveloped, and there were some small light industrial uses to the west. As the ponds began to fill, and plants grew, the birds and other wildlife began to flock to this “refuge”. Sarasota Audubon was quick to understand what a unique opportunity this presented, and through their efforts, the County came on board to assist in making the Celery Fields a birding destination. Not only did the birds flock to the Celery Fields, but so did the eco-tourists…from all over the world. Over the past few years, Audubon and the County made an arrangement that permitted Audubon to build a first-class resource facility right at the center of the Celery Fields. I’m sure a look at the Audubon guestbook would reveal a startling number of visitors from far and wide.
When Palmer Boulevard was repaired and improved (while still remaining a two-lane road), the County erected tall, large lights along the road. It became immediately apparent to citizens and to Audubon, that these lights could be a serious threat to the nesting and breeding of the birds and other creatures that made the Celery Fields their home. When this was brought to the County’s attention, the County recognized the vulnerability and sensitivity of the wildlife, and realized that the lights were, indeed a threat. In fact, while the County did not remove the lights (in case they might be needed in a storm/flood emergency, other than for testing, they have never been turned on…they remain dark to this day. They remain dark because it is the right thing to do…and because a threat to the success of the Celery Fields as a nature/wildlife preserve is a threat to eco-tourism, which is a threat to our tourist economy.
This preamble brings us to the subject at hand: an industrial construction debris processing plant proposed for the edge of the Celery Fields. While many of the assertions made by the applicant in his submittal lack documentation (as required), and can be examined in detail, the crux of the matter comes down to the compatibility of this sort of noisy, dusty, plant with the valuable recreational/nature/wildlife preserve that is the Celery Fields. The County itself has, as outlined above, recognized the vulnerability of the wildlife in the Celery Fields; the County has recognized that turning on the lights would be a big risk…a risk they were unwilling to take. Is not a construction debris processing plant a risk to the welfare of the wildlife? The proposed facility will grind, crush, and haul away concrete, wood, metal, plastics, and all manner of material, some of which may well contain toxic materials. With the eastern areas out along Palmer Blvd. having been developed over the past few years, residential traffic has increased many-fold on the road. The trucks that would haul these materials in and out would also create heavy traffic on an already inadequate road, in addition to more noise and pollution. Is this a risk worth taking?
During his presentation to the Planning Commission, Mr. Gabbert gave a detailed discussion of the monitoring and inspection routines required by various agencies in order to minimize the dangers inherent in this sort of facility. That is exactly the point here. How many events have proved that there is no fail-safe facility with inherent risks; think of the BP disaster in the Gulf; the failure of the Piney Point slime ponds; the sinkhole at Mosaic; dam failures; and on and on. Mr. Gabbert’s testimony simply made very clear that his proposed facility is risky; in case of a failure, with environmental damage to the Celery Fields, Phillipi Creek, and on to the Bay, are you willing to vote to take that risk?
While the application asserts that no endangered wildlife has been seen on the site, where is a report by a qualified expert documenting this statement? There are statements about noise levels of similar facilities in the area, but where is a report laying out these levels, including the noise levels of the surrounding areas of those facilities (keeping in mind that the Celery Fields area is a very quiet area)? The vagueness of these sorts of statements calls into question where staff’s reassurances come from. Is staff qualified in each of these technical areas to render judgment on the validity of the applicant’s assertions, given a lack of qualified documentation?
Commissioners, you are familiar with the Celery Fields. You understand the vulnerabilities of the plants and creatures to noise and to pollution of air or water. Sarasota has a world-class triple-duty facility that is enjoyed by residents and visitors, and that brings substantial economic benefits to the County. We always come back to the issues of the health, safety, and welfare of the entire community. The benefit to one must be weighed against the risk to all; is it worth risking?
Again, Commissioners, please deny these petitions for a construction waste processing plant To answer my own question, No, it is not worth the risk.
Sincerely yours,
William C. Zoller
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Commissioners
I am a year round resident of Sarasota, a home owner, registered voter and hold a county business license. I am a believer in Verace, an Italian word for truth and authenticity.
Tomorrow, on August 23rd, you will be making quite possibly the biggest decision of not only your tenure as elected officials, but also one that will be affecting hundreds of thousands of local residents and visitors alike. By now you are inundated with e-mails covering virtual every aspect of this proposed open air “Dump” facility. The sensitivity of this issue goes way beyond Sarasota County. It is essentially at the heart and soul of the fight to keep our planet from becoming a place of urban sprawl and desolation. We can all agree a healthy planet makes for a happy people.
I live 2000 feet SSE of the southernmost tip of the Celery Fields. I live in a dense Oak filled enclave. Both the Tree Ordinance and the Canopy Road Ordinance are well into play here. I want to call attention to the intent of both of those ordinances. Without picking them apart with a fine tooth comb, their original intent was simple, to enhance the quality of life for the citizens of Sarasota County and to protect the trees and the area from gentrification. We need say nothing more about them, that was their intent. You now have a chance to stay in the spirit of not only these two laws, but also another intent, that being the Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan.
Direct from the plan itself it states: “A healthy natural environment also contributes to the economic health of an area. It is a key factor in attracting and retaining businesses and people within the county and the region. One of the emerging economic drivers for Sarasota is eco-tourism, which is directly tied to the quality of life and quantity of natural habitats and resources that the county maintains and protects.”
So there you have it, these words again…. intent, protect, quality and healthy. Keep these words in mind when rendering your decision, because looking back and knowing what you could have done is nothing like looking at it right now and knowing what you did, not only for you, your families and ours, but for the greater good of mankind and that is to simply SAVE THE CELERY FIELDS.
