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. 

Advancing May 14, 2019 public workshop: Video, Drone, Print & more

Courtesy of Chuck Behrmann at the Celery Fields

Our media and citizens have been helpful in advancing the planning workshop at which the public can offer comment, speak to the destiny of the 38 acres of public lands adjacent to a 360-acre bird sanctuary, recreation area, and stormwater management area.

ABC7 WWSB: Sarasota County asking for public opinion on future of land . . .

SRQExperience:  Overview of the area

Herald Tribune:  Matrullo: A big idea near the Celery Fields

More media coverage of the Celery Fields and Public Lands issue

The May 14 Workshop: County Planning and Community Proposals

From Mark Vance, birder and photographer:

Courtesy of @SRQExperience:

Riding the Celery Fields 

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

Wednesday Hearing to address Paving more Wetlands - Manasota 88, Control Growth Now opposing

Update: Benderson loses (Herald Trib)

Paving Paradise – Round Two

Dan Lobeck:

We warned that this would happen.

No preserved and protected wetland in Sarasota County, near any neighborhood or elsewhere, is safe if the County Commission continues to repeal that protection and allow them to be paved over for development.

Wetlands at Honore Avenue and University Parkway in Sarasota County were set aside years ago as preserves in exchange for approval of adjoining developments.   Then in 2016, after developers gained unprecedented control of the Sarasota County Commission, the property owner sought approval from the Commission to pave over the wetlands for parking and buildings, to develop Whole Foods and Wawa stores. 

County environmental staff objected, stating that the wetlands remained functional and valuable and that their destruction for development would violate the Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan.  Over the objections of environmentalists and community groups including Control Growth Now, the County Commission approved the rezoning for the wetland destruction on a 4 to 1 vote.  A lawsuit was filed by environmentalists but dropped, apparently due to a lack of legal “standing” to bring suit under a law that requires a showing of damages different from the public at large.

At the time, we warned that if the Whole Foods wetlands destruction could be approved, then other owners of preserved wetlands will come forward to ask that they be paved over for expanded development.

Well, here we go.

On Wednesday, March 22, as the second public hearing after 1:30 pm at the County building at 1660 Ringling Boulevard in Sarasota, Round Two will ring in the saga of Paving Over Paradise.  Concerned citizens have five minutes each to speak.

Updates for Sarasota, Manatee, and Three-Card Monte at work

In case you've been away or given up on media, a few recent stories:

In Sarasota County:

UPDATE: Whole Foods lawsuit dismissed

(One has to read the comment thread to understand what actually took place):

Tom Ochsner: To me this doesn't sound like anyone got paid off. What it does sound like is the developers basically threatened to countersue the entire Manasota 88 group for costs and, likely, "damages". My guess is those representing the 1,000 members had to decide if it was worth exposing financially each individual member. I can't blame them, though it is very disappointing and does show that big $ runs the show.

Dark Money Part Z: Eric Robinson finances Holder's Attack on Steube.

Look, we think Steube's gun politics is criminal. But Robinson is Mr. Dark Money. And now he's on the School Board. 

DiCicco: Antidote to Sarasota’s Toxic Commission

"Bottom line: an entrenched political machine has been effective in undermining Sarasota’s quality of life for the last decade, with greater success in recent years. Those who fund and direct this “growth machine” effort are Pat Neal, Carlos Beruff, Rex Jensen and Randy Benderson. A review of local PACs and campaign ledgers reveal their investments in their growth machine candidates."

Sarasota County Commission candidates trade jabs

Again, the comments provide the insight:

Ray Porter: The same Republicans who cry and moan about influence peddling and corruption at the federal level are so quick to deny that anybody is influenced by developer cash at the local level. Why the double standard? Government closest to the people is the MOST vulnerable to political influence and favoritism. We should move toward district-only voting for county commissioners - level the playing field; encourage more candidates to come forward; and make the elections winnable through grassroots campaigning in limited geographic areas. Someone could win with good ideas and $20,000 in contributions, as opposed to buying a seat with $150,000 in developer money.

Eric "Dark Money" Robinson

Dark Money Sarasota Manatee II: Who is Trying to Buy Your Vote?

"By the way, remember that $50,000 donated by Robinson Hanks Accounting to Manatee Against Taxation on June 5, 2013? On July 3, 2013, Manatee Against Taxation turned around and paid Robinson Hanks $50,000 for accounting services. It’s interesting that a political committee required accounting services valued at 43% of its total 115K in assets, and remarkable when a company can make a 50K political committee donation and then one month later charge the same political committee an exorbitant 50K accounting fee, recouping its original donation. Even more remarkable how the PACs treasurer, chair and registered agent are one and the same – Mr. Robinson. Now Sarasota has Mr. Robinson’s accounting prowess at the helm on the Sarasota School Board."

In Manatee County:

Mosaic Phosphate Mining Operation allowed to go forward despite concerns about water contamination.

BRADENTON — At Thursday's Special Planning Commission meeting, Mosaic Fertilizer LLC requested the commission recommend an ordinance to rezone 3,596 acres from General Agriculture (A) to Extraction Zoning District (EX) and extend their mining permit through 2037.

Phosphate mining creates “moonscape” in Florida - 

A WMNF podcast presentation by Andy Mele of Sierra Club on gypsum stacks.

See also this excellent reporting by the Herald Tribune:

Florida Mental Hospitals 

Florida’s state-funded mental hospitals are supposed to be safe places to care for people who are a danger to themselves or others. But years of neglect and deep budget cuts transformed them into treacherous warehouses where violent patients roam the halls with no supervision and workers are left on their own to oversee dozens of people. Now, no one is safe inside.

The only uncertainty is whether the piece concerns actual mental hospitals, or Rick Scott's funny farm. 

Fwd: breaking: Whole Foods and Monsanto try to Derail GMO Labeling

This is unbelievable.

Plan on being at Whole Foods from 10:00-11:30 on Saturday the 9th, for the next demonstration organized by ANSWERS Sarasota, a radical millenial group, the next generation of activists.  People must be told about this.  Whole Foods and Monsanto, teaming up to lie about what is in our food.  I knew they were bad actors, but never in my wildest nightmares did I imagine Whole Foods would team up with Monsanto, which has covered the world in toxic chemicals, and now wants to poison us more directly, through the food we eat.  It's more than a 4 1/2 acre wetland, at this point.  It is Citizens United, which allows corporations like Monsanto to control corrupt members of congress to develop legislation that makes it illegal to sue them for the effects of their poison chemicals.  Thousands of small-scale farmers have committed suicide in India over losing their rights to farm because of spurious patent infringement lawsuits brought by Monsanto.  These are the people Whole Foods is getting in bed with?

Join me on Saturday the 9th at Whole Foods, downtown Sarasota, corner of 1st and Lemon.

Best wishes for a safe and fun holiday weekend,

Andy

More on the Whole Foods "Wetland Paving" here.

====================================================

STAND WITH VERMONT - Don't let Monsanto, Whole Foods and the Corporate Elitists Corrupt Bargain kill GMO labeling today !Don't let Corrupt Corporate Organic SELL OUT Your Right to GMO Labeling!

Breaking: Major Corporate Organic Companies JOIN Monsanto to SELL OUT the GMO labeling movement to protect their corrupt profits and help hide Monsanto's GMOs in our food! Every voice counts!  >>

You'll never guess who's selling out your right to mandatory GMO labeling - it's ALL HANDS ON DECK, GMO Labeling is about to die.

This is the darkest moment in the history of the GMO labeling movement and we need you to know what's actually happening in DC behind our backs and who is responsible for it. 

Right now we’re being betrayed in Washington D.C. by a group of donation-hungry Senators and a handful of corrupt Corporate Organic Companies that have just brokered an outrageous deal behind our backs in an effort to kill mandatory GMO labeling and make sure that Vermont’s first-in-the-nation GMO labeling bill never takes effect this Friday on July 1st. 

Monsanto and Whole Foods’ new fake labeling bill would not only preempt Vermont’s bill from taking effect this week, but ALL provisions of the bill are OPTIONAL and the language is so poorly writtenthat it would actually not include 85% of the current GMO products and ingredients on the market - You know, the ones from the Roundup Ready seeds owned by Monsanto!
Additionally, the deal brokered by Senators Stabenow (D-MI) and Roberts (R-KS) would not provide any penalties for non-compliance, so cannot even be reinforced if violated, by any company if they refuse to label! 

A vote on this outrageous bargain is expected any day now - this week - and we can’t allow the most corrupt corporations on the planet to get away with it!
Contact your Senators now to tell them that Monsanto, DuPont, Stonyfield, Smucker's and Whole Foods don'tt represent you on GMO labeling.

Send a message to your Senators to let them know you won’t support this corrupt bargain and to stand with Vermont historic law! Every voice counts.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/dont_let_Monsanto_and_organic_elite_kill_GMO_labeling/?t=8&akid=1888.24121.BjE4ia 

In reality, this bill was written and approved by Monsanto and America’s most corrupt food companies in a last ditch effort to avoid common sense, mandatory labeling of GMOs, while keeping the doors wide open for a flood of campaign cash from companies such as Monsanto, DuPont, Pepsi, General Mills, Stonyfield, Smucker’s, Organic Valley and Whole Foods’ executives to their campaign coffers. That’s right, there were major corporate organic interests at the table and they just sold us out! (The full details on this deep betrayal of our movement will be forthcoming, but we need to be laser focused right now on killing this dangerously corrupt bargain right now!) 

This is an outrage and we can’t allow them to rob our movement of the basic right to know what’s in our food and who’s actually behind the rising exposure to toxic chemicals linked to GMO foods in America. 

We need your help today to make sure that Vermont’s historic GMO labeling bill is allowed to go into effect on Friday, July 1^st at the end of this week. 

A vote in the Senate is expected in the coming days and we need you now, more than ever, to contact your Senators once again to make sure they hear YOUR voices and understand that you oppose any corrupt corporate sell out of your basic democratic rights - on an issue that 90% of the American population supports! 

For the past 5 years, this community has taken on the most powerful companies on the planet - Monsanto, DuPont, General Mills, Coke and Pepsi - the same companies that are responsible for releasing the planet-polluting chemicals, pesticides and junk foods that harm you and your family's health and future. 

So far, because of YOU and your tireless dedication, we’ve stopped Monsanto and the corporate elite in this country 3 times in the Senate in the past 8 months! We keep winning, but every time Monsanto and their corporate allies give us a new sinister bill to rob us of our basic rights. We continue to believe that Victory is our only option. And we desperately need your help to stop this incredible betrayal of America’s food movement! 

Help DEFEND Vermont’s historic GMO Labeling Law from this outrageous assault brokered by Senator Stabenow (D-MI), Senator Roberts (R-KS), Monsanto and Organic Traitors. Who are these Organic Traitors and why is this important now? 

What we have now confirmed, we are sharing with you today because a handful of corporate-owned organic companies that the organic community has mistakenly trusted over the years have been working against us behind-the-scenes and now publicly support this sham of a backroom deal brokered in the halls of Congress.
Whole Foods CEO Walter Robb Climbs in Bed with Monsanto
In the past 72 hours the American GMO labeling movement has been rocked by the most outrageous betrayal imaginable. While you and your friends have been fighting for mandatory GMO labeling, the giant corporate organic companies that are owned by parent companies have just climbed into bed with Monsanto and stuck a knife in the back of every American who’s ever fought for GMO labeling.
According to a Politico story that came out yesterday, Whole Foods CEO Walter Robb joined his friends at Stonyfield, Smucker’s and Organic Valley in selling out the American food movement. 

Interviewed while on vacation, Walter Robb is now peddling this monstrous sell out that protects Monsanto’s and Whole Foods profits, to the national media: 

An "incredible thing" that the senators came together and compromised during a dysfunctional time. He said he hopes that lawmakers can soon move on to other things. Incredulously, he went on to claim that “we need to…talk about much bigger issues.”  

Stonyfield Yogurt and Just Label founder Gary Hirshberg Exposes Real Agenda 

In an even more outrageous lie, Stonyfield Yogurt chairman Gary Hirshberg and founder of the bogus corporate organic front group, Just Label It, who's been working behind the scenes with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, former biotech Governor of the Year, is now telling the press: 

"We are pleased this proposal will finally create a national, mandatory GMO disclosure system, protects organic labels, and will cover more food than Vermont’s groundbreaking GMO labeling law". 

After years of using Just Label It as a corporate front group to undermine real grassroots campaigns and GMO labeling ballot initiatives and people like you, Gary Hirshberg and Just Label It are finally showing their true colors and working publicly to make it easier for corrupt Senators to vote for this toxic backroom deal that will undermine every American mother's basic right to know what's in the food they're feeding their children, like mothers in 64 other countries around the world already possess. 

In reality, it's easy to recognize that this deal brokered last week in DC is a "non-labeling" bill and does nothing to secure your right to know, as we've fought so hard for over many years. Sadly, a handful of corporate organic lobbyists at the Organic Trade Association (OTA) helped broker this deal and are now peddling the lie that it represents what our national GMO labeling movement actually wants your Senators to vote for. 

These corporate organic lobbyists know that this corrupt bargain, which protects their corporate parent companies toxic GMO junk foods, will actually leave the vast number of GMO products and ingredients on the market unlabeled and intentionally leaves out some of the newest forms of genetic engineering that companies like Monsanto are now using. This level of intentional corporate sabotage of our rights is the ultimate betrayal, and we can't let it stand or be silent any longer! 

More details of this outrageous betrayal will be forthcoming as our movement needs to stay laser focused on defeating this toxic deal in the Senate before they leave for recess on Friday of this week. 

Send your Senators a message telling them that Monsanto, Whole Food and the Organic Traitors Association don’t speak for you and your family on GMO labeling or any other issue in Congress. Every voice counts!
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/dont_let_Monsanto_and_organic_elite_kill_GMO_labeling/?t=13&akid=1888.24121.BjE4ia
Remember, democracy is like a muscle, either you use it or you lose it! Together we're unstoppable!

Thanks for participating in food democracy,

Dave Murphy
Founder / Executive Director
Food Democracy Now!
Sources:

1. “Roberts, Stabenow reach deal on GMO labeling”, Agri-Pulse, June 22, 2016
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1968?t=15&akid=1888.24121.BjE4ia2. "JLI Reacts to GMO Labeling Deal in Senate", Stonyfield Yogurt's Gary Hirshberg's Treasonous Lie
https://fdn.actionkit.com/go/1969?t=17&akid=1888.24121.BjE4ia3. “EXCLUSIVE: Just Label It organization a GMO greenwashing corporate front group, say industry insiders”, Natural News, March 06, 2015
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1970?t=19&akid=1888.24121.BjE4iahttp://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1970?t=21&akid=1888.24121.BjE4ia4. Corporate Sabotage of the GMO labeling Movement: How Stonyfield, Just Label It and EWG sold us out!
http://bit.ly/29diUxP5. “The Organic Elite Surrenders To Monsanto: What Now?”, Huffington Post, Ronnie Cummings February 28, 2011
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1974?t=26&akid=1888.24121.BjE4ia 

For historical reference: This is not the first time Stonyfield, Whole Foods and Organic Valley have worked together to sell out the American public and organic farmers. Remember, there are no accidents in politics.

Whole Foods Land Grab set for Trial

Trial set on Whole Foods wetlands dispute

By Emily Le Coz
emily.lecoz@heraldtribune.com

Published: Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 7:32 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 7:32 p.m.

A Sarasota County judge has set a summer trial date for a challenge to a development proposal to destroy a protected wetland off University Parkway so that a Whole Foods Market can be built on the site.

Circuit Judge Rochelle Curley will hear the case during a two-day trial set for the week of Aug. 22. Curley approved the date at a brief hearing Wednesday in which defense attorneys requested the case be expedited.

The lawsuit against Sarasota County was filed last month by ManaSota-88 and other environmental activists.

Read more here

Background and context

Sarasota County Commissioners violated County Comp Plan, it seems

The former head of Sarasota County Natural Resources Dept. says the Board of County Commissioners violated the Comp Plan when it gave Whole Foods Market permission to turn a living wetland into a parking lot.

Letter to the Editor, Herald Tribune

Wetland worth saving

A recent letter writer asserted that Tom Lyons added spin to his column on Whole Foods’ planned destruction of wetlands. Perhaps as author of many of Sarasota County’s environmental regulations, I can show that facts do not constitute spin.

While it is true that Sarasota County changed some of the environmental provisions in its Comprehensive Plan over the last 17 years, it did not change them to the extent that allows a developer to take out a functioning wetland just because it’s in the way.

Here’s the revised language (Environment Chapter, Management Guidelines): “In cases where a wetland is no longer capable of performing defined environmental functions and providing defined environmental values, or in cases where no other reasonable alternative exists other than disrupting a wetland, as determined by the County, some alterations may be allowed.”

The main difference between the 1999 rule and the current one is that the former rule required swamps to be preserved while the current one lumps in swamps (the habitat on the Whole Foods site) with all wetlands and allows them to be disrupted only if they meet the standards in the above-cited provision.

This wetland remains in good ecological condition — even Whole Foods’ environmental consultant agreed with that — and still provides environmental values and functions as defined in the Comprehensive Plan.

County ecologists are responsible for determining the quality of a wetland. County staff opined correctly that removing this wetland would be contrary to Comprehensive Plan provisions, but the board ignored that recommendation.

Gary S. Comp, former director
Sarasota County Natural
Resources Department

Whole Foods responds - Wetlands paving "within current regulations"

From the Citizens for Sarasota County Group on FB:

A response from Whole Foods Market to Tom Lyons' editorial:

Whole Foods was challenged to respond to a Herald Tribune editorial critical of Sarasota County's decision to allow a 4.5-acre wetland to be paved over for use as a parking lot for a new Whole Foods outlet on University Parkway:

Whole Foods Market
January 28 at 10:56am

If social media has any value to Whole Foods other than advertising its wares, perhaps someone from the local store will address this editorial:

Lyons: Wetland to become Whole Foods parking lot
Gary Comp recalls how right it seemed in 1999 when his environmental assessment of a wetland full of maple trees helped sway the Sarasota County Commission not to let it become a parking lot.
HERALDTRIBUNE.COM

COMMENT FROM WHOLE FOODS:

Here is the comment from Whole Foods Market:

Hi Tom, Thank you for your concern regarding this matter. we are very sensitive to environmental sustainability, and one of Whole Foods Market's core values as a business is to practice and advance environmental stewardship. While we are not the site developer, we understand, the city, county, and federal agencies have all agreed that the developer’s plans for the space we and other retailers plan to lease are within current regulations. The developer has also gone above and beyond what is required by purchasing a large tract of pristine wetlands within the watershed and donating it back to the public to ensure it is preserved for generations of Sarasotans.

Like · Reply · 1 · 1 hr


Linda K I appreciate the additional land was purchased and donated for preservation. HOWEVER...right here we have a prime example of just how "preserved and protected" these lands ACTUALLY are if a developer wants them! I also had to either laugh or cry at the "within current regulations"....is WF ACTUALLY so naive that they don't know that the City Commission is OWNED by the developers??? Need a regulation changed...just mention it and it's a done deal....
(Thank you, Commissioner Hines, for your "no" vote...It is appreciated and will be remembered...)

Like · Reply · 47 mins · Edited

Gini H - Whole Foods could have built a parking garage, like Publix at Bay St/41 did . I won't be shopping there anymore. BTW, Florida lost more than 260,000 acres of freshwater, emergent wetlands during 1985-1996, and the rate of loss of this wetland type more than doubled as compared to the rate during the 1970's-1980's period. Wetlands, particularly freshwater emergent wetlands, are essential for waterfowl and other wildlife, yet losses continue. Since Florida became a state, total wetland area has decreased by approximately 44%.
Wetland habitat in wintering areas such as Florida is important in the overall annual cycle of migratory waterfowl. Habitat conditions during this non-breeding period affect waterfowl survival and reproduction in subsequent years. Ducks must maintain or improve their body condition during winter to avoid mortality during spring migration and to meet the physiological demands of the nesting season (i.e., egg laying, incubation). The FWC's waterfowl staff devotes considerable resources to monitoring and managing these migrant birds and providing quality habitat for them in Florida.
Managing wetland habitat is critical to providing the greatest quantity and highest quality of habitat possible to support Florida's waterfowl and other wetland-dependent wildlife. Without a large habitat base that includes breeding, migration, and wintering areas, waterfowl populations will decline despite any attempt to restrict sport harvest. Wetland habitat management has importance beyond its value to waterfowl by benefiting many other Florida plant and wildlife species.

Like · Reply · 1 · 27 mins

“There is a lot of growth; we can’t stop it anymore."

Following up on the Sarasota County Commission's decision on Whole Foods' wish to build on living wetland:

Shocking absolutely no one at all, the Sarasota County Commission bowed to Whole Foods and WaWa Tuesday, approving the erection of those commercial enterprises on a wetland on University Parkway at Honore.

One resident near the wetlands site was quoted by the Herald Tribune as saying: “There is a lot of growth; we can’t stop it anymore." 

Herald Tribune:

A forested wetland preserve standing in the way of a new Whole Foods Market at Honore Avenue and University Parkway will become a parking lot after the Sarasota County commissioners approved a rezoning change over the objections of some staff and residents. 

The measure passed 4-1 with Commissioner Charles Hines voting against it. 

“Clearly this is a good location for this end user, except there’s a wetland right on it,” Hines said. “There is testimony in the record that says it’s a functioning wetland. It still has value. It still has use.” 

More . . .

Citizen advocate Bill Zoller wrote to acknowledge the effort of Commissioner Hines [link added]:

Dear Charles: 

Thank you very much for voting against the Whole Foods proposal which will result in the destruction of the wetlands at that site. That wetlands was the basis for the denial, some years ago, of the McKay et al proposal for that site. At that time, all aspects of the issue, and of the importance of the wetlands, were aired, discussed, and dissected in great detail. Since that time, nothing has changed that would warrant the destruction of the wetlands, nor has the role of that wetlands in the overall ecology changed. 

I am a little surprised that Whole Foods, given its image as a champion of environmental issues, would pursue this environmentally destructive path to a new store. 

Again, your concern and your vote are much appreciated in this matter. Sarasota will lose one more important piece of its natural systems, which is a loss for us all. 

Best, 

Bill

UPDATE: The loss of Sarasota's wetland is now a component of Wikipedia's entry on Whole Foods.

Degrading Sarasota County, one wetland at a time

From Dan Lobeck, Sarasota attorney and citizen advocate:

PAVING PARADISE AND GRIDLOCKING OUR ROADS

On Tuesday, January 26 shortly after 1:30 pm at their downtown Sarasota location, the Sarasota County Commission will consider allowing a developer to pave over 4 ½ acres of very rare and valuable forested wetlands for commercial development and to create traffic gridlock at an important intersection. 

It is a public hearing, with the right to speak for up to five minutes.
Sarasota County staff is recommending against this, and would require that the wetlands be preserved on the 8 ¼ acre site at University Parkway and Honore Avenue. They point out that most of these wetlands were agreed to be preserved in a previous business park approved for the site, so the developer would violate the requirement of the Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan that there is “no reasonable alternative” but to destroy the wetlands. 

Staff reports that the particular wetlands “are very rare in Sarasota County” and “have a high degree of environmental importance for water filtration, assimilation of nutrients, floodwater storage and as a refuge and habitat for a wide variety of species that rely on this urban environment.” “Such isolated habitats within the urban environment,” staff says, “are becoming increasingly more important to migratory species.” 

The wetland destruction would be “mitigated” six miles away on Manatee County property unconnected to any Sarasota County habitat, which staff says also violates the Comprehensive Plan requirement that mitigation (where there is “no reasonable alternative” to destruction) should be on-site or nearby. 

If this is approved, it will follow a brand-new pattern of the Sarasota County Commission allowing destruction of valuable habitat for mitigation in Manatee County, as it granted to Benderson Development last year for expansion of the University Town Center.
The proposed commercial development would also create severe traffic congestion at the University Parkway-Honore Avenue intersection which can only be solved by a large, expensive road and intersection improvements and a traffic light. Two lanes must be added to University Parkway from Honore to Medici Court and to Honore Avenue from University Parkway to Desoto Road, if the traffic is to be handled. However, amazingly, transportation staff recommends – without any evident concurrency analysis required by state law – only to require the developer to add the traffic light. There are no plans for the other improvements. 

So not only do valuable wetlands get paved over, but another stretch of University Parkway, and of Honore Avenue, and their intersection, gets gridlocked. 

The Planning Commission, which the County Commission has stacked with development interests, unanimously recommended approval of the developer’s proposal. (Earlier on the County Commission agenda, the Commission will most likely pass over citizen advocates Lourdes Ramirez and Ray Porter to appoint two developers and a development contractor to the Planning Commission, if they follow what they have done before). 

Will the County Commission act again to let developers pave over wetlands which their environmental staff says are required to be preserved, and gridlock the roads in the process? 

-- Dan Lobeck