Roger Morton Guest columnist
In response to an Oct. 14 letter to the editor defending developers ("Unfair to demonize developers"), consider this:
Once there was a lovely spot about a mile north of Laurel Road on the Legacy Trail. There was a shelter and benches and a sign noting that behind the fence was a butterfly garden. The poster showed dozens of kinds of butterflies that might be found in that meadow.
Then one day the bulldozers came and the butterfly habitat was gone. The bulldozers worked for weeks, until most of the trees were piled high and burned. The bulldozers kept working for months, until the area was built up far above its previous level, roads and utilities were installed and a full-blown subdivision oozed across the land. An occasional gable roof instead of a hip roof, faux shutters and other trinkets, intended no doubt to soften the sad sameness of the houses, fail miserably.
The houses are placed cheek-by-jowl, with tiny yards. They could only be described as cookie-cutter, with roofs in a few shades of reddish mud and houses in equally bland shades, none too far from sick-baby poop.
The letter-writer touts ponds and bike paths. The ponds, of course, are actually retention ponds to keep the subdivisioners from waking up with knee-deep runoff and to give the developers the "water view" label for their sales propaganda. There is hardly any need to comment on how charming a bike path past all the architectural blandness must be.
The writer also touts the fact that one-third of the county is off-limits to development. The unanswered question is, what percentage is headed for development?
Which brings up the claim that "traffic nightmares" are "no more than any growing city." Anyone who has lived in a growing city knows this is nonsense. Most growing cities have better planning and do not give developers carte blanche to build before there is road infrastructure to support it. A related defense that developers pay their own way is equally nonsensical. A perfect case in point is the cluster-crunch at I-75 and University Parkway. Developers of the mall there, and of Lakewood Ranch, make multimillions off their projects, and complain when they are forced to kick in for some mitigation, and the taxpayers are left with the bill for seemingly endless freeway "improvements" and equally endless traffic jams.
The writer also lauds "new consumption" and the value of "developed land" over "pastureland." Obviously, the writer has not heard of global warming.
A final fallacy is that the area is blessed with "enlightened leadership."
The sad fact is that local leaders virtually never seem to find a development they can't buy into, and developers play them like a fiddle. Developers come in with over-large developments. Professional planners and neighbors object. Developers moan, trim their plans to what they likely expected from the start and the bulldozers roll. Having lived in 10 states and one territory, I can attest that there is far more enlightened leadership in many of them. They value the environment and quality of life far more than our leaders, who see only dollar signs.
Which brings me back to the bulldozers. Since the day a few years ago when the butterfly garden was crushed under the treads, the machines continue to clatter along both sides of the Legacy Trail. Roads go in and both cookie-cutter houses and McMansions crawl across the land. Most of the trees are gone, the natural wetlands are gone, the bobcats and otters no longer cross the trail.
And this is just a microcosm of what is going on all over Sarasota and Manatee counties, and Florida for that matter.
The situation is certainly comparable to global warming. Many scientists believe we are nearing a tipping point to save the planet. If the bulldozers continue to pillage at their present pace, we may well be nearing the tipping point of a livable, green region or one big subdivision.
As if to cement the argument against rampant growth is this more recent news: A massive new garbage dump is being planned here and more high rises are being proposed for Siesta Key. It can already take more than two hours to get off the key in a normal season. More high rises?
Sarasota resident Roger Morton was a senior editor at five daily newspapers and held various editing positions at newspapers including The Tennessean in Nashville, Seattle Times, Salt Lake Tribune, Eugene Register-Guard, and the Missoulian.
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Unfair to demonize developers
In a guest editorial Oct. 2, Kindra Muntz wrote, “Maybe developers in 1920 were a force for good in Sarasota County, but developers in 2020 are bulldozing the rest of it, creating cookie-cutter housing developments and traffic nightmares, and sticking us with the bill.”
This is wrong on so many fronts, starting with “maybe.” Of course, developers have been a force for good.
Second, developers are not “bulldozing” the county. A third of the land is totally off-limits.
Third, cookie-cutter? Nope. Landscaping, ponds, parks, bike paths, in all price ranges.
Fourth, traffic nightmares? No more than any growing city.
Fifth, developers pay their way, with roads, sidewalks, water, sewer, electric and even donated land for new schools. At no cost to the taxpayers.
Thousands of families move here, pay taxes and stimulate the local economy with new consumption and job creation. The taxable value of developed land is hugely higher than pastureland, spreading the tax base for everyone.
Demonization of developers is specious. Good leaders balance property rights and a thriving economy with environmental protection. Fortunately, Sarasota has been blessed with just such enlightened leadership.
Chris Albright, Sarasota
