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
This rezoning was suspicious at best. First, this use is not a light industrial use as permitted, but is in fact a commercial retail use for the sale of food supplies and equipment to all the 2000 restauranteers in the area along with anyone they deswignate as a representative of the business, which will greatly exacerbate the already insufficient road situation. . Even more suspicious is the fact that not only is the county the seller and beneficiary of this land sale, but that it is not a straight land purchaase. There involves the inclusion of an existing County fire station on this land with an initial two year leaseback for $1 per year, and cheap rent after that. Sweet deal for the county! The fact that the county attorney has said that a rezone cannot be halted as the result of a traffic issue, should not apply here as the business use of Restaurant Depot does not even meet the intended light industrial use. While the questionable approval by the staff and county attorney is greatly beneficial to the county coffers, it is not beneficial to the constituents who voted the planning and county commissioners into office. This was a negotiated backroom deal made by the county attorney and the applicants attorney that is being misrepresented and pushed for the benefit of the county and to the detriment of the residents of the area and the citizens of Sarasota County . This blatant conflict of interest needs to be investigated!
ReplyDelete