Sarasota Audubon: Join the Neighborhood Workshop Tuesday 6 pm

From Sarasota Audubon, regarding an intense development proposed on Raymond Rd. A Neighborhood Workshop will be held via Zoom Tuesday, May 23, at 6 pm.

The Zoom link:  https://kimley-horn.zoom.us/s/98962380195

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT  RAYMOND ROAD DEVELOPMENT PLAN! Zoom Meeting This Tues. May 23, 6:00 PM Read below and click link for more INFO 49 ACRE Raymond Rd. Farm being Developed by D.R. Horton Homes Within the last few weeks, we have learned that the Raymond Road farm is up for sale. This 49+ acre farm is opposite the Raymond Road boardwalk at the Celery Fields, Sarasota. The developer (D.R. Horton Inc.) is in the process of applying for rezoning so that 160+ homes can be built there. On Tuesday, May 23, 2023, 6 pm, the developer and Kimley-Horn Associates, the design engineers, are holding a neighborhood information Zoom meeting. You can join the Zoom meeting at the link below. See also the attached notice from KHA and the accompanying plan of the development. This is not a County public hearing. We strongly encourage you to listen in so that we can all learn more about this proposed project. Over the past several years, SAS has sent letters to the owners - the Smith family - asking them to consider a conservation easement on their land and referring them to the Conservation Foundation. Neither SAS nor CFGC received any acknowledgement or responses to our letters. Furthermore, we did not know about this impending sale; no for sale signs were posted.  Once we at SAS have more information, we will formulate a position to let you know what we can all do to help minimize the impact on the Celery Fields and its wildlife from this unexpected development. Development Plan Notice Join Zoom Meeting Share This Email   Share This Email   Share This Email

Sarasota Audubon Society | 999 Center Road, Sarasota, FL 34240

Development near Celery Fields raises many questions

Below: An open letter to the Board regarding the adequacy of online Neighborhood Workshops. The workshop discussed below is scheduled to be on Zoom only, on Tuesday, May 23, at 6 pm. 

Zoom link:  https://kimley-horn.zoom.us/s/98962380195

To: The Board of Sarasota County Commissioners, Mr. Moran, Mr. Cutsinger, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Neunder

From: Tom Matrullo

Date: May 19, 2023

Re: Workshop for housing proposed next to Celery Fields Wetlands

A proposal for intense single family housing on some 49 acres along Raymond Road has lately come to the attention of the Sarasota community. As the Celery Fields is a beloved environment prized for its nesting and migrating birds -- a unique asset that brings tourists from all over the world, the cumulative impact of 160+ new homes in close proximity to these nesting wetlands raises a host of questions and concerns.

  

Part of site plan for Raymond Rd

In order to address important community questions that could involve everything from bird and animal life to ecotourism and water quality, neighborhood traffic, flooding, lighting and more, all steps in the planning process deserve to be handled with integrity.

To this end, I and others ask that you require a Neighborhood Workshop that will be held live (an online component could be included for those out of state.) I'm sure you've heard from citizens who have been frustrated when seeking to participate in various workshops via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Many citizens do not even use tools like Zoom, some do not own computers.

What's more, these online meetings depend on the developer's agent for their timing and informational quality. I can attest that at some online workshops I've attended, the information presented was minimal, the images were small and blurry, sound quality was poor, the question period was brief, and the opportunities for follow-up questions were non-existent. 

Given that the birding, hiking, fishing, kayaking and ecotourism at the Celery Fields are activities that mean a great deal to our citizens, the questions surrounding the impacts of this proposal go far beyond the number of homes, parking spaces, and entrances. An online Workshop will not do justice to the complications of this proposal.

A live workshop with stormwater quality experts, environmental and tourism personnel on hand as well as the developer's agent is warranted to address the full range of issues raised by this development.

For the sake of a fair, open process, please require a live workshop with appropriate staff to get the planning process off to a reasonable start. This project is likely to eventually land on your desks -- here's an opportunity to demonstrate that you understand our concerns and are doing what you can to allow the public to examine the potential impacts from this project's intensity and proximity fully and fairly.

Respectfully,

Tom Matrullo

--

citizens for sarasota

160 Homes Proposed next to Celery Fields Wetlands

A developer's proposal to build 160 single family homes on Raymond Road opposite the Celery Fields will be presented on Tuesday, May 23, beginning at 6 pm. The workshop will be online only. Concerned residents must use this Zoom link to attend:

Zoom link:  https://kimley-horn.zoom.us/s/98962380195

The land immediately south of Palmer Boulevard and across from the nesting area of the Celery Fields wetland has been mostly empty except for a few cows for many years. The property appraiser lists it here. 

The paperwork submitted by the planning firm calls for 160 homes to be built by D.R. Horton on the 49-acre site, but also suggests the number could be higher. 

Kimley Horn will present the Workshop, which will have no in-person gathering.

Although the Celery Fields is a publicly owned asset, the Planning Department only advertised the Workshop to homes within about 750 feet of the property.

About Neighborhood Workshops:

Neighborhood Workshops are a preliminary step in the planning process -- it gives the developer an opportunity to present a proposed project to the public, and receive public comment. 

With the arrival of Covid-19 in 2020, many public meetings moved online, including these workshops. This has led to a degradation of the value of this step in the process, for a few reasons:

1. Online, the presenters have made very brief presentations, leaving out important context. A complex plan for a Benderson project was presented in less than 10 minutes.

2. The public has no chance to view the maps and other data first hand. 

3. Some residents are not familiar with Zoom, or Microsoft Teams. In a recent meeting that utilized Teams, all that could be seen were small, blurry images, while the sound cut in and out. About half the meeting was inaudible. 

4. The online meeting is under the control of the planning firm hired by the developer. Some agents allow time for questions and follow-ups, but others end the meeting before attendees have all their questions answered. More on this here.

5. Advocates for fair land use planning have been asking the County Commission to return to live Workshops, but this one is still online only. The Zoom link should be live at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 23.

             Zoom link:  https://kimley-horn.zoom.us/s/98962380195 

The 2023 Florida Legislative Session

 A few slides from the 1000 Friends of Florida's May 17 Review of Florida's 2023 legislative session.

Bills passed: 

ESG Invesments explained

Bills that should have passed, but didn't:

This legislative failure is why a Right to Clean Water Amendment needs to be in the Florida Constitution.