Citizens for Sarasota County: A Win for the Birds

Thursday, August 24, 2017

A Win for the Birds

After 81 presentations from the public -- many which were brilliant, with little redundancy, covering a wide range of relevant, factual issues arising from the proposal from Mr. Gabbert, the Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to DENY all three elements of the plan for a waste facility at the Celery Fields.

A warm and sincere thanks to all who saw the rightness of this cause and helped keep our Celery Fields open, pristine, and protected - at least for now. Photos from the hearing here.

What will happen with the "surplus" public lands is anyone's guess.

On Friday, tune in on WSRQ at 2 pm on The Detail for a round-up both of the hearing, and of the Aqua battle happening in Manatee County.

Below is a very rough paraphrase of the final decisive minutes of the 8.23.17 hearing. It is incomplete and may contain errors and omissions. The Herald article has been updated to offer some more detail.

Tom Matrullo Commissioner Detert moves to deny Critical Area Plan amendment - as per the Planning Commission "because we own the land." Motion DIES for lack of second. Commissioner Moran moves approval of Critical Area Plan amendment.Seconded by Maio.

Tom Matrullo Al Maio - Mr. Gabbert and his team were very well behaved. I only heard two people mention "collusion" - everyone else behaved ok.

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Tom Matrullo Hines: The planning commission weighed traffic heavily. If we approve the critical area plan amendment, we can't address traffic concurrency. Also, we need to consider the Celery Fields. But looking ahead, throwing in last minute stipulations that haven't been tied down, haven't been written yet. I'm struggling here. Mitigations are being proffered to protect the area.

Tom Matrullo Detert - I think the area has changed so dramatically - in 1993 I'd have approved this, but now it's changed - so many residences; I think it comes down to property values. Mr.Gabbert is trying to do the right thing, and his business is worthwhile. We need to designate areas that don't have residences in them now. I think Mr. Gabbert missed the market.

Cathy Cannon Antunes Crazy.

Tom Matrullo Maio - the county put a landfill 3 miles from my house - we all deal with things we don't want. There are no hard hearts here.

Tom Matrullo Caragiulo - no reason to think Mr. Gabbert wouldn't operate in a competent and safe way. We have a problem with antiquated notification - 19th century way of doing things - doesn't foster trust.

Tom Matrullo Caragiulo - This thing - once it's out there, it has its own life - it can be sold, someone else can run it. It's our property - we own property on both sides all the way down. It doesn't square with the area the way it is now. Today It was a remarkably sensitive and substantive discussion. I watched the Planning Commission deliberation 6 or 7 times. I can't get over those concerns.

Cathy Cannon Antunes What about the industrial waste transfer facility 3 miles away? Is it the county's job to cannibalize that business? The one the applicant sold for $34 million? Sellers remorse?

Tom Matrullo Caragiulo - Dumping loads of information - whether it comes in the form of a stipulation or traffic data - doesn't fill people with confidence. I don't want anything to do with things that do not foster confidence in government.

Reply5 hrsEdited

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Tom Matrullo Moran: Thank everyone for patience and professionalism today. I got all kinds of misinformed email and fear-mongering. I thought we were miles away from a fact-based discussion, and what we heard changed my mind. Noise - it's near a roaring highway. Pollution - there's no evidence. It comes down to if not there, where? Contractors need an affordable option. I'm not discounting proximity to the Celery Fields. I lived near there. But I can't make my decision based on speculation, on what ifs. I was comfortable making my motion in favor of 2A.

Tom Matrullo Detert: I would like to speak against the motion. Every time we try to sell the property we are going to have this conversation - I think they missed the market on this. Part of our job is to design the best community we can design. We own this property - we should take it off the surplus list. I do not rule by survey - there might be 200 people here all in agreement - but that doesn't mean they represent the 400,000 people. But it was great - you were all great. I want two college credits towards a masters degree.

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Tom Matrullo Still over 100 people in the room.

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Tom Matrullo Moran's motion in favor of critical area plan approval FAILS 3-2. (Moran and Maio for, Hines Caragiulo and Detert against).

Tom Matrullo Detert moves to DENY the Critical area plan - passes 3-2 same vote as above.

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Cathy Cannon Antunes That's great

Tom Matrullo Motion to DENY rezone AND special exception - passes 3-2 - same votes.

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Tom Matrullo The Celery Fields live another day.

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