"Sprawl at its worst" - Lobeck on Hi Hat

 

Hi-Hat Villages: Sprawl at its Worst

Attend the Public Hearing 

Wednesday, Sept. 8  1:30 pm

Sarasota County Admin. Bldg., 1660 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota

Email the County Commissioners

The Hi-Hat Villages Master Development Plan and Comprehensive Plan amendment return for a final public hearing and vote of the Sarasota County Commission this Wednesday,  September 8 at 1:30 pm at the County Administration Building, 1660 Ringling Blvd. in downtown Sarasota.  This extreme urban sprawl, with no plan to handle the massive traffic pouring west from the development, deserves an outpouring of opposition from the community.

On June 9, the Sarasota County Commission voted unanimously -- with no discussion of the issues -- to give initial approval to the massive Hi-Hat Villages development far east of I-75, on the vast lands between Fruitville and Clark Roads.  That followed 20 speakers against it, expressing often detailed objections, and no speakers in favor other than the developer representatives, and County staff.

County Planner Todd Dary even opened his presentation to the Commission and the public with an outright lie -- it can't fairly be called anything else -- about who will pay for the millions of dollars in needed road improvements to handle the traffic from the development.  Referring to the proposed Master Development Plan, Dary stated, "It makes clear that roadway costs will be the responsibility of the Master Developer, not the County." 

To the contrary, the Plan makes the developer responsible for just a portion of the massive road improvement costs. The Plan even then goes on to excuse the developer from its share of the costs if it instead commits to “other traffic mitigating measures” such as "the promotion of telecommuting, ride sharing or transit” acceptable to Sarasota County and “that are intended to eliminate the impact from Hi Hat Ranch development on the deficiently operating facility(ies).”  (Paragraph 11.A.6.b -- See more below on that). 

Unlike the strong and specific objections stated by scores of speakers, Mr. Dary stated, "Staff has no outstanding issues of concerns."

After a cursory state review, the Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Master Development Plan now returns for a final adoption public hearing on Wednesday, September 8.

In addition to the traffic and other issues detailed below, a major objection is the change of 1,200 acres -- shown in lavender within the oval in the graphic below -- from a "Hamlet" designation of one unit per acre to "Village" at 5 to 6 units per acre, the same as the rest of the development, shown as blue in the graphic. [emphasis added]

 

Although the developer says that it is just expanding the area in which it will spread its densities, at no total increase, nothing would prevent a future application to increase it further once that capacity is added.  And in any event, the change would include moving the Countryside Line further east, increasing urban densities and traffic that are disruptive to the rural lifestyle now enjoyed by residents in that area.

Alarmingly, the developer bases its request for that density increase on a desire for "flexibility to respond to market demands."  If that's all it takes for a developer to justify urban sprawl, then there is effectively no limit to developers getting whatever they want, despite the impacts on the rest of us.

A longtime defender of rural living, Becky Ayech of the Miakka Community Club, has organized a campaign to urge residents throughout the County to email Commissioners objecting to this pernicious plan.  More information about that effort is at Becky's Campaign Against Sprawl.

After reading the additional information below, please attend the Wednesday hearing, speak if you can and in any event please consider adding your voice to this effort by emailing the Commissioners with your concerns at the email addresses in the link above or at:  Sarasota County Commissioners

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• Sarasota County is barreling towards rampant, uncontrolled urban sprawl east of I-75.

• Traffic congestion, tax hikes and other ills are inevitable unless there is a pause for better planning.

• The latest threat is the proposed Hi Hat Ranch Villages development east of the Bee Ridge Extension all the way between Fruitville and Clark Roads.   This massive urbanization of urban lands is for 13,511 houses, 450,000 square feet of commercial and office development, school facilities and a regional sports complex.

• There are several issues with the proposed Master Development Order and Comprehensive Plan Amendment, which include moving the "Countryside Line" further east to allow more density on 1,200 acres south of Fruitville Road, and impacts on area wells.

• But perhaps most alarming is the County's total lack of planning for the road impacts of this and other huge developments being allowed, all at the same time, east of I-75, under the Sarasota 2050 Plan.

• Proposed Transportation Condition 11.B.7 in the Hi Hat Master Development Order provides that each rezoning in the development shall evaluate the need for widening or building only four road segments.  They are two segments of Bee Ridge Road, a new North/South Roadway B on the east side of the development, and Fruitville Road between that roadway and Lorraine Road. 

• That is despite the fact that the Traffic Study has identified sixteen road segments which will need improvements to handle the traffic from the Hi-Hat Ranch development, including the need to widen Clark Road.  

• Further, Transportation Condition 11.A.6 of the proposed Hi Hat Master Development Order provides that no Development Orders throughout the development shall be approved if certain biennial monitoring of traffic impacts shows a roadway becoming congested below the adopted level of service unless one of two alternatives conditions are met. 

• The first alternative is that “funding commitments” are made sufficient to resolve the deficiency (with the developer paying its proportional share for the new capacity and the taxpayers paying the rest).

• The second alternative -- now get ready for this, because it is actually in there -- is that the Development Order gets approved if it includes “other traffic mitigating measures” including “the promotion of telecommuting, ride sharing or transit” acceptable to Sarasota County and “that are intended to eliminate the impact from Hi Hat Ranch development on the deficiently operating facility(ies).”

• That loophole is astonishing.  If the developer commits to promote ridesharing and telecommuting (perhaps with flyers given to purchasers), and “intends” -- intends -- that to be enough to take care of the traffic, and if County staff signs off on that, the developer is good to go gridlocking County roads in reality.   (“Whoops, sorry about that, but we really, really intended our promotion of ridesharing to keep the roads drivable.”)

• Policy VOS 2.9 of the Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan (in the Sarasota 2050 provisions) requires that each Village development “shall provide adequate infrastructure that meets or exceeds the level of service standard adopted by the County and be Fiscally Neutral or Fiscally Beneficial.”

• Instead, the Conditions proposed for approval on Tuesday are woefully inadequate to comply with that requirement. 

• And the County has not even done a study showing who is going to pay for all the road improvements that will be needed and are in part planned east of I-75 that the County Commission is in the course of approving.

• Recently, the County Commission even approved an amendment to the Future Thoroughfare Plan requested by developer Pat Neal to increase east County road expenses by rerouting a planned southerly extension of Lorraine Road from hugging the Interstate south of Clark Road to instead swing out to the east, through two nature preserves, for what staff acknowledged was to "open up more land for development."

• Ben Franklin and others said that a failure to plan is a plan to fail.

• More planning is needed in and for the Hi Hat Master Development Order, for the protection of the people both east of I-75 and all motorists and taxpayers, before it deserves any chance to be approved.

• Please attend the final public hearing on Wednesday September 8 and tell the Commissioners to put the interests of drivers and taxpayers ahead of just the interests of the big developers.

• And whether or not you can attend, please email the Commissioners to ask them to vote "No" on this bad move, at:

• Email the County Commissioners

Thank you,

Dan Lobeck
For Control Growth Now

Here Is the Control Growth Now Website