Update: Benderson "Trojan Horse" could allow hotel development countywide

Further Update (posted Dec. 20, 2023)

We've just received notice from the Kimley Horn agent working with Benderson Development that cancels the Dec. 21 "neighborhood" workshop. The new date for the workshop is January 8, 6 pm.  The workshop is supposed to explain Benderson's effort to change the county Comp Plan in order to allow a large hotel on Siesta Key. 

The emailed notice from philip.dimaria@kimley-horn.com shares a personalized link that cannot be shared. We have asked Mr. DiMaria to send a universal link that would allow anyone to use.

The webinar information for "Siesta Key Village Hotel Neighborhood Workshop" which you previously registered for has been updated by the host.

Please submit any questions to: philip.dimaria@kimley-horn.com

Date Time: Jan 8, 2024 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device: 

Mr. DiMaria offers a Zoom link, but adds: "This link should not be shared with others; it is unique to you."

If you've not received an email with a personalized Zoom link, please contact Mr. DiMaria to ask for a link: philip.dimaria@kimley-horn.com 

.  .  .  .  .   

With startling speed, Benderson Development Inc. has scheduled an online workshop to tell the public why Sarasota County should not only allow it to build an 85-foot-high mega-hotel on Siesta Key, but also why it should change the code to allow such large hotels countywide. 

A letter sent to County Planning Director Matt Osterhoudt from Benderson's agent first justifies the change to Siesta Key's Code by pleading that tourism requires more hotels, and asks for speedy processing:

Mega-hotel out of scale with modest SK village?

We respectfully request that you forward this request for an out-of-cycle, privately-initiated UDC text  amendment to the Administrator at your earliest possible convenience with your approval and a  recommendation that the proposed amendment be processed and proceed immediately. 

After describing the amendments it wishes the County to approve on Siesta Key, the letter seeks to expand the specific area it is concerned with to include the entire county:

The Applicant also intends to propose a text amendment to the UDC to provide that Transient Accommodations are considered a non-residential use throughout Sarasota County. . . 

"It’s a Trojan Horse amendment!" says Siesta Key resident Neal Schliefer, who objects to Benderson's effort to reclassify transient accommodations. In an email to Citizens for Sarasota County, Schliefer wrote:

“A simpler, more straightforward classification” has no relevance for the definition of transient accommodations, which were defined as a residential use to help control density and intensity of use to protect residents and visitors in environmentally sensitive areas, such as flood zones.

If Benderson's proposed changes to the Comp Plan are adopted, they would basically undo the basis of Lourdes Ramirez's court victory, which found that the County's willingness to allow developers to circumvent density restrictions to build mega-sized hotels on Siesta Key violated the County's own code and rules for barrier island development.

In an emailed response to the new, lightning-fast Benderson proposal to change the rules, Ramirez wrote:

The truth is the rules that Benderson wants changed or removed have protected our island for decades. These laws were put in place for a reason which is to protect the lives of those who reside and visit Siesta Key.

A Dec. 15th Sarasota News Leader story describes what Benderson is proposing:

 . . . a 147-room hotel that would stand up to 85 in height, with six habitable floors over parking levels.

It then adds detail:

The project is to encompass retail space and a restaurant, as well, the box notes. The total square footage, the box shows, would be approximately 136,900 square feet. The box identifies that as “nonresidential,” in keeping with Benderson’s proposal for the Comprehensive Plan amendment to eliminate the counting of hotel and motel rooms for residential density purposes.

Anyone wishing to help with the Siesta Key legal bills can do so here.

Sarasota Baptist's planned development: Careless? Indifferent? Dangerous?

The Lake Sarasota community wants its children to be safe, but a housing development proposed for Hand Road by Sarasota Baptist Church (Proctor Rd.) poses potential design dangers that have been ignored by the developer and by Sarasota Baptist.

Read on to learn why this project has come to be seen as CARELESS, INDIFFERENT, and DANGEROUS by residents familiar with the complexities of Hand Road.

Nowhere in the proposal are these issues of concern to parents and residents addressed:

• Neighborhood children walking to Lakeview Elementary cross Hand Road at a blind curve to and from school each day.
• Parents and teachers are tied up driving to and from Lakeview Elementary on Hand Road every weekday morning and afternoon.
• Buses of children converge on Oak Park School on Hand Road at 9 a.m. 
• Everyone in Lake Sarasota knows to avoid Hand Road during school opening and closing every day.
• Lago Road to Hand Road is a straightaway heading into to a blind curve.
• The plan proposes two entrances/exits onto Hand Road.
• Sarasota Baptist fills with hundreds of cars every Sunday morning.

When informed about the new construction, a crossing guard who has guided children at the curve from Lago to Hand Rd. for the past three years said, "That’s crazy! The road can’t handle any more traffic."

Why CARELESS?

• The plan produced by Bo Medred of Genesis Planning & Development Inc. seems fundamentally flawed -- nowhere does it address these unique conditions. 

• Sarasota County has a rule that a traffic study is only triggered when a certain number of new homes are to be built. The plan from Sarasota Baptist and David Weekley Homes seeks permission to build 141 homes, but they proffered a commitment (binding?) to build no more than 87 luxury homes, which is below the technical trigger for a study.

• Despite "NO" votes from two members of the Sarasota County Planning Commission, that board recommended approval without ever taking up the question of WHY, given the complex conditions and the presence of children walking to school, NO TRAFFIC STUDY HAS BEEN REQUIRED.

Pember



•  Moving the discussion away from fellow board members' safety concerns, Planning Commissioner Colin Pember said, "'I don’t think traffic’s an issue,' . . . eliciting laughter from the audience members." (Sarasota News Leader) He then drove the vote to recommend approval of the project. Pember is the Division Director of Land Acquisition at Pulte Group.

Why INDIFFERENT?

• Efforts to raise these issues with Pastor Michael Lewis of Sarasota Baptist went without a response. When a co-worker of Pastor Lewis was contacted, she assured us that Lewis had received emails of concern from Lake Sarasota (sent via the church site), but indicated that he would not be available to take calls or to speak with residents. Emails sent to him via his site have gone unanswered.
• When local residents brought intimate knowledge of traffic conditions that raise concerns, the Planning Commission voted for the plan without any stipulations or recommendations to scrutinize our safety considerations.

DANGEROUS:

• Hand Road is a major access driveway for our kids and parents every day (8am and 3pm). It's an extremely important access for safe and protected access for young ones, and the currently proposed site plan reflects two additional roadway connections, and 160+ additional vehicles which will create increased safety risks. 
• How is the developer and the County and/or school board mitigating these concerns?
• The proposed development would create two entrances/exits - both on Hand Road - one near to the curve from Lago Road to Hand:

• Sarasota County Transportation states that only an "operational analysis" commissioned by Medred has been done. It does not address the volume of cars, the walkways children use, or the straightaway on Lago leading to the sharp curve to Hand Road. And, it doesn't use actual traffic counts, only misleading estimates. For example, it states that the traffic levels on Proctor Road have not increased in the past three years - anyone hearing this who lives or drives along Proctor would laugh out loud.

On Tuesday Nov. 28 the County Commission will consider and possibly approve this project. To watch the meeting, go to this site, look for Nov. 28. On Tuesday a link to the meeting will be next to the agenda link. This is Item #38 on the agenda. If you can make it to the public hearing, please come and speak.

The safety issues outlined above are only part of the issue raised by this project. For more, see this series of observations raised by residents, including a professional planner.

Parents and children walking to school on Hand Rd.

Please see the related Sarasota News Leader story on the Planning Commission hearing.

FEMA The huge public investment in the Celery Fields has paid off

 FEMA's statement on the success of the Celery Fields:

Sarasota County Drainage Project Protects Celery Fields

SARASOTA, FL – Sightseers in northeastern Sarasota County enjoy a natural bird habitat, walking trails, and scenic overviews in an area once flourishing with stalks of celery. An old machine that used to harvest celery and a series of canals remain as reminders of what local residents still call the celery fields. Even evidence of the annual flooding is gone.

Farmers designed the fields to retain water and nourish the celery crops, but development to the south continually flooded as new building subdivisions increased runoff and decreased the ability of the ground to absorb water. The slight southern slope of the land and the loss of natural turf, due to development, caused flooding when heavy rains fell.

The situation became critical in 1992 when 22 inches of rain fell over three days, and the resulting runoff inundated more than 200 homes in the former celery fields.

According to Kirk Bagley, Sarasota County drainage operations manager, the county not only wanted to find a way to safely reroute the water from the inhabited areas, but also ensuring that when flood waters were moved, they did not flood other homes.

Engineers analyzed the area’s flooding patterns and north-south water flows, and then developed a plan to control the water through a series of canals, ponds and mechanical flow devices. They created computer simulations with various flooding conditions and, upon review of the data, the design appeared to stop the damage without flooding other areas.

The county purchased the remaining former celery fields – more than 300 acres of property cut with ditches and framed by a series of canals. The design incorporated the canal infrastructure and added diversion gates, outflow pipes and controls.

After three years of construction on the first two phases of the project, the test came in November and December 1997 when two 100-year events (a level of flooding that has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year) deluged the flood-prone area. The design worked. Nearby homes were spared from flooding.

The county installed automated monitoring stations that allowed staff to watch the water levels remotely. Because of this remote operation, Bagley and his staff can track the amount of water in the canals, measure accrued rainfall, graph results and make appropriate decisions about holding and releasing runoff from the facility and control flow into the system.

To pay for the project, Sarasota County put into place a funding plan often used by cities: the county’s water division localized assessments. This way only those residents who benefited from the project paid for it, instead of taxing all county residents.

“We couldn’t do what we’ve done without the basin assessments,” Bagley said. “With them we don’t have to compete for the county’s general fund dollars.”

The county supplemented assessments for the $27 million project with a grant from the Southwest Florida Water Management District and funds from the state of Florida.

The celery fields project contained a hidden bonus for the county. The grass marsh created on the site lured many birds to nest in its high grasses and weeds. People drove for miles to watch the migrations.

A partnership between the county and the Audubon Society developed to enhance the natural bird habitat. Plans for a third phase will increase walking trails, picnic areas, park amenities and natural landscaping. Visitors will find signs that identify birds and plantings amid the pines, salt myrtles, and wax myrtles.

Water brought new life to the celery fields. What started as nourishment for agricultural land became aggravation for flooded homesteads, returned as a natural habitat for birds and became a great place for people to visit and enjoy the view.

Before 11.14: oppose "defunding" Sarasota's Public library's memberships

Sarasota Commissioner Mike Moran 

Kindra Muntz:

THE ISSUE:  Encouraged by the Sarasota County Commission’s recent swift approval of “medical freedom” and “Bill of Rights sanctuary” resolutions, several speakers at last Monday’s board meeting asked commissioners to “defund” the county library system’s membership to the American Library Association and the Florida Library Association over concerns about reading material made available to young people at local libraries.

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Call or send an email to our elected officials before 11/14. The County Commissioners may vote on this issue and they are getting lots of support to "defund" libraries by the wacky right wingers.  

Go to the Commissioner's Meeting on Nov. 14 at 9:00 and Anderson Admin. Bldg,. in Venice.  Fill out a card to speak to the issue.

 

WHERE TO SEND AN EMAIL:

Sarasota County Commissioners -         commissioners@scgov.net

State Senator District 22 - Joe Gruters - Gruters.Joe@flsenate.gov 

State Rep. District 73 - Fiona McFarland- fiona.mcfarland@myfloridahouse.gov

District 74 - James Buchanan - james.buchanan@myfloridahouse.gov 

District 75 - Michael Grant - michael.grant@myfloridahouse.gov

 

SUGGESTED EMAIL WORDING:

[Subject Line]: I support strong Sarasota libraries! 

Thank you for your support of Sarasota County’s public libraries. Libraries play a vital role in creating a strong community where education and information is available to everyone. They are community spaces where residents from all walks of life come together. It is critical that libraries receive the funding they need to serve our ever-growing population. As a taxpayer, libraries are very important to me and I encourage you to allocate sufficient resources to ensure our library system continues to be the best in the state. Strong libraries aren’t a luxury - they are a necessity for a thriving community.  An enlightened County like Sarasota deserves the very best libraries

Sincerely,

_______________

TO PLACE A PHONE CALL:

County Commissioners: 941-861-5000

Joe Gruters: 941-378-6309

Fiona McFarland: 941-361-2465

Jameas Buchanan: 941-429-4560

Michael Grant: 941-613-0914

 

Sample Phone Script:

Below is a sample script you can use when calling your elected representatives in support of libraries. Please feel free to personalize these comments. 

Hello, my name is ___________________ and I live in District ________________. I believe strongly in the importance of public libraries and want to thank you for your past support for our Sarasota libraries. I urge you to please consider increasing the funding for our libraries so they can continue to meet the needs of our growing community and can keep pace with inflation and the rising costs of books and materials. Professional, well-resourced libraries are essential for our quality of life in Sarasota. Thank you for considering my request.

Talking points to protect the Celery Fields

DR HORTON 171-home high-density project on Raymond Road

From the Nov. 10 Sarasota News Leader:

The Sarasota Audubon Board is urging its members and opponents of the D.R. Horton initiative to contact their county commissioners to express their concerns. Audubon has included a link to “Talking Points” for those communications.

Among those points are the following, with the organization’s emphasis:

• “The Celery Fields is a wildlife, birdwatching, and recreational paradise in the heart of Sarasota attracting thousands of local residents and national and international tourists annually.

• ”The Celery Fields is a highly regarded, award-winning feat of creative planning — a triple purpose public facility: 1. a storm water control and cleansing operation, 2. wetlands protected as a natural haven for local and migrating birds and other wildlife, and 3. a place for people to walk, exercise, kayak, and learn about the wildlife of our area.

• “The Celery Fields represents Sarasota County’s remarkable achievement in highlighting and preserving the importance of ecosystems, wetlands, native and migrating creatures, and human relationships to all of these treasures.

• “This crowning achievement in civil engineering and in public/private cooperation must not be jeopardized. All these ecological and practical values, underscored by the millions of dollars invested in realizing them, require any impinging development to be examined with extreme care and attention. Just as a dumpsite or commercial development would be totally inappropriate, a housing subdivision would likely destroy or devalue what has been achieved. There is no way to guarantee that the Celery Fields would not be negatively impacted. Once done, it could be destroyed forever.

• “There are an estimated 100,000 visitors a year to the Celery Fields — photographers, nature lovers, walkers, joggers, bikers, families, and education groups — providing an enormous boost to the local economy. Since the pandemic, interest in eco-tourism and birding has surged greatly in popularity. Just this season (Oct – May 2023), Audubon has recorded over 31,000 visitors for bird and wildlife viewing, and for its education programs.

• “The Celery Fields has two famous and incredible boardwalks out into the wetlands — one from Palmer Boulevard and one from Raymond Road. On each of these boardwalks, Sarasota Audubon has Bird Naturalists who volunteer with telescopes and binoculars, and are stationed every day, October through May, to enhance visitor birding and wildlife viewing experience. Visitors come from all over the United States and the world to enjoy the wetlands. Increased vehicular and pedestrian traffic from a high-density development will negatively affect access, use, and safe approach to these boardwalks for birders, tourists, and their cars.” 

Estimated trips added by 171 high-density homes on Raymond Rd. (courtesy of SNL)

More information from Sarasota Audubon is here

Write to: 

District 1 Commissioner Mike Moran          Mmoran@scgov.net

Copy all five Commissioners by cc'ing        Commissioners@scgov.net
County Planner Tana Spencer                     Tspencer@scgov.net

In your email you can also cc:  

Head of planning Matt Osterhoudt:              mosterho@scgov.net 

Head of Park Nicole Rissler:                        nrissler@scgov.net 

Sarasota Audubon                                        info@sarasotaaudubon.org

Citizens for Sarasota County:                      sarasotavision@gmail.com

Unsure of your district? Click here

Commissioner emails by district

The community is being exiled from planning

Letter sent to Sarasota's Planning Director and Commissioners. The issue is the decay and distancing of planning as it is no longer live or really interactive: 

 

October 5, 2023

Dear Matt Osterhoudt and Commissioners:

Not so long ago, county Neighborhood Services took charge of arranging Neighborhood Workshops. Staff were very involved with securing a venue, provding supplies, making sure the right people from County government were there and all else.

When did this get delegated to the developers?

Now, developers or their planning agents decide whether a workshop will be held online or in person. Since that decision, I've not heard of a "neighborhood" workshop being held in person. What's more, the entire Zoom or Meet or Teams encounter is controlled by the developer's agent, who decides what images are shown. Glitches due to loss of sound, blurry images, and more have been known to occur. Even more, the county does not require the video recording of the workshop, only audio. Recently I had the experience of trying to follow a Zoom discussion - audio only - maps, locations, stormwater design and much more were discussed, but I and any other auditor were literally in the dark.

Now on MeetUp there is what's known as a "hybrid" event: 

Under the “Hybrid” tab, you can enter the physical location of your event, and also provide a link to attend the event online through a video conferencing service like Zoom. In fact, with Meetup’s special Zoom integration, you can create your virtual event link directly within the “Hybrid” tab.

 

The virtues of this flexibility are manifold and are discussed here:

https://www.meetup.com/blog/introducing-the-hybrid-events-feature-for-meetup-pro/

If the county wishes to still include residents in this process, please consider requiring live workshops, with the hybrid format as a further option.

Respectfully,

Tom Matrullo

Red Tide: Jono and Julie interview Cris Costello - plus an RtCW update

 If you have an interest in understanding Red Tide, or in how some of the local resources like Mote Marine have interpreted red tide phenomena, you might find this interview with Chris Costello of the Sierra Club eye-opening.

Here's the intro from environmentalists Jono Miller and Julie Morris:

Today's Guest: Cris Costello, Senior Organizing Manager of the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club. Get ready to learn about the Legislature and fertilizer, offshore fish farms, and remember that time back in 2014 when 3 out of 4 of us voted to buy more wild land? The government still hasn't complied. 

The show airs Tuesday's at 9 am on WSLR. 

Interview with Cris Costello, WSLR, Tues. July 11, 2023

WSLR archive 

How to listen to WSLR online 

===========

Here's an update on where Petitions to create a Florida Constitutional Amendment for the Right to Clean Water can be obtained and dropped off. 

Questions? Contact Rona Turek.

Wetlands can protect developments (but developments can destroy wetlands)

On June 21, we wrote to Kelly Klepper of Kimley Horn, asking for an update on timing of the DR Horton submission of its plan for 160 homes on the Raymond Road farm to the County's development review coordinating committee (DRC). Still waiting to hear back.

Here's a story from Marketplace.org that offers the kind of vision, common sense, awareness of science, and human ingenuity that we could use more of in Sarasota.

It's about restoring wetlands along the northern Mississippi River in Wisconsin. They're finding that wetlands protect developments that banks are invested in. In fact, banks love these wetlands, and some even offer better interest rates to developers who restore them.

    Mike Sertle, who manages wetlands restoration projects on the Mississippi River for Ducks Unlimited, motions how high the water can get in a roughly 250-acre restored wetland behind him in Southern Illinois on May 24. Eric Schmid/St. Louis Public Radio

Is there something here we might apply to our Celery Fields, and to the proposed DR Horton heap of homes across Raymond Road from them? 

I've put some notes below, but the story is available at this link - it's only a couple of minutes long:

As Mississippi Riverfront development booms, wetlands become crucial to stave off flooding

NOTES 

• Climate change - Riverfront developments
• The river is a tourist draw - parks, kayaking, fishing, birding
• Developments - multi-million$ want to tap into natural river activities.
• Wetlands restoration to manage water - Raskie slough - 60 acres of tall grasses, shallow ponds - birds abound - this slough can hold excess water, but eventually it flows back into the Mississippi - 
• This Mimics a natural system - $250,000 to restore wetland 
• Stem flooding from snow melts - Lacrosse Wisconsin  - pumps move from lower areas to wetlands, stores it there - marsh in the city

Having nature "work for them" reduces risk, plus, banks offering loans - give better interest rates on developments that preserve wetlands because the “wetland creates a natural buffer to protect what we’re buying/paying for.”

Your thoughts are most welcome. 

A local contact for the Right to Clean Water Amendment

A message from Sarasota's local contact point for the Right to Clean Water:

My contact information for The Right to Clean Water is ronaturek@gmail.com —

I'm the county ambassador for the initiative and should be contacted by any seeking more information as well as those wanting to help get this proposed amendment to the state constitution on the ballot for the voters to decide whether they want clean and healthy waters. 

Our legislators have doubled the number of signed petitions required for a citizen-initiated petition drive. By a deadline in this November, we need 900,000 signatures of registered Florida voters on our petitions to qualify for placement on the ballot. So we need your signatures and volunteers who can help for as little as a couple of hours one day gathering signatures, recruiting and informing their neighbors, helping at public venues, and spreading the word to voters in any Florida county.

Anyone may volunteer to help with this initiative, clean water is a concern to all — even if not a registered Florida voter, anyone here is concerned about unhealthy waters — and the other critters will benefit as well. 

website —  https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/

petition — https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/petition

donations of any amount  —  https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/donate 

walkup location - to sign petition or leave signed petitions —

Architectural Salvage

1093 Central Avenue
downtown Sarasota
Monday-Saturday

volunteer petition gatherers will be at many public venues and events

 

local contact   ronaturek@gmail.com 

• get blank petitions   
• return signed petitions to us locally
• get yard signs
• get questions answered  
• volunteer locally  
• arrange for a speaker to your neighborhood, group, organization

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