Other Sarasota County Land Use Plans and Development of Concern to the Bee Ridge Neighborhood

Hurricane Helene and its aftermath will sorely test our resolve. Thats true not only in Florida but also in adjacent states that many of us thought with elevation and distance from the sea are safe from the worst ravages of climate change. Here in Florida, unlike the recent extreme rainwater events impacting us inland, this time it was communities closer to the Gulf that suffered the most. Everyone is vulnerable. We wish our neighbors living and working on the barrier islands and along Sarasota's bays a speedy recovery. Clearly, we need serious leadership, innovation, enlightened public policy and investment to create the resiliency that truly sustainable development calls for. We will be looking more closely into these challenges in the months and years to come and hope to share our findings along with possible solutions with other Bee Ridge residents.

For those neighbors interested in the impacts of planned development and emerging land use conflict in and around the Bee Ridge neighborhood, aside from just TCA, and would like to be brought up to date, see our latest run down below.

SEERD, in partnership with other organizations that advocate for responsible development and well managed sustainable growth, are carefully watching and ready to challenge the following:

1. Pat Neal's 3H Ranch. The ranch recently received approval for its rezoning and Special Exception to build another master planned community of 6500 homes and 350,000 sq ft of commercial/retail space on a 2700-acre site along Clark Road, just west of Skye Ranch. The approval came at the Board of County Commissioner (BCC) meeting in Venice on August 27th where the county's devastating flood clean-up efforts were highlighted but the County had little to say about the causes and solutions needed to prevent future storm water management failures, destruction of property and impact on the lives of County residents and businesses. Aside from the cognitive dissonance on display giving approval for more large-scale development while the County has difficulty explaining, no less providing infrastructure and public services essential for its current residents, there were also a number of irregularities surrounding the application and leading up to the public hearing that are being looked into. Remarkably, two smaller development applications were turned down by the BCC the same week, but for the politically connected, no ask, no number of exceptions, and no distortions of the facts are too much. Do we just cry corruption, or do we fight against it?

   
   

2. Hurricane Debby Flooding, Stormwater and Sewage Mismanagement. The clean-up and fall out from Hurricane Debby flooding has been in the news and generated widespread anger and concern about the future of Sarasota. For those families and businesses directly impacted, many are unsure if and how to rebuild. Many more residents, probably a majority of those in the County, want answers as to how this happened. Just as important, people want to know what will be done to protect current residents and the extraordinary lifestyle we enjoy in Sarasota while addressing the question of how future growth can be managed more responsibly. The BCC has resisted calls for a "pause" in new development approval and an independent inquiry, that some political leaders called for immediately after the flooding. Instead, the go-to answer nonsensical and useless, of "holding a workshop" seems to be gaining traction, but even that has yet to be confirmed. One thing we do know is that some independent and knowledgeable individuals who are not connected to the County or any particular outcome, are exploring what happened and will be sharing findings and recommendations for change and improvement in terms of how we manage our storm and waste water and become more resilient within the next few months. Time is of the essence.

   
   

3. Hi Hat Ranch. This master planned community of 13,000-homes, schools, parks, commercial and retail space east of Rothenbach Park extending north-south from Fruitville to Clark Roads seems to be having start-up problems with its first "village" which was to be located directly east of the Bee Ridge neighborhood with access from Bee Ridge Road. Plans call for the first village to have 3000 homes with construction starting next year. It could be that delays surrounding the borrow pit and moving mined soil to build up the construction sites are at play. It could also be that improvements to Bee Ridge Road to enable construction vehicles access and shortly thereafter residents are being held up by the County with too many other demands on its capital improvement plans. In any case, should Hi Hat relocates its start-up village elsewhere to the north or the south of the vast property to take advantage of existing arterial roads that go further east such as Clark or Fruitville, it would be good to know as it will have direct impacts and demands for public infrastructure elsewhere. Clearly, we need to find out more and engage Jim Turner whose family owns the land (and sold the land that most of us in Bee Ridge currently live on) concerning his vision for the planned development and what can be done to make it fit and mitigate its impact on our adjacent communities. The absence of transparency and serious public involvement when it comes to site development of these master planned communities such as Hi Hat and 3H Ranches after they are given County approval is troublesome. This practice will test the proposition that this form of large-scale development is in the public interest and represents the best of what Florida's tradition of local self-governance has to offer.

   
   

4. New Charter School on Fruitville. The developer held a neighborhood workshop on August 28th to preview some revised plans for a Special Exception application to build and operate a larger K-8 school than what TCA had going at the First Baptist Church site before it moved many of its students to Bee Ridge this fall. Recall that the developer failed to get Planning Commission support earlier in the year largely due to access and egress concerns and the developer pulled its application from a hearing before the BCC at the last minute. Those attending the recent workshop gave the developer high marks for answering most questions and being fairly specific and transparent about the site development plan and how they intend to move traffic off and back onto a congested Fruitville Road. What they did not do is explain why new buildings are needed. It's not clear if the school is going to claim exemptions from local government regulations under Florida's HB 1275 signed into law in April and which provides certain exemptions for private schools to operate on Church or publicly owned property. SEERD and our partner organizations will be closely watching.

   
   

5. New Neighborhood Shopping Center. At the corner of Bee Ridge and Lorraine Roads, just west and south of the one lane roundabout, a five-acre parcel of land recently rezoned for commercial use awaits a buyer and developer. It is adjacent to the Publix shopping center which has lived alongside its residential and institutional neighbors for years. If the site is properly planned and managed, we believe that it could be an asset to a rapidly growing neighborhood with more traffic that will need to be accommodated and properly managed. We were concerned that by approving the rezone and amending the site's former owner's Bayside Church's Special Exception thus allowing a smaller percentage of its current property in open space for environmental, on-site stormwater management and consistency with the neighborhood, that the County Commission set another damaging precedent based on its growth at all costs approach to development. SEERD intends to monitor what happens to this five-acre parcel as it changes hands, and the unfortunate precedent set by its rezone, sale and modified Special Exception, as its future owners seek site development permits. Our interest is to ensure consistency with County development and building codes and to mitigate impact at this key traffic intersection, soon to become a choke point, surrounded by established land uses and property owners.

   
   

6. DR Horton's Celery Fields Development. 170 homes on a piece of land adjacent to the well-known Celery Fields sanctuary will be up for public hearing before the BCC in early November. The property which is currently open space and agriculture seems too strategic to fall to yet another cookie cutter housing development. Sadly, that is direction it is headed, even if it was underwater following Hurricane Debby because nature never intended it to be built upon and it functions as a vital portion of the already inadequate flood control system for the Phillippi Creek watershed. SEERD and most of our partners will be represented at the hearings, and we hope that all residents concerned about this unique natural asset and more responsible watershed management will participate.

   
   
   
   

There are other developments being planned and several already approved elsewhere in the county that merit watching. Those mentioned above are the ones currently on our radar because of their likely impact on Bee Ridge residents. Our ability to monitor and mitigate impacts depends directly on your contributions as volunteers and financial donors. SEERD was formed first and foremost to support and act as a watchdog for our neighborhood and consider the ramifications of allowing the Sarasato County Board of Commissioners to run rampant over our right to live in peace and tranquility. Please continue your support so that we and the partner organizations we are coordinating with can engage in the development review and permitting process adding the concept of "sustainable" to that of growth and land development.

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Thanks for your continuing interest and support to protect our neighborhood and way of life.

Miles Toder, Ph.D.

President, Sarasota East Enders for Responsible Development