Reluctant Heroes

Two SEERD members that live in Heritage Oaks, Brenda Stocks and Steve Higgins, just sent out information to their neighbors in the community, bringing them up to date on the situation at the Grace Church property. It is so well written that I thought that all of us at SEERD could benefit from reading it:

Dear Friends and Neighbors, A sincere welcome back to our returning members. It was an interesting summer at Heritage Oaks. As you have probably noticed the landscape at the north end of our community has changed dramatically since you left last spring. The Classical Academy of Sarasota’s petition to relocate to the Bee Ridge property bordering our community on the North was initially approved by the Planning Commission followed a few weeks later by the County Commission. During both hearings your friends and neighbors made impassioned pleas for the Commissioners to abide by their own policies and rules to deny The Classical Academy’s petition to relocate. Members of Heritage Oaks and nearby neighborhoods testified in person at both hearings and provided literally hundreds of written comments in support of our position, with the issues of noise, traffic and lighting of particular concern. When the school opened in August for 300 students the approval by the County Commission called for either a traffic light or roundabout to be built on Bee Ridge Road before the 301st student was brought from their current Fruitville Road location. We have no way of knowing when that student will arrive, but there have been no apparent plans to date about how to cope with the increased traffic that will result from this influx. Please remember that there is no bussing, so students are being brought to school in private vehicles. At completion of the build out, present plans call for the school to have a maximum enrollment of over 1500 students and staff— quadruple the present enrollment. Leading up to the Commission meetings a group of East End residents had begun to organize a community effort to keep our area the peaceful place we call home. SEERD (Sarasota East Enders for Responsible Development) has been an active force in attempting to eliminate or at least mitigate the adverse impact of the TCA relocation. As such they hired a land-use attorney, and an appeal of the County Commissioners approval was been filed in Sarasota Circuit Court. SEERD, Brenda Stocks and Steve Higgins are named as plaintiffs in this action. A judge has recently been assigned to the case, and we are waiting for a court date to be set. Meanwhile, we have been monitoring activities at the property since the new school year began. One of the first things you have noticed in driving past the school is that there are at least 40 trailers stored on the east side of the property, apparently intended for use as modular classrooms. The development plan approved by the County did not include the use of such classrooms, and as a result SEERD filed a complaint with the County Zoning Enforcement office. On September 11 Sarasota County issued a Notice of Violation and Order to Correct directive. The County gave TCA until October 9 to remove the trailers or face daily fines of up to $500 per day. We found out today that the Notice of Violation will be heard by a Special Magistrate on January 12 and the fines will begin on that date if the Magistrate rules against TCA. We believe this hearing will be held in Sarasota and ask you to mark your calendars for a show of support during that hearing. Last week an Order to Show Cause was issued against both the Sarasota County Board of County Commissioners and the Classical Academy. In this case the Commissioners and Classical Academy have 30 days to respond to the court (11/29), and then our attorney will respond within 20 days (12/19). Our attorney is pleased and excited about the recent results. SEERD.org is an all volunteer organization and is working hard in support of our East End residents. They have been fund-raising; however, the legal work to challenge the modular classrooms was an unexpected legal expense that cut into funds ear-marked for our appeal of the Special Exception. We are asking those who are returning to the unexpected changes in our neighborhood and share our concerns to join with our fellow members, neighbors, and friends to donate on the SEERD.org website. Many members have already donated several times, and we are asking for your continued help with this appeal. We know some of you have tried and been unable to donate on their website. If so, please mail a check to Sarasota East Enders

for Responsible Development, P.O. Box 182, 8350 Bee Ridge Road, Sarasota, 34241. A huge thank you to those who have already donated, and a plea for help from our returning friends. With sincere thanks, Brenda Stocks and Steve Higgins For those of you who are interested please see the following attachments with the Notice of Violation and Order to Correct and the Order to Show Cause.

ENF-COD-23-000108 (2).pdf

Download PDF • 321KB

order to show cause (1).pdf

Download PDF • 411KB

Brenda & Steve end their letter with a humble thanks to our donors, but I think we need to thank the two of them for agreeing to take on the headache of becoming appellants in our suit. They agreed unselfishly to represent all of us in the fight to preserve our community.

Each of us can thank them by acting on their wishes by donating. It's against every guideline of best practices to suggest a donation amount. Be that as it may, I'm suggesting that whatever you feel comfortable in donating, the last digit should be a nine (59, 109, 159, etc.) so that we know that each of you are thanking our reluctant heroes, Brenda & Steve, for stepping up.