SEERD Leadership Meeting

SEERD officers and Advisory Board members met Thursday with Jane Graham, Attorney from Sunshine City Law, who was recommended by Richard Grosso to lead the opposition to Special Exception 1874 at the County Board of Commissioners meeting on July 12th.

Jane is reviewing our analysis of, and objections to the actions of the County Planning Commission’s Public Hearing on June 15th.

In preparing her legal argument, she is consulting with a traffic engineering expert, who is now in the process of examining all of our technical studies and stipulations for possible mitigation, and she has already been in touch with the County to access important information.

Members of the community who are closest to the property in question - those of you who live closest to Bee Ridge Road across from the property in question in the Hammocks, and Heritage Oaks residents whose properties abut the back of the Grace Church property - who can attend the Public Hearing and feel comfortable in public speaking situations should contact us as soon as possible to coordinate your messages for the greatest impact. Jane has offered to host a Zoom meeting on Monday or Tuesday evening for those planning to attend and/or speak at the hearing. She will go over what seems to work best at these hearings and provide some suggestions for topics and how to present your views so that they resonate with the Commissioners and buttress the legal arguments that she plans to make. Please provide your name and email address if you would like to participate in the Zoom meeting to milestoder@hotmail.com and he will send you information about the day and time as well as a link that you can sign on with in order to join the discussion.

In the final days before the Public Hearing, we ask those of you that have signed our petition but have not donated to reconsider - the legal process is expensive, and your donations will be well spent.

We ask those of you who have already donated to ask yourselves if you can donate again. Our process is ongoing, and so is the need to finance it.

We still expect the Board of Commissioners to side with the TCA next week, and we only have 30 days in which to file an appeal, so the fight against this irresponsible development will only be able to be waged in direct proportion to the funds that we raise.