Making Things Much Worse Indeed

Making Things Much Worse

On Planning

BY GENE KUSEKOSKI SRQ DAILY 

SATURDAY PERSPECTIVES EDITION 

SATURDAY DEC 8, 2018 

On the impact of Benderson's Siesta Promenade on its surrounding area,Gene Kusekoski, president of the Siesta Key Association, says this:

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"The problem with the current Siesta Promenade proposal is EXACTLY about the “What" and the "Where." If this project was being proposed by the most universally beloved organization on earth, it would still be facing strong opposition because it is quite simply the wrong size and scale for that location.

"Adjacent neighbors who used to have landscaped single-story mobile homes across the street would now be looking up at 40- to 85-foot buildings. Their neighborhood streets that are barely wide enough for two cars to pass would be flooded with hundreds of cars going in and out of the development." 

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Yet: The County (prodded by Bob Waechter and Bo Medred and Jim Gabbert) keeps saying that industry is appropriate at the Celery Fields because it is already there (although it's mostly set back and not on Palmer Blvd.). Why would the county cite existing compatibility with something as a reason for more of same at the Celery Fields, but go along with a radical shock to a settled area that is full of people, not industrial operations?

The 360-acre Celery Fields dwarfs the small old industrial area to its left, set back from Palmer Blvd.