The links below go to Background on the Southwest Quad - the one James Gabbert wanted for his WTF (Waste Transfer Facility).
The Board is now promoting a plan to move the Florida House to the SW Quad Parcel for use as a building industry showcase - in violation of the Easement the County granted with unanimous Board Approval in December 2019.
Thanks to Adrien Lucas for this selection.
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Mike Moran and Al Maio – the two commissioners who voted for James Gabbert’s giant, outdoor debris pulverizing plant on the SW Quad parcel – are now pushing a building lobbyist's proposal that would put a builder's showcase there, despite the fact that the proposal violates the Conservation Easement approved by the Board in 2020.
Excerpts below are from the 4.29.22 Sarasota News Leader article.
Making the motion, Commissioner Moran calls for ‘plenty of public input’ on proposal during future board meeting
Commissioner Michael Moran this week won the support of his other three colleagues to authorize county staff to start negotiating with the Manatee-Sarasota Business Industry Association over the future of the Florida House.
Formally, Moran specified county talks with the Business Industry Association (MSBIA) “and/or any nonprofit that’s affiliated with [it]” to take over the county’s lease of the 4454 S. Beneva Road site in Sarasota where the Florida House stands. That lease will end on June 30, 2027, county staff has noted.
Further, Moran called for allowing the MSBIA or the nonprofit to move the building before that lease expires.
The MSBIA has created a nonprofit organization called the Building Industry Institute....
The MSBIA proposal in a June 7, 2021 letter from its CEO, Jon Mast, to County Administrator Jonathan Lewis — plus comments from MSBIA board member Teresa Mast, who addressed the commissioners at an Open to the Public comment period during the commission’s Feb. 8 meeting — included the desire to move the Florida House to one of the Quads. Those four county-owned parcels are adjacent to the Celery Fields.
Although the latter area officially is a county stormwater management project, it also is an internationally known bird-watching destination.
In October 2020, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve a conservation easement over the Southwest, Southeast and Northeast Quads, in collaboration with the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast, which is based in Osprey, and the Sarasota Audubon Society.
Detert said she objected to Moran’s motion. “We haven’t had a lot of meetings about it,” she began. “We probably need to.” ....
She said she believed all of the commissioners have met with MSBIA representatives one-on-one. “You’re kind of writing a motion in favor of one corporation,” she told Moran. ....
When Chair Alan Maio called for the vote on Moran’s motion, Detert repeated her objection to it. The motion passed 4-1.
. . . leaders of the Florida House Institute — which has become Southface Sarasota — have adamantly expressed opposition to the MSBIA proposal.
... former Florida House director Matt Ross, who founded the company Eco$mart, in 1993, stressed to the commissioners during public comments on Feb. 23 that in his 29 years of working with the Florida House, he had “not seen the [MSBIA’s] presence at all.”
When the Florida House suffered through “lean times” in the early 2000s, Ross continued, “Where was the builders’ association? They weren’t there.”
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Some key takeaways:
1. The Board chose to promote one proposal – from a lobby, the Manatee/Sarasota Building Industry Association BIA – over Commissioner Detert’s motion to hear from staff about several options for the Florida House.
2. The BIA Lobby wishes to take for its own use a parcel that was given to the people of Sarasota (via two Environmental Non-profits, Sarasota Audubon and the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast) to protect a bird nesting preserve and to foster community with a civic use – a Sarasota history archive, for example.
3. The BIA Lobby wants to rezone the SW Quad to ILW – Industry, light manufacturing, warehouse – apparently not finding any incompatibility with the Conservation Easement.
4. The county’s own documents and Conservation Easement reflect the fact that the intent of the Conservation Easement was for civic or government use, and use by a private organization is expressly disallowed by its terms.
5. Those who have had long and intimate participation in the Florida House say the Lobby has lied in pretending to have helped the Florida House when it needed it, or taken any interest in it before now.
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| Audubon's Dubi presenting "Re-wilding" |
In a kind of "sneak preview" given on Tuesday, February 15 at the Audubon Nature Center, plans for three Quad parcels were unveiled.
The plans have yet to be agreed to by the County, but -- with hopes that all will go well -- they're pretty terrific.
This is just a brief update - we'll add more detail, especially after there's been a formal agreement with County planning staff and the Board.
For now:
Jeanne Dubi and Christine Johnson made clear that the goal is about "more than birds" - it will be "a teaching and learning site," said Dubi. It will be about re-wilding, buffering, restoring clean water, introducing plants, trees and other features that will attract a greater variety of birds, give them resting places as they migrate between continents, and areas for local birds to forage and nest.
The greatest changes will come to the southeast parcel. They include woodland habitat through new forestation, a meadow and a "ravine," with a bird blind and weir. The northeast parcel will include grading the bottom of the retention pond so that birds can wade without falling into deep water. The water from the retention pond would feed an entirely new feature, a "ravine" on the southeast parcel - coming under Palmer Boulevard then surfacing on that parcel (photos below).
Beyond bringing back the natural potential, there's room on the southwest parcel for humans -- parking, recreation, open areas with picnic tables, bathrooms. Six acres of this parcel were reserved by the County for a government building at the western end, next to James Gabbert's Waste Transfer Facility.
There will also be internships for folks interested in learning about water, soil, carbon sequestration, working with government, and more, said Dubi.
She credited the community with rising up to protect the Celery Fields, adding "we're all in this together."
A meeting with the County is coming soon -- we'll be watching to see how that goes.
A lot of thinking from a lot of people has gone into this - let's hope the county has the wisdom to embrace it all, and help see it through. The re-wilded Quads will need funding, and eventually an endowment.
The visuals will be open to the public beginning Saturday at the Nature Center.
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| The NE parcel |
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| Proposed bird blind for the Southeast Parcel adjacent to the existing Celery Fields |
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| The Southwest Parcel with parking, playground, picnic tables, bathrooms, open areas for recreation |
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| The meadow and path leading to the SW parcel's bird blind on the canal |
Visitors to this area -- there are many -- will think well of our county and its leaders for having created a gateway to East County, with its wide vista opening onto this special place. How many other counties can lay claim to a water management facility that birthed a bird habitat, a superb recreation area, and its very own mountain?
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| "Mt. Celery" |
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| Roseate Spoonbill |
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| Training to become a firefighter |
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| Citizen Suggestion for NW parcel: Bus Loop pavilion for schoolchildren |
Your confidence in both the Conservation Foundation and Sarasota Audubon is well founded. The planning department's Critical Area Plan offers practical means to balance interests and uses, fostering compatibility under a unifying gateway vision.
I invite you to apply three important lessons going forward:
Challenged by your community to produce a plan worthy of this place, you stepped up. The result is a natural treasure that developers and tourist venues feature in their marketing.
What happens from this point on can sustain the same high level if you remain transparently in touch with the community. We'll be paying attention, and we hope to be pleasantly surprised. - Tom Matrullo
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Update: After this blog post was published, a further exchange of emails between myself and county planner Steve Kirk took place. The upshot was some clarification of areas of concern. This exchange along with two recommendations for considerataion by the Planning Commission were then sent to the public record files as testimony to be included in the May 6 hearing on the Quads Parcels CAP:
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| The Quads 2021 The Sarasota County Planning Commission is set to consider the county's proposed Critical Area Plan (CAP) for the area that includes the Quad Parcels and Celery Fields at a May 6, 2021 hearing. The plan proposes rezoning the Quads to Government Use (GU) and delineates constraints and recommendations to preserve and protect bird habitat and create a open vista -- a green gateway to East County. County Planner Steve Kirk put a lot of thought into this presentation, which seeks to honor the intent behind the county's grant of a permanent easement over three of the four parcels (outlined above) to the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast and to Sarasota Audubon, which has had s strong commitment to the Celery Fields, and which will manage the future redevelopment of these parcels. Here's my email to the Planning Commission: As one of the founding members of the Fresh Start Initiative, a community group that spent 10 months gathering community input and recommendations for the Quads parcels, I invite the Planning Commission to weigh in on the CAP as it now stands. 1. The Critical Area Plan seeks to realize the vision of a Gateway to East County, with an open viewshed, and new, Audubon-guided bird habitat. It stresses a unifying compatibility of architectural styles, setbacks, building height and more. However, while these constraints will certainly enhance the three parcels under easement, the Northwest Parcel has 4+ acres of developable land that will simply be rezoned GU. This acreage could be developed by the County or sold to a developer, with options for light industry, commercial, or residential uses. |
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| Wide range of options for the NW Parcel |
It would make perfect sense for the Planning Commission to strongly recommend that the NW parcel's 4+ developable acres have binding language stating that any proposed use must be found compatible with the larger vision for the Quads and Celery Fields Area. A four-acre warehouse serviced by giant 18-wheelers on the Northwest parcel would hardly be consistent with the purpose of the perpetual easement, or for that matter with the roads and residential neighborhoods on and near Palmer Blvd. The Fresh Start group did present a few community suggestions for the Northwest parcel. One that would both be consistent with the easement vision and offer practical help to motorists would be a bus loop enabling schoolchildren to get on and off buses without stopping traffic both ways on Palmer.  The loop could have a pavilion with tables where children could sit out of the rain or strong sun, and perhaps eat a snack. Snacks could be provided by a rotating series of food trucks on an area set aside for this purpose. Not only would this use be an asset for our children and help the flow of traffic, but it would also fit with the fact that, as public land, the Northwest parcel already holds a brand new fire station in suitable Old Florida style. 2. Another noteworthy element of the permanent easement reserves the County's right to construct a building on six acres of the Southwest parcel. While the Board has spoken of using the land for a history museum, nothing in the CAP specifies this use, leaving open the possibility of some other Government Use on this parcel. GU, however, allows a great many things -- firing ranges, bus terminals and asphalt manufacturing among them. It would be a valuable enhancement to the Planning Commission review to recommend binding the use of the Southwest parcel to consistency and compatibility with the "Prime Directive" of the permanent easement: protection of bird habitat in the Celery Fields. Finally, it would help to remind our community that Sarasota Audubon has taken on the task of shaping the parcels under easement. It will be raising funds for the purpose and we all should be both grateful and mindful that the commitment of Audubon deserves the support of all those who love the Celery Fields. Very truly yours, Tom Matrullo  ====== |
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| The Celery Fields (photo: Tom Matrullo) |
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The Quads Parcels - County Photo |
Recording of Workshop Discussion (Video file 50 min)
Related: The Kimley-Horn planning firm held a Neighborhood Workshop on 3.30.21. On behalf of Benderson Development, they propose to revise the allocated retail space of the Fruitville Initiative. Benderson owns the 40-acre parcel that borders the northern edge of the Celery Fields.
More including documents at this link.
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| Kids at the Celery Fields |
Three of the four parcels, which were placed under a perpetual easement in 2019, are proposed to be designated "GU" -- Government Use. The easement was granted on parcels 1, 2, and 4 to the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast with the supervision of the Sarasota Audubon Society.
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| The Quads parcels |
One parcel -- #3 to the Northwest -- is proposed to be rezoned for a variety of possibly private uses, including light industry, on its "developable" four acres. This was done at the direction of Commissioner Al Maio. The northwest parcel already has a Fire Station.
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| Proposed rezoning designations Under terms of the Conservation Easement worked out with the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast and Sarasota Audubon, the easternmost 6 acres of parcel #2 (southwest parcel) can be used for a civic structure. A history museum has been mentioned as one possibility for that section. The remainder of parcels 1, 2, and 4 will be under Audubon supervision as natural habitat consistent with the existing Celery Fields birding areas. |
Monday, March 22, 2021 at 6 PM EDT – 7 PM EDT
Duration: 1 hr
Open to the Public
