Environment, Context, Vision

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Conservation Foundation seeks Rural Heritage Area

Public Notice from the County announces rezoning of the NW parcel of the Quads at Apex and Palmer from its open use rural designation to Government Use. Hearing scheduled for July 10, 9 a.m. It appears that the rezone is solely addressing the fire station portion of the parcel - 2 acres - leaving about 7 acres for another use yet to be determined.




At the eastern end of the 1,300 acres which the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast envisions for a Rural Heritage Conservation Area (this "central park" would contain the Quads, the Celery Fields, Big Cat Habitat and more) the Foundation is trying to preserve 24 acres near Tatum Ridge Elementary from yet another housing development. If the Foundation can reach its goal, he parcel would become a permanent conservation area set aside for the community's benefit. It currently has a horse farm on it.

If you have a little spare cash, please consider helping them meet a June 30 deadline to come up with an installment payment of $650,000. Your help would also demonstrate community support for the larger Rural Heritage vision.

If the County sees we care about this "Central Park" for East Sarasota, perhaps they'll be less inclined to expand industrial uses on our public lands at the Celery Fields.



Thank you.

Monday, June 10, 2019

June Update on Public Lands at the Celery Fields

Barely had June 2019 begun when two new proposals involving our public "Quad" parcels at the Celery Fields came forward -- one from a County Commissioner, the other from a private foundation. The differences in their approaches are revealing.

The Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast proposes to acquire 24 acres on Palmer Boulevard across from Tatum Ridge Elementary School to set aside for conservation. Currently it holds a horse farm called "Graceland," but a developer is seeking to put a housing development there -- 42 quarter-acre homesites.

The Foundation's vision goes beyond acquiring this parcel, however. Graceland, says Foundation President Christine Johnson, would be the easternmost parcel within a continuous area extending from the highway to Tatum Ridge Road: a 1,300-acre "rural heritage conservation area" comprehending the Quad parcels, Audubon Nature Center, the Celery Fields and a 140-acre wildlife conservation park that includes Big Cat and beyond to Tatum Road.

Under this plan, the 24-acre Graceland parcel would receive a conservation easement barring development in perpetuity. The land could be dedicated to equestrian uses benefiting the public: riding, hippotherapy, school visits, education, and more, says Johnson, who noted that several schools are nearby, including Tatum Ridge, Fruitville Elementary, McIntosh Middle, the Farm School, and more.

As the map legend below shows, the Foundation projects beneficial public uses on the Quad at Apex and Palmer, including an urban forest and wildlife habitat, a history center, a school bus shelter:


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The second new idea involving our public lands came on June 4, when Commissioner Charles Hines suggested selling the southwest public parcel (#2, 10 acres) to a developer of affordable housing.

Quads Parcels at Apex & Palmer
Mr. Hines noted that developers of affordable housing have not been knocking down his door, but didn’t articulate why. Perhaps, for example, the Board's willingness to tolerate developer overreach -- e.g. Siesta Promenade, LT Ranch, Waterside and more -- has disincentivized low-profit housing construction.

And, while affordable housing is indeed a goal that requires careful planning and policy incentives, Mr. Hines' fixing on public land that has been the subject of intense community interest for more than two years seemed to lurch suddenly out of left field.

In fact all four Quad parcels were the subject last year of a 10-month citizen effort to recommend compatible public uses that would rule out private industry. Sarasota Audubon has proposed an urban forest, others including Jono Miller have spoken of a history museum, a multi-use community estate, and more. Commissioners Al Maio and Mike Moran have both gone on record favoring sale to private industrial profiteers, including waste plant operator James Gabbert.

In January the Board found the Quads to be an area of critical concern, and, given the current narrow two-lane roads and levels of service, admitted that industrial development is not possible on these parcels. It ordered staff to reopen the Critical Area Plan, or CAP, for the area. This launched an in-depth, 11-month process examining all factors relating to potential uses of the public parcels -- roads, surrounding uses, trending demographic and environmental changes and much more. A public workshop held as part of the CAP process on May 14 brought out some 300 residents -- not a single one of whom spoke in favor of industrial development or affordable housing.

A Board decision approving affordable housing on parcel #2 by July 22 (Sarasota News Leader) will disrupt the methodical critical area planning now underway, as well as fly in the face of community and environmentalists' long-held views.

A view of "Graceland"

Clearly two very different approaches are exemplified here. The Foundation is advocating uses in keeping with the trends and surrounding human communities, integrating a long-range vision of a lasting rural heritage and wildlife conservation for future generations.

Mr. Hines conversely is promoting a quick fix to motivate the private construction of less costly housing, apparently without regard to how such an initiative would impact a host of significant social, environmental, economic and infrastructural concerns in a complex, radically changing area.

Another difference has to do with scope. The Foundation is looking wide and long term. The Board appears to be looking at one 10-acre parcel as if it existed in a spatio-temporal vacuum. The history, context and future of the Quad cannot be ignored -- which is why the county ordered the Critical Area Plan in January.

A credible CAP will form a faithful portrait of the entire Quad/Celery Fields area -- so that Sarasota as a community can assess the future needs and benefits of realistic options in a meaningful public process.

A lot is riding on this. If our elected officials have insufficient information, their decision-making authority is compromised. But if they have that information and choose to ignore it, a different public response will be needed.

It’s in our voting power to change the political landscape -- as dramatically as 246 species of birds have transformed the nature of a former industrial area. When good things happen -- like the Celery Fields -- they deserve prudent stewardship for all our citizens.

The Conservation Foundation seeks donors to help realize its vision

(This conservation effort ended June 30)



Sunday, June 9, 2019

Jono Miller: History and Natural History at the Celery Fields, Workforce housing elsewhere

This letter was sent to the Board of County Commissioners (Chair: Charles Hines) from Jono Miller, who proposes two new projects -- a history and natural history facility on one of the public parcels, and affordable housing near the bus transfer station and current Sarasota archive on Porter Rd.

Charles et al.

I'm writing in reference to the article in the Herald Tribune this morning regarding surplus lands and affordable housing. I applaud any approach to surplus lands that places what the land can do for the County or its mere cash value.

I don't know if any commissioner's have advocated using any of the quad parcels for affordable housing, but, based on the handout at the May 14th public workshop, we know the public has suggested co-housing development, tiny homes, assisted living facility, assisted living apartments with staff housing, adult day care, elder cottage housing, AND affordable housing. There's probably a need for all those, but I don't they they represent the highest and best uses for the quad parcels.

As I testified at the workshop, I think the question we should be asking regarding the three quad parcels (or any surplus land) is " What can be done here that benefits the community, that cannot be done elsewhere?" That's because at this time It is only the three quad parcels that have the potential to synergistically contribute to the Celery Fields Stormwater Facility (and de facto nature park). Uses that are either neutral or detract from the Celery Fields should be located elsewhere. What sorts of uses might augment the celery fields? Projects that build off of the unique aspects of the site -- aspects related to water management, agricultural history, bird watching, or outdoor resource-based experiences in general.

Having said that, I am supportive of using county land to facilitate workforce housing, but I don't think the County should be giving surplus land away for such uses. Selling at a discounted rate might make sense, but I fear eliminating land costs for some projects could render other potential workforce housing projects that have to buy land unfeasible and create a presumption that the County will provide additional land in the future, absolving entrepreneurs of the burden of making the numbers work otherwise.

I am once again attaching a proposal to maximize the potential of county land adjacent to the bus transfer facility (for workforce housing) as a means to maximize part of one of the celery field quad parcels (by co-locating cultural history interpretation with natural history). The ability to reduce the number of household cars by creating workforce housing adjacent to the bus transfer facility is an example of something that cannot be easily replicated elsewhere. Location, location, location. And using that land sale, even at discounted rates, to fund a complementary publicly accessible amenity at the celery fields would potentiate both the transit-accessible housing and the celery fields.

Sincerely,



Jono [Miller]

Documents included with letter:

Add caption



Regarding Critical Area Plan Scope: A Letter to Planning

Note: this originated as an email to the chief planner working on the Critical Area Plan authorized by the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners for the area of the public parcels at Apex and Palmer Blvd, often referred to as the "Quad" because they form the four quadrants at that intersection, adjacent to the Celery Fields on the east. See also here.
The four public lands known as the Quad parcels


Dear Steve Kirk,

I have been collecting some questions from our community that have come up since the May 14 Quads public workshop, and will list a few of them here. 

1. Will you be providing a transcript of your audio recording of workshop, and if so, where may we download it?
On this point, a video of the workshop is posted here - it's complete but for the first minute or so:
2. Thank you for sharing our community proposals on your site - will you continue to post proposals as they come in? I ask in part because I recently saw one from Jono Miller which has yet to be posted to the CAP site.

3. What are the tasks left in your timetable, which I understand could extend to November? 

4. When will your report be published? Will it be simultaneous with handing it to the Board, or in advance?




SCOPE


5. Can you help us understand in some detail the "scope" of your study? Allow me to explain why this matters. 

For our purposes, we believe your process will perform a very valuable service in meeting the objectives listed by the County:

As the county description below states, the purpose of a CAP is manifold:

The CAP approach looks holistically at development and existing communities by coordinating drainage, transportation, water and sewer, environmental systems and the protection of habitats.
  • Purpose and objective of a Critical Area Plan:
  • Provides a bridge between the general characteristics of the Comprehensive Plan and the specific nature of permits.
  • Provides information for evaluating future development proposals in critical areas of concern to ensure consistency with the Comprehensive Plan.
  •  Provides a public process for the planning, development and redevelopment and infill, of critical areas of concern and the adjacent areas. It does this through the consideration of historical resources, the environment, utilities, drainage, community services, transportation and land use.
Our question about "Scope" arises in relation to the specific dataset you use for your plan. If you choose to keep a very tight, narrow focus, you will see things that are near -- e.g. Gabbert's new Waste Transfer Facility and Mr. Waechter's warehouses, and the new fire station -- but limiting your data to this, you'll not capture the true profile and profound changes happening in the area.

    Robert Waechter's warehouses south of parcel #2
We believe that to fulfill the mandate of a CAP as outlined, the process must capture a rich profile of the many social, economic, natural, vehicular, eco-touristic, and environmental changes that have occurred to this area since the FLUM was last updated in 1985. To not take all these manifold changes into account would be to miss the most important empirical data and, quite possibly, the very purpose of doing a CAP.

I'm not a planner, but it seems to me that such data would include several items - some of which I mentioned at the workshop - here's a list, which surely can be added to. By the way, this is in acknowledged in the planning memorandum: “An analysis of the general conditions should be performed for the entire CAP area.”

At a basic level, the CAP process can gather layers of data, such as:

  • The rate of the area’s new housing, with prices over time, with radii showing distances from the Quads parcels;
  • The number of vacancies in the nearby industrial/office parks, and trends of vacancy rates in the various office parks;
  • Trends for rents in the nearby industrial/office parks;
  • The number of school buses and school children that are bused along Palmer Boulevard and Apex Road each school day;
  • Which schools currently run buses on Palmer Blvd., where these buses stop, the impact on traffic, the times they operate;
  • The time it takes cars going from a point on Palmer Blvd. -- say from Raymond Road -- to another point, e.g. Honore Blvd. (Take these traffic timing measurements now, and again after Mr. Gabbert’s Waste Transfer Station is in full operation);
  • Assess the impact of Mr. Gabbert’s operation on real estate values in the surrounding area;
  • Analyze the visual impact of Mr. Gabbert’s operation, smack in the line of sight of the Celery Fields for millions driving on I-75;
  • Obtain trending tourist visitation numbers for Audubon Nature Center and for Big Cat Sanctuary over the last 5 or more years.

Widen the scope further, and significant trending changes come into view:
  • Nearby developments include projects already underway like Worthington and Artistry, as well as others yet to start, such as sectors of the Fruitville Initiative (see, for example, this information about “Southwood Village”);
  • Potential synergies from the planned flyover that will bridge the highway to connect Benderson Rowing Park with Lakewood Ranch’s new Waterside development (5,100 dwelling units along with commercial and recreational uses), with road and trail links to the Celery Fields;
  • Palmer Blvd. should be looked at as a whole in this CAP process - it’s one road, and decisions on land uses will affect its performance east and west of the highway.

And of course the reality of change can't be addressed without including the time frame from 1985 to the pent-up demand of developers who are coming with giant new East County subdivisions, including:
  • More than 30,000 dwelling units planned (some already under construction) at Hi Hat Ranch; Waterside; the Fruitville Initiative; Pat Neal's project formerly known as Lindvest, with even more housing proposals on the way.
  • Detailed projections for needs - all these new residents will seek open space, recreation, community spaces, a “Central Park for Sarasota”;
  • New tourism options - such as a Visitors and History Center.- to connect with new potential synergies coming with the flyover connecting Benderson Rowing Park (and the planned relocation of Mote Marine) to Jensen's Waterside and down via Lakewood Ranch Boulevard to Coburn->Apex->the Quad parcels -> The Celery Fields -> Big Cat and more.
Please note - the above is all coming to you as a large question, regarding the scope and ultimate dataset of your study. It is consistent with our concern that the truly new, and unique natural and social profile of the area be fully taken into account, and considered within the context of current trends and future projections.

So our final question (for now) is this: Please give us some detailed sense of the tasks before you, and the extent to which they are designed to capture the data, trends, population projections etc. which we feel are basic to this vital decision about this vitally important area.

Thanks in advance,

Tom Matrullo with Glenna Blomquist, Gary Walsh, et al