Oct. 15, 2019 Email to Sarasota Planning

Dear Mr. Osterhoudt, Ms. Grogg, and Mr. Kirk,

I wish to point you to a concept touched on in a story in today's Herald Tribune, entitled Celery Fields lovers keep an eye on the land next door.

The point has to do with the evolution of something new - unplanned, unanticipated. When this happens, and when it's a good thing, is it not in the public interest for this new beneficence to be recognized, its trending potential protected, and its future prospects planned for?

Is the best way to do this to act as if nothing has happened, and it's still 1975? 

It's not every day that a code-based bureaucracy has to grapple with a radically new natural phenomenon. But you know, that's where you might find something to be enthusiastic about -- a challenge to entrenched ways of seeing and doing, an unexpected grace of Nature that calls for an equally unexpected grace of human imagination and spirit.

It is profoundly disappointing that our elected officials have so far been unmoved by self-evident natural beauty and community commitment to the Celery Fields.

It's not clear from our reading of the CAP [Critical Area Plan] that you've taken a close enough look at the community that will be impacted by whatever goes on the Quads. How many of the questions below does your CAP actually explore?

Please request more time if necessary to do a full visioning plan for the entire Celery Fields Area. There is no rush - no one is at the door, seeking to build there. This would be a very good moment to explore the beauty and graces of the New.

Questions appended below.

Respectfully,

Tom Matrullo

There’s a great deal of knowledge about the area that this CAP should see as its duty to address -- real-life factors for thousands of people who now live there:

1. What do actual trends in the industrial park show in terms of vacancies, land prices, rental prices?
2. Why is no one seeking to purchase the MEC parcels in the 240 acres of the Fruitville Initiative for industry? 
3. Where are the vectors that would demonstrate the obvious fact that Board actions have changed the area in an overwhelming way to residential and recreational?
4. Traffic analysis should include the peak times, patterns and needs of the immediate community.
5. How many school children ride how many buses to school that stop on Palmer Blvd.? Why do they stop right in front of the Celery Fields Parking Lot and block all traffic in both directions? How can this be improved?
6. How many people use the Celery Fields, at what times of day, what days of the week, for what purposes?
7. How many groups use the Celery Fields for sports training, environmental studies, teaching, birdwatching, picnicking, stargazing, photography, dogwalking, kayaking, exercise, wedding photos and so many more purposes?
8. With evermore recreational users and visitors - human and avian - from elsewhere, what plans are underway to to meet  anticipated needs for parking and complementary activities such as a place to sit and enjoy a meal?

Without fully studying the area, how can you possibly plan in a way that offers reliable estimates of probable impacts?

Above except from Comment of Oct. 5.