Final Hearing for the Quads Parcels June 9

 

Public Hearings Regarding Amendment to the I-75/Fruitville Road Major Employment Center Critical Area Plan, and Rezone Petition (Quads Parcels)

Date:       June 9, 2021 Time:      9:00 a.m. or as soon thereafter as possible Location: Sarasota County Administration Center, County                   Commission Chamber, 1660 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota FL

The Sarasota County Commission will hold public hearings on amendments to the I-75/Fruitville Road Major Employment Center (MEC) Critical Area Plan (CAP), and the rezoning of three of the County-owned "Quads" parcels.    In October of 2019 County staff completed a CAP study that identified the proposed CAP amendments intended to preserve the open character of Quads parcels. In October of 2020, the County Commission granted a conservation easement over three of the Quads parcels. The proposed zoning change of the three Quads parcels to Government Use (GU) will allow uses consistent with the conservation easement.

All interested parties are invited to appear, be heard, and submit relevant evidence. A complete draft of the proposed Ordinances are available during normal business hours in the Planning and Development Services Department at 1660 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota, Florida. Supporting documents will be available the Thursday prior to the public hearing at www.scgov.net, Meetings and Agendas (Meetings on Demand) to view or download. Written comments will be considered and may be sent to the Planning and Development Services Department prior to the public hearing at the above address or by e-mail to planner@scgov.net. The public hearing may be continued from time to time as announced by the Board. For more information, telephone 941-861-5000.

For more information about providing public input, go to: www.scgov.net/publicinput.

Sarasota County prohibits discrimination in all services, programs or activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, sex, marital status, familial status, religion, or genetic information. Persons with disabilities who require assistance or alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.), or who wish to file a complaint, should contact Sarasota County ADA/Civil Rights Coordinator, 1660 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota, Florida 34236, Phone: 941-861-5000; TTY 7-1-1 or 1-800-955-8771, E-mail: adacoordinator@scgov.net

Thank you for your time and interest in this effort! We appreciate your feedback!

Planning and Development Services Planning and Development Services provides unincorporated Sarasota County with land use services in collaboration with businesses, residents and neighboring jurisdictions to build a sustainable, prosperous community that distinguishes Sarasota County.

Planning and Development Services | planner@scgov.net | 941-861-5000    www.scgov.net/PDS

New Power Lines will not be near Celery Fields

FPL has made its decision on the route of the new transmission lines that will support growth in East Sarasota County, and it's the choice preferred by the communities near the Celery Fields, Sarasota Audubon, and the Fresh Start Initiative -- the route along Clark Road:

FPL Power line route along Clark Rd (click image to enlarge)

Celery Fields advocates and residents had expressed concern at an optional route that would have taken the tall power lines along Palmer Blvd and Apex Rd. near the birding, wildlife and recreation area. Here is the communication from FPL manager Rae Dowling:

After an extensive route selection study by the project team, that included feedback from a diverse Community Advisory Panel, an open house meeting, and meetings with neighborhood groups and community leaders, I’m writing to let you know that Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) has selected its preferred route for the proposed Bobwhite-Howard 138 kV transmission line. On behalf of the entire project team, I want to thank you for your participation in our Community Advisory Panel and for the time you invested providing your perspectives for us to consider in our study.  Having the perspective of our customer’s voice in important to us and we truly value your contribution to this important project. The preferred route, which is included in the attachment to this email, follows along almost the entire 13-mile length of existing FPL transmission and distribution lines, a siting criteria consistently endorsed by our customers. Route surveying work will begin on this project this month.  If you have any questions, please contact myself at the numbers below or Daniel Hronec, P.E., Project Manager at (561) 904-3638 or by email at Daniel.Hronec@FPL.com. Thank you. 

For a happier new year for the Celery Fields

Chuck Behrmann's photos at the Celery Fields speak eloquently to the special nature of Sarasota's unique bird sanctuary. The pristine protection it affords over 226 species of birds was not the result of some government plan.

Wise governmental stewardship would acknowledge Nature's gift and do everything to protect it from harsh or incompatible development. 

Sandhill Crane preening at the Celery Fields wetlands - Chuck Behrmann.

Good stewards would make sure nearby public lands are not used in a way that would impair the quality of the land, air, water, and wildlife. Sensible stewards would give this precious area an adequate buffer zone, sufficient parking, and healthy options for nearby public properties. They would use Critical Area Planning to develop a suitable vision in concert with the community. 

Please stay tuned: Major decisions on lands near the Celery Fields are coming. 

Let's work to make this a truly happy New Year for all.

photos courtesy of the Celery Fields group or from this blog.

Public Uses for Public Lands At the Celery Fields

This is the updated report submitted to the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners on July 11, 2018. It can also be downloaded here:

To:     The Board of Sarasota County Commissioners
From: The Fresh Start Initiative
Re:     Update Report
Date:  July 11, 2018

The Executive Council of Fresh Start is pleased to present this update report, Public Uses for Public Lands at the Celery Fields, which offers our communities’ sense of the highest and best use of the quad parcels at Apex and Palmer Boulevard at the Celery Fields.

This update focuses on progress made since our last report of April 25th, 2018 (our prior reports are attached for ease of reference). We anticipate that you will address this community request for action after your summer break, and we look forward to a positive outcome for our community.

Brief background

On Nov. 28th, 2017, the Board granted the Fresh Start Initiative time to determine the priorities of our communities in the area of the Celery Fields with regard to appropriate and feasible uses for two of the three Quad parcels. Specifically you removed parcel #1 from the surplus list, and chose not to put parcel #2 out for sale pending the Fresh Start effort. You directed that a consultant be hired to rezone parcel #3 for “highest and best use,” with the intent to sell it. [Minutes (1)]

On April 25th, we reported that our residents and an advisory panel had examined over 40 conceptual ideas and proposals from our communities. Through a process of expert evaluation and rigorous community selection (method described in April 25th presentation), four proposals were deemed to best meet the four criteria of feasibility, compatibility with the area, utility to the neighbors, and economic viability:

For Parcel 1:

1. A multi-use community facility - trails, gardens, a wedding pavilion, meeting area.
2. A Celery Fields-themed nature lodge/restaurant with platforms for birders.

For Parcel 2:

3. A boulevard style set of shops, fooderies, and upstairs residences.
4. Outdoor sports courts and fields built, run, and maintained by the Sarasota YMCA.

The community expressed the highest support -- 84% -- for option 4, the $1 million YMCA proposal featuring pickleball, tennis, basketball, a shaded exercise area, open sports field, parking, pavilion and gourmet food truck area. Since April, at your direction we have focused on refining that proposal and addressing questions raised in our individual meetings with the Board and with staff in May and June.

Survey and Site Analysis

In May, Fresh Start performed a short survey (4) of its HOAs asking what sports fields -- for soccer, baseball, football -- and sports courts -- pickleball, tennis, and basketball -- currently are available to them. It turns out that none of these facilities are publicly available East of I-75. To reach the nearest tennis, baseball or soccer fields required drives of up to 9 miles. It turns out that nearly all public sports fields and courts lie west of the Interstate at Colonial Oaks, Fruitville Park, 17th Street, each with limited facilities to serve its nearby communities.

Also in the past couple of months, Tampa-based SEER Analytics performed a site study authorized by the Sarasota YMCA which is attached to this report (3). It reveals a substantial user base within a short radius of parcel #2: More than 43,500 households would be within easy driving distance of the facility. The SEER study includes detailed demographic data and finds a ready community of households to make use of a YMCA facility there.

Learning & volunteering: YMCA and Audubon

We’ve also learned more about the YMCA’s range of programs for children. In certain counties, YMCAs lease parklands to provide summer camps. At the Celery Fields, the Sarasota Y could offer a rich array of children’s programs making great use of the natural treasures right next door. Think of kids birding with Audubon volunteers, and fishing, hiking, and kayaking with YMCA leaders. A YMCA at the Celery Fields would amplify the range and richness of what our community’s seniors and children can experience.

Zooming Out

We thank you for the opportunity to present these proposals, which grew out of a half-year of serious community outreach, consultation, feedback and choices. The ball is now in your court. As a final consideration, let’s zoom out from this present moment, and remember what brought us to this point.

On August 23, 2017, this Board experienced the community’s shock and outrage that an open air industrial waste facility would even be considered for parcel #2:

• Residents of neighborhoods that didn’t exist when the area was zoned MEC in 1983 spoke of profound changes the area has seen, and how much the Celery Fields means to them. 

• Environmental groups reminded you of the County’s extraordinary good fortune in having an eco-tourist wonderland attractive to 224 species of birds evolve from a stormwater project. 

• Citizens wondered what planning principles and vision would allow consideration of heavy industrial uses in this ecologically sensitive area with fragile roads.

After the August 23, 2017 hearing, many believed the Board would direct staff to take a fresh look at this area, consult residents, and work to optimize its potential. Fresh Start arose out of that concern. Even now, a year later, an industrial proposal could compromise the community.

If we zoom out further, big projects are coming. Large-scale housing tracts plan more than 27,000 homes on 20,700 acres stretching from University Parkway at the north end down past Fruitville, Bee Ridge, and Clark roads to SR 681 near Venice. Sarasota County’s open spaces and country roads are vanishing forever.

Commissioners, it is the responsibility of your office to evaluate these large proposed developments in light of public infrastructure, services, and amenities. We take this opportunity to assert the public’s right to a vision that balances private development with public needs.

Fresh Start urges the Board to take this small step towards a proactive vision and a positive direction for the future of Sarasota’s people. On behalf of our 50 communities we ask your support for a YMCA sports facility on the 10.6 acres of Quad Parcel #2. Ideally, all four quad parcels should be dedicated to sensible, interrelated uses that will become more acutely necessary as East Sarasota builds out. Staff has outlined the requisite re-zoning actions for each of our four proposals (8).

Sarasota County is at a significant crossroads: The Board can dedicate these public lands to optimal public uses, or sell them to industrial developer

                           THIS . . .         or              THIS?

Vote for your community’s future: Let’s make a healthy fresh start at the Quads for East Sarasota County.

Thank you.

The Fresh Start Executive Council
Glenna Blomquist, Carlos Correa, Tom Matrullo, Gary Walsh
Fresh Start HOA Signatories

Public Parcels at Apex Rd. and Palmer Blvd.

Parcel 1: Off Surplus List                  Parcel 2: Fresh Start                    Parcel 3: Consultant Rezone

Supporting Documents Introductory Letter to Jane Grogg Minutes Nov. 28th, 2017 Think Tank YMCA Field Proposal SEER Analytics Study for the YMCA Fresh Start Neighborhood Survey (Distance from Sports Facilities) Fresh Start April 25th Presentation Fresh Start Report of April 25th Fresh Start Report of Feb. 5th with updates Staff Zoning and Land Use Analysis East County Athletic Resources Map Letter to R. Waechter

•                   Parcel 1: Off Surplus List 

•                 Parcel 2: Fresh Start 

•                   Parcel 3: Consultant Rezone

Supporting Documents

Introductory Letter to Jane Grogg

1. Minutes Nov. 28th, 2017 Think Tank
2. YMCA Field Proposal
3. SEER Analytics Study for the YMCA
4. Fresh Start Neighborhood Survey (Distance from Sports Facilities)
5. Fresh Start April 25th Presentation
6. Fresh Start Report of April 25th
7. Fresh Start Report of Feb. 5th with updates
8. Staff Zoning and Land Use Analysis
9. East County Athletic Resources Map
10. Letter to R. Waechter

An interim update

Quad Parcels 1,2,3

This is a preview of the Updated Report that Fresh Start will submit to the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners in mid-July, before they take their holiday break. We look forward to a public hearing after the Board return in late August or early September.

Since our April 25th report, we have deepened and refined our proposals, in particular the YMCA proposal which gained the highest level of support -- 84% -- from our community.

So here in brief is where we are:

Thanks to our HOAs who responded to our Neighborhood Survey on publicly accessible athletic facilities, we were able to visualize what East County athletic resources our HOAs currently have available to them -- virtually none. That large red oval contains no public athletic fields or sports courts. 

If you live on East Palmer Blvd., you are looking at drives of up to 9 or more miles to public athletic fields, tennis, basketball or pickleball courts, most of which are west of the Interstate.

East County neighborhoods 

The need for sports-related resources will grow more acute as the area grows. Parcel #2, with 10.6 acres of public property, seems an excellent option for a YMCA. We think the location makes sense for many reasons - including the educative potential of being near the Celery Fields. To quote from our report-in-progress:

At the Celery Fields, the Sarasota Y could offer a rich array of children’s programs making great use of the natural treasures right next door. Think of kids birding with Audubon volunteers, and fishing, hiking, and kayaking with YMCA leaders. A YMCA at the Celery Fields would amplify the range and richness of what our community’s seniors and children can experience. 

There's another element in the image shown above: The names "Hi Hat Ranch" and "Lindvest." These are but two of several large-scale housing tracts either underway, or with plans for approval -- they include Waterside, LT Ranch, Grand Lakes, as well as Hi Hat and Lindvest. These five projects (plenty more are coming) total over 27,000 units of housing on more than 20,000 acres of East Sarasota, stretching from University Parkway to SR 681 near Venice. (More details here.)

It seems reasonable that the County would see the need to plan long-range for the roads, services, and amenities all those new residents will need. Fresh Start's proposals for the Quad parcels offer a good start.

Perhaps there's a larger principle to affirm here:

We take this opportunity to assert the public’s right to a vision that balances private development with public needs. 

What do you think?

Just on the practical level of parcel #2 (parcel #1 is off the surplus list, and our proposals for it remain in place), when you take the amazing changes that have occurred in our area in the past 20 years, and add in those that are coming, the Board is facing a simple choice: 

Community asset . . . or Industrial Blight

THIS . . .

or THIS?

We intend to file our Update on July 11, but without a public presentation that day.

Please feel free to share your thoughts between now and then with us at FreshStartSarasota@gmail.com. When a public hearing is scheduled, we'll be in touch.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement.

The Fresh Start Executive Council

A recent morning at the Celery Fields

Yesterday morning at the Celery Fields, it was quiet - no highway noise, no copters or trucks. Why would the County be ok with introducing more industrial uses into this sanctuary?

The grass still had dew on it. Far off, a single kayaker was barely a dot on the lake's still surface. A tall fellow was walking up and down the Mound with a substantial backpack and hiking poles. I asked if he were preparing for a trek of some kind. Not right now, he said. Rather it's exercise he takes because he brings groups to the Celery Fields to train for long trail hikes.

"Where would you go if this mound didn't exist?" I asked him. "North Georgia," he said, adding that North Florida's rolling hills weren't steep enough for such training.

The mound is unique in many ways. It affords a wide angle view of clear open space. Look down, often you see birds in flight beneath you. Do our elected officials really want visitors who come for the birds and the beauty to look at heavy trucks, demolition waste, giant warehouses or other industry?

 == Tom Matrullo

Caracara at the Celery Fields - by Chuck Behrmann

Proposal makers offer a glimpse of ideas for lands at the Celery Fields

Sarasotans took time from their Valentine's Day festivities Wednesday to hear from residents who have proposals-in-progress for the public lands at the Celery Fields. The meeting was held by the Fresh Start Initiative, a community effort to find value-adding uses for three parcels owned by the County near the Celery Fields.

The ideas are among more than 25 proposed uses that the Initiative has received so far. The process is open to anyone interested -- proposals should be sent to FreshStartSarasota@gmail.com by March 1.

Three who are developing proposals came and offered thumbnail sketches of their ideas:

Chris Bales shared her concept of an athletic facility that would feature Pickleball, and possibly Tennis and Soccer on Parcel #2. The facility would offer parking, restrooms, and could have room for a cafe or other eatery, she said.

John Pether described what would be the largest and most advanced historical exploration center in Florida -- a 100,000 s.f. facility where visitors would experience the natural and cultural history of Florida via virtual and augmented reality. Soundbite:

And Susan Chapman described an "Adaptation" facility consisting of greenhouses and a library for Marie Selby Botanical Gardens' rare horticultural books -- a protected storage facility for valued parts of its collection well away from the low-lying downtown floodzone.

Concern for the area has attracted wider attention. On Feb. 6 while visiting Sarasota, Florida's head of the Department of Environmental Protection pointed to the community's concern for the Celery Fields. Noah Valenstein said:

Conservation efforts “really become powerful when you have that connection to the community,” Valenstein said, highlighting the Celery Fields in Sarasota as a prime example of the community rallying to protect a natural resource. Herald Tribune

And on March 12, the president of the National Audubon President David Yarnold will address environmental concerns, among them the Celery Fields.