Comment #1 on the Critical Area Plan for the Quads

Comment #1 on the Critical Area Plan for the Quads at the Celery Fields

To: Steve Kirk (skirk@scgov.net), Matt Osterhoudt (mosterho@scgov.net) Jane Grogg (jgrogg@scgov.net)

October 4, 2019

Having had the opportunity to review a draft of the Planning Department's Critical Area Plan (CAP) that concerns our public lands at the Celery Fields, we wish to offer some comments in hopes of clarifying community concerns.

Before going into detail, we wish to affirm that public lands in Sarasota County should only be considered according to community-oriented principles. A plan for public lands should:

• Put people first.
• Advance Sarasota’s long-held values of good stewardship and intelligent planning.
• Situate the specific discussion within the larger context of changes and area trends.
• Respect Sarasota’s distinguished tradition of protecting and preserving public lands.

The Draft CAP offers a detailed, balanced look into the area the Board tasked you to study. An example comes on page 15 (of draft received on Aug. 28th). The Level of Service (LOS) on Palmer Blvd. between Porter and Apex is found to be unacceptable, and the possibility of widening Palmer Blvd. from Porter to Apex to four lanes is considered. The report goes on:

“the negative impact on the character of the Palmer Boulevard corridor from such a change must be considered.”

This observation is highly significant; it’s a sign of the report's judicious approach to the task it was given. But -- and this is the crux of the matter -- the larger reality of that acknowledged "negative impact" is never fully given its due.

The ultimate welfare and fate of a substantial evolving area of beauty, recreation, community health and economic opportunity should be the primary and central concern of this plan, and so far, this most certainly is not the case.

Inadequate Scoping

In great measure this has to do with the design of the task, rather than with its execution. While the report seems to fulfill its objective, the design of that objective - its scoping -  ignores all the most important issues that relate to the future of the Celery Fields area. At one time, the community had a hand in shaping the actual scope of a CAP - as with the Fruitville Initiative. Why not here?

What’s missing is an in-depth inquiry into the large meaningful trends transforming the entire surrounding area. In recent years, the Board has approved thousands of residences within walking distance. Children live and go to schools on buses that come along Palmer. The Celery Fields itself has become a valued amenity for residents and many visitors. The industrial park, on the other hand, often shows many vacancy signs.

Without taking into account the predominant features of the area as a whole, this plan misses what really matters: the public good. Imagine for a moment that someone applied to the Federal Government to frack a plot of land, and simply says, "this land is not close to any homes, let us frack." Now suppose the land sits atop Lincoln’s head on Mt. Rushmore -- should that fact be ignored?

What you were tasked to do is not ask, for example, how people living within walking distance of  the Celery Fields will be affected by bringing industrial development forward to Palmer Blvd.

Compare the existing configuration with what is proposed: Ackerman Park serves to screen the industrial areas to its west from drivers on Apex Road. Putting industry on the Quads does precisely the opposite: It takes away the buffer (our public lands) and replaces them with construction on Palmer Boulevard. The result will be a continuous built barrier between the Celery Fields and the residential and commercial areas accessible via the Palmer Underpass. Industry would add more large truck traffic to Palmer, Porter, and Apex, which are now about to be impacted by trucks from James Gabbert’s Waste Transfer Facility.

Survey the entire community

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?

What is clear is that the Planning Dept. was asked to look at implementing the 1975 land use designation for the Quads. Which means the task and scoping of this 2019 Critical Area Plan directs you to look away from, rather than inquire into, the greater and more fundamental questions of communal good in this changing landscape. Your findings flow ineluctably from the design of your task.

Policy and stewardship

In addition to the compromised frame, there is need for serious consideration of basic matters of stewardship, tradition, and policy. Ask anyone who has lived in Sarasota for a long time: it is not a “given” that public lands should be sold. In fact, it’s been a long-held principle in this county that public lands are public forever -- not to be sold for private development, except in rare explicable circumstances.

Our communities have shared our hopes and vision for this area with you over several years. We reiterate our expectation that you adopt community-based principles:

• Put people first.
• Advance Sarasota’s long-held values of good stewardship and intelligent planning.
• Situate the specific discussion within the larger context of changes and area trends.
• Respect Sarasota’s distinguished tradition of protecting and preserving public lands.

In addition, include in your plan strong provisions in the event the Board votes to sell or develop:

• Detail specific constraints with regard to footprint, traffic, noise, architecture, lighting, noise, landscaping, business model, compatibility for any rezoning, special exception, etc.

• Require a rigorous examination of any applicant’s business practice. Restaurant Depot Tampa location is served by huge trucks, and attracts a large public trade in cheap alcohol and food -- which escaped notice when the firm applied to build on parcel #3.

Restaurant Depot sought to build a warehouse on parcel #3
This is its Tampa site

Opportunity lost

Finally, why do this at all? No applicant has asked for this. The first thing this plan should state is the Board’s explanation as to why it prefers private profiteering to the public good.

Forward-looking planning for recreation and habitat preservation will not only serve the ever-expanding population of Sarasota County; it will sustain and improve air and water quality, and enhance current property values. In addition to all else, the county will see a significantly larger monetary return by supporting public land use by and for our citizens, over a far longer period of time.

In brief: we ask that you do justice to nature, to our communities, and to the future of Sarasota: incorporate the vision, values, vitality and promise of the larger Celery Fields area in this report to the Board.

Respectfully,

Tom Matrullo

Information page for Quads Critical Area Plan Workshop

The planning workshop that seeks public input on rezoning the public lands at the Celery Fields will be held at 6 pm, May 14, at the Church of Hope, 1560 Wendell Kent Rd, Sarasota, FL 34240. 

The Planning Department has posted community input and proposals here:

>>Index to county planning links <<
   
      Documents prepared by the Planning Department include:

1. Memorandum from Planning

2. Community proposals via the 2018 Fresh Start process:

• Proposals Submitted to Fresh Start_Part1
• Proposals Submitted to Fresh Start_Part2
• Proposals Submitted to Fresh Start_Part3
• Proposals Submitted to Fresh Start_Part4

3. Reports to the Board from Fresh Start: 7.11.17 and 9.12.17

4. Update: New proposals submitted from the community 

     Proposals are still coming in, so more will probably be added to this page.

5. Information on how the public may comment

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This is the one opportunity for all who love the Celery Fields to come, listen, and voice their thoughts and concerns. The workshop begins at 6 pm - 

at the Church of Hope, 1560 Wendell Kent Rd, Sarasota, FL 34240, where James Gabbert introduced his proposal for a waste processing facility in January 2017. 

The public record of this workshop goes to the Board, which will decide the future of these public lands. Here are some of our concerns:

Not everyone on the Board sees the point of using public lands for the public good. With thoughtful stewardship, public lands can provide needed public facilities and activities. Why sell them to enrich a couple of private developers?

Industrial uses will generate traffic, noise, dead space incompatible with the developing natural beauty of the Celery Fields area, and its recreational potential.

The scope of this process is narrow. When Gabbert proposed his waste processing facility, the county failed to acknowledge the existence of the Celery Fields. This plan should not exclude important considerations that PLANNING should be thinking about now:

1 - future protective measures for wildlife, residents and visitors;
2 - the impacts of coming growth in East County;
3 - quality of life benefits from safe roads and a tranquil environment.

With care and intelligent stewardship, this very special area will return investments a hundredfold -- more about this here.

Group to present "common sense perspective" on public lands at the Celery Fields

Media Advisory

Contacts: 

Glenna Blomquist 941-556-9526 || Tom Matrullo  941-321-7663 || 

Gary Walsh  941-377-9077 || Carlos Correa 941-735-8385

A common sense approach to planning for our common good

A citizens group will present the findings of a nine-month community process focused on public lands adjacent to the Celery Fields on Wednesday, September 12, to the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners. 

The presentation will begin around 9:30 a.m. at the County Administration Building, 1660 Ringling Boulevard, Sarasota. As it is not a hearing, public input will be limited to 3 minutes before or after the agenda.

"We'll offer the perspective and vision of residents and visitors as to what these public parcels can do for our communities," said Glenna Blomquist, a member of Fresh Start. Since last December, the group has been working with HOAs in the area to identify viable and beneficial uses for the "Quad parcels" at the intersection of Palmer Boulevard and Apex Road, just west of the Celery Fields birding and recreation area and the Sarasota Audubon Nature Center.

The Celery Fields began as a stormwater management project, but has grown into a treasured spot for residents and visitors -- many drawn to its extraordinary bird population. Over 224 species, both native and migrating, have been sighted and photographed by bird lovers.

Last year two developers sought to purchase public parcels #2 and #3 in the quads, a distance of .8 mile from the birding area: one for a giant Restaurant Depot warehouse, the other for an even larger waste processing facility. The community outcry was substantial, including rallies and hours of public testimony. Both proposals ultimately failed, but the County never took the parcels off of the surplus lands list, or revised the land use designations that were set in 1981. That keeps the door open for industrial development.

"This is a highly popular Florida destination on the verge of an explosion of new development east of the highway" (I-75), said Tom Matrullo, another member of Fresh Start. "Our first thought was, why haven't these old designations been updated to reflect the tremendous changes that have come, with so much more transformation on the way?"

"The Quads"

On Wednesday the group will offer what it describes as a "carefully reasoned, but passionate analysis" of the Celery Fields context. It will examine current approved new housing development east of the highway, and zoom in on new developments immediate to the Quad parcels.

In addition to the four proposed uses determined to be most favored by representatives of 50 HOAs in the area:

• multi-use community center
• themed birding lodge and restaurant
• shops, cafes and affordable housing
• outdoor sports courts and fields 

the group will ask the Board to adopt a resolution dedicating these public lands, a total of some 30 acres, for the benefit of the public. It will also present a petition (still open) that quickly gathered more than 1,000 signatures in support of the effort.

"When you look at everything that's changed here -- from the amazing Celery Fields to the neighborhoods and Tatum Ridge School -- and then look at the big picture of where this is all going, it becomes clear that the county should invest in creating a place that both buffers the Celery Fields and supports it with complementary uses," said Gary Walsh, president of the Meadow Walk HOA.

Those uses could include any of the four already proposed, or some new combination the community prefers -- just not industry, says Carlos Correa, president of The Enclave. "We've spoken with many, many people -- not only in our communities, but planners, architects, environmentalists and visitors drawn to the area by the beauty and birding of the Celery Fields."

Looking west from "Mt. Celery"

"Gentle cultivation, not harsh industrialization," is the message on the group's blog called Fresh Start for the Celery Fields.

A Miami firm's recent analysis commissioned by the County came back with the finding that industry would be the "highest and best use" of one of the quad parcels -- parcel #3. Fresh Start notes that "highest and best use" is a term of art that looks only at potential monetization of a property, divorced from all else -- its local context (traffic, etc), community values, market trends, future economic viability and more. (More response to Lambert here.)

"The 49-page report (by Lambert Advisory LLC ) mentioned the Celery Fields twice in passing, but offered no analysis of potential impacts. It even failed to address issues from large industrial trucks," said Matrullo.

The Lambert report did not say what kind of industry might be suitable for this location. It made no distinction between a giant warehouse, a waste processing plant, or a clean, high-paying high-tech firm, said Walsh.

"When you look at all the factors -- not just dollars -- the choice seems pretty clear," says Correa. "Either you make a place that disrupts the natural beauty, flow, and preferred community uses, or you look to what the community wants and needs."

"The educational, social, and economic possibilities of the county's investing in a multi-faceted community center hold enormous value for the people," says Matrullo. "Private industry will benefit the industrial developer alone."

Fresh Start hopes to persuade the County Commission on Wednesday, Sept. 12 to look more holistically at a plan that would catalyze the unusual set of assets that includes the Celery Fields, Ackerman Park, Big Cat Habitat, and the Palmer Boulevard underpass to the Packinghouse district.

"If we don't form a common sense plan, we'll end up with fragments that add up to less than the sum of their parts," said Blomquist.

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