Should Sarasota Grow? Yes - how is the question
Advocacy groups call for growth controls
By DALE WHITE
dale.white@heraldtribune.com
SARASOTA COUNTY -- Members of several environmental, neighborhood and political groups rallied Saturday behind a message that growth is outpacing this county's ability to provide services.
"We can't find enough water, enough funding for schools, enough funding for roads," County Commissioner Jon Thaxton told about 100 people at the annual luncheon of Control Growth Now.
Aside from CGN members, several candidates, county planning commissioners and representatives from the Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Council of Neighborhood Associations, Citizens for Sensible Growth and other groups turned out to hear Thaxton and other speakers.
By their applause, they indicated that many of them share much of the same agenda:
- Keeping Sarasota County's urban growth boundary where it is.
- Directing growth into redevelopable urban areas.
- Promoting mass transit.
- Making sure newcomers pick up the tab for the services they require.
"We're trying to keep our county from being overwhelmed by growth," said Dan Lobeck, president of Control Growth Now.
Gayle Reynolds, a Sierra Club member, received Control Growth Now's Citizen of the Year Award for her efforts to preserve wildlife habitat and natural resources.
Reynolds decried a shortage of wildlife protection officers. "The county relies on earth-moving operations to report anything on the list of endangered species," Reynolds said.
Reynolds, a founder of Citizens for Sensible Growth, said that new organization is trying to get two growth-restraint measures on the fall ballot.
One initiative would require voter approval for any expansion of the urban boundary. The other would require a vote of at least four out of five county commissioners for approval of any development that calls for an increase in density or intensity over what current zoning allows.
Hello There,
For over the last year Sarasota county and city got very greedy for tx revenue. By allowing too many housing development projects catering to the wealhty. That has thrown a major monkey wrench for the middle class and mixed use housing. At least now the county and city councils have realized their blunder during the housing bubble which was a factor for their greed in tax revenue. They've reduced drastically the permitting process of housing development for the upper class residents. (good thing since the housing bubble is deflating due to fed hikes in interest rates)
To rein in city and county sprawl perhaps turn to quotas. Where a workshop is set up to devise such a system with zoning and city planners. To what and how much within a year or 5 year plan they would like to allocate locations to have certain types of property and infrastructure.
That perhaps may allieviate this bloating feeling the cities of Sarasota county are facing.