Sarasota Is a Model for Controlling Growth!?!?
Living here you don't feel that we are leaders ... reading about and even participating in the thick of it sometimes makes you forget that we really have a special place to live, and as a community have done a pretty good job protecting it.
The Sarasota Herald Tribune quotes an article in the Palm Beach Post ...
Becoming a model for growth governance
by: Eric Ernst
You know you're doing something right when others want to follow your lead. Sarasota County is gaining that sort of reputation in, of all things, how it handles growth.
In the Palm Beach Post this week, editorial writer Sally Swartz suggested Sarasota would serve as a good example for Martin County.
"Environmental activists, Jupiter Island benefactors and controlled-growth advocates have worked to keep Martin County a green and pleasant place to live. But Sarasota County ... rapidly is becoming an even more compelling role model for citizens initiatives to control growth," she wrote.
We can thank none other than ourselves for this new reputation.
We, the people, have methodically acted on our fears that unbridled population growth would, at some point, ruin this area we love.
First, we voted to increase our taxes to buy environmentally sensitive land. This has protected some of the most vulnerable areas, which can now be enjoyed by everyone.
Then we went to the ballot to close an annexation loophole. Developers used to persuade cities to annex land so they could build at higher densities than the county would allow. Now, in those cases, the county's land regulations supersede the cities'.
Next, we passed a charter amendment that requires a 4-1 vote (rather than 3-2) whenever the county commissioners try to change the comprehensive growth plan to allow more density or intensity.
