Sarasota Livin'

I had the "pleasure" to attend the Planning Board meeting last night. I was there 3.5 hours... weird as it seems I found it very interesting. My reason for going was the big part of the agenda was Rezoning for most of downtown. This is city sponsored as a result of the "new" Sarasota Downtown Plan ... which is still being worked.

I wondered what the "developers" had to say about the plan. I strongly support the idea of transforming downtown to a more walkable urban village area. It think most of what has happened downtown has been good. Sure I love trees and bought my current house because of the big oaks in my yard... so seeing trees cut down for development makes me sad ... looking at the satellite view of downtown you don't see much green until you get into the neighborhoods. (PS Google maps is great fun. Click on the picture in the link and drag it in any direction. The satellite image moves)

I didn't hear anyone being "evil" most of the discussion centered around what would be expected -- money. Some parcels are being rezoned to allow less intensive redevelopment than the current zoning might allow. I understand this can be real money - millions of dollars to some.

Another big topic was "split zoning" one parcel of land that would be in two zones that allow different levels of development. That seems to be a dumb thing..

Anyway the rezoning had been before the planning board twice before and no surprise they didn't approve them last night. The public hearing for all 4 parts was closed and the board asked staff to make some changes and bring it back again - for deliberations - at the next meeting on April 27th.