Yes, it can be done ... but should it?
Published Friday, May 9, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.

Dawn Moore has an odd way of keeping up with the neighborhood news. She starts each day by scanning the newspaper classifieds for legal notices.

That's how she knows who's trying to put the next office building or convenience store in her back yard, which is not where she wants either.

Moore, who lives on Manasota Beach Road near South Venice and State Road 776, has had a lot of unhappy reading lately.

She and her neighbors are fighting one rezoning petition after another as developers have proposed separate plans for townhouses, a bank, offices and a 24-hour 7-Eleven gas station on land where nothing but trees and palmettos now grow.

This is pretty jarring to a semi-rural neighborhood of one-acre lots platted in 1951 and little-changed since then.

It's also a good example of what happens when people aren't paying attention.

Like most of us, residents of Florida Tropical Homesites and Little Farms do not go to government land-use workshops where urban planning wonks drone in mind-numbing jargon.

So when Sarasota County adopted its State Road 776 corridor plan, the document included scant input from the residential neighborhood that abuts the road.

That was an error of omission the neighbors regret.

Former county planners such as Alan Garrett and Brian Lichterman, who drew up the parameters, have now returned, working for developers. Together, they intend to jump on the option of rezoning land from open-use estates and erect commercial enterprises that jut into a neighborhood of private homes.

It's not the end of the world, but it shows how vulnerable any neighborhood can be when the rules change.

Just one example of skewed priorities: the corridor plan, perhaps anticipating the designation of State Road 776 as a "scenic highway," requires 50 feet of vegetative buffering between new businesses and the road.

Behind the businesses, where people actually live, the buffer can be 10 feet. Go figure.

In abstract, being on S.R. 776, this might be a great location for a commercial center, designed to serve customers within a one-half mile radius.

But if the neighbors within the half-mile don't want a commercial center, what purpose is served by pursuing public policies that encourage one?

Yes, someone makes a little money. But others stand to lose.

And the whole approach conflicts with the county's top principle supposedly governing future land use: Preserve and strengthen existing communities.

Contact Eric Ernst at eric.ernst@heraldtribune.com or (941) 486-3073.


Watch Jimmy Squirm - "Homes don't pay taxes, homeowners do "

Someone sent me a link to YouTube featuring our County Administrator doing his best to suggest we vote "No" on Amendment One while appearing to provide an dispassionate and objective review of the proposal and a suggestion that we "vote our choice" on 29 January, 1980.

Scaring low-income seniors, renters and persons needing affordable housing may not tip the balance in favor of unlimited county spending, but we can't blame Jim for trying.

Hey, isn't the whole idea to "dramatically affect" the way local governments make spending decisions?

To say, "Whoa, Nellie" (and Jimmy and Pete . . .) stop spending like it was daddy's credit card and roll back our taxes - really roll 'em back.

To address the point on the two "identical homes" with different tax basis, we need not to look at the homes but to the homeowners.

Homes don't pay taxes, homeowners do. And the Homeowners here the longest, those who have lived here for thirty, forty or fifty years or more; those who have paid property tax increase after property tax increase and watched the sales tax creep penny by penny from three to seven percent; folks who literally built this County and want to be able to afford to die here are saying "enough is enough."

Municipalities fearing the loss of duplicate public sector jobs or the abolishment of departments like "Keep Sarasota Beautiful" or merging local Police with the Sheriff or ending the subsidies for Bobby Jones, the Van Wezel and Marina Jacks; leaders whose coinage might read "In Growth we Trust" feel a budget cut would be "Dramatic" and "Disastrous."

And to some of those folks the terms may be appropriate. But we know the sky won't fall. Government's not going anywhere. We couldn't abolish one if we tried. But maybe we can chip away at it just a bit and get it back down to the essential services and costs.

We may be able to contain them, get them to reflect upon the impact they have on the least of us while at the cocktail parties with the "best" of us.

Gentrification is a far more dangerous threat to those wanting "affordable, now attainable" housing. The mooring field belies the spin. "Clean up the bay front," means get rid of the "bums on boats" (though we never speak of them as "bums" in public).

And Gentrification has become an unintended result of our "success and taxation."





October 02. 2007 8:07PM


Barbetta keeps aggressive political agenda

Sarasota County Commissioner Joe Barbetta is three years from re-election, but that doesn’t mean he’s keeping a low profile politically until then.

Instead, Barbetta is tossing himself in the middle of two of the most contentious election battles for 2008 and going toe-to-toe with the former chairman of the county Republican Party in public forums.

And that was just in the last six days.

On Wednesday, Barbetta was one of the notable Republicans to attend a Nancy Detert fundraiser in Sarasota. Detert, a Republican, is running against state Rep. Mike Grant, R-Port Charlotte, for the state Senate. Barbetta was the only current county commissioner at the event, which also included appearances by former state Sen. Bob Johnson and former county commissioner Ray Pilon.

The next night, Barbetta was at the county Republican Party Executive Committee meeting in Sarasota locking horns with Jay Brady, executive director of the Gulf Coast Builders Exchange, and Bob Waechter, the former chairman of the county Republican Party.

Brady blasted a proposed county charter amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot. The amendment would require four of the five county commissioners to approve major land use changes. Brady said it will allow two commissioners to block the will of the majority on the County Commission.

That’s when Barbetta, standing in the back of the meeting hall at the River Edge Church in Sarasota, demanded a chance to speak, even though he isn’t a member of the Republican Party Executive Committee.

Barbetta said Brady’s arguments were misleading and defended the idea of requiring four of five county commissioners to change the “bible of the county.”
Unmoved, Waechter called for a vote of the party to officially oppose the charter amendment.

“It was an ambush,” Barbetta said in an interview later.

But Barbetta prevailed. The REC voted to table Waechter’s proposal.
Barbetta said he’s convinced it would have passed had he not been there to speak up.

Then on Monday, Barbetta was out again. This time he was standing near Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jeff Bell as he announced he was running for sheriff.

Barbetta said he’s been friends with Bell for a long time. Bell is one of four Republicans to file to run for sheriff next year.

Barbetta said he likes to stay involved in politics, even though he isn’t on the ballot.

“I like to see good people in office,” Barbetta said.




After I fowarded this website to my email lists I recieved several responses that I will post here. At this time they are seeking signatures to get this on the ballot in the fall.

Sensible Growth for Sarasota County?


The ballot initiatives sound good but look at them carefully. What they actually do is:

One, give the power over future decisions of the Board of County Commissions to two Commissioners instead of the majority three now required for a land use decision. Not good.

Two: Give voters, who do not turn out in greater than 25% in other than major elections, the decision making power on subjects they will not take the time to research. Also not good.

The best form of government is democratic, majority rules, representative government. The founding fathers knew what they were doing.