A letter to the editor

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This recent letter to the editor of the local paper is circulating widely. It states a position with regard to development East of I-75 clearly. Not all might agree with Mr. Kaercher (not a person known to us by any personal or other relation), but his words at least serve as a starting point for a serious discussion of the 2050 plan. The plan is complex and not easily decidable in any absolute way. It raises a host of issues. What do you think?

Growth mismanagement
After three years as a permanent Venice resident I finally get it. I was naive enough to believe I'd actually found a small-town, old-Florida, relatively crime-free place to live out my golden years. I've come to understand that I was horribly wrong.It is now obvious to me that the "movers and shakers" (politicians and those who pay for their elections) who control Sarasota County and, to a degree, Venice, equate more houses, more strip malls, more traffic congestion, and more people with "progress." The controlled growth pendulum has swung back in favor of making the fast buck, and to blazes with the water quality, environment, wildlife,and quality of life for those of us who live and vote here. 
The gutting of the 2050 Plan, which was put in place by a wiser County Commission to prevent what is now happening east of I-75, is a symptom of the runaway growth. 
Who will pay for the new schools, police, firefighters, first responders, street lights and other infrastructure after the open spaces are bulldozed and turned into identical, water guzzling, fertilizer spreading "gated communities"? Not the developers. We -- taxpayers -- will. It's not right or fair. 
I think I'm going to start looking around again, for another small-town, old-Florida kind of place. Maybe there's still somewhere in Florida where developers haven't already bought up all the green space and scheduled the bulldozers. 
Rob Kaercher
Venice

Update: See also this article from the 3.5.14 Herald Tribune:

Clark Road developers get more leeway for project near interstate



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