The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

Welcome to Sarasota County's community e-newsletter. If you have questions, ideas for articles, or feedback on the system, contact us at pubcom @scgov.net.     SCAT has your ticket to ride  April 25 FRIDAY :  Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT) is holding its annual "Try Transit Day"  Friday, April 25  , from  11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  at Payne Park in downtown Sarasota. The event, which will feature prizes, giveaways, a food truck and special exhibits, is free and open to the public.  As part of the celebration, all day  April 25 , SCAT will waive all fares for the fixed-route service.  All riders on fixed routes, including the Express routes, ride free . Play free  on Friday  at Payne Park FRIDAY :  Sarasota County is hosting a "Free Play Day" at Payne Park Tennis Center, 2050 Adams Lane, Sarasota on Friday, April 25.  From  7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.  all 12 clay courts, ba...

A letter requesting the developer of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce was sent to the developer, TerraCap Management, to its agents, Peter Dailey and Richard M. Fischer, and to several members of the County's planning staff. The letter asks that the BRPOC voluntarily sign a binding agreement, or Covenant , stipulating that they will not allow adult entertainment, shooting ranges, or other uses that could degrade or otherwise harm the property values and / or relative tranquility long enjoyed by residents of Lake Sarasota and other communities along the Bee Ridge Corridor. The uses identified as objectionable were determined through neighborhood polls. A copy of the letter is here , or here . If neither link works for you, you can request a copy by writing to LakeSarasota@gmail.com. The developers are seeking Sarasota County's approval to rezone a portion of their 40-acre site to Commercial Neighborhood. They come before the Board of County Commissioners at a hearing on May ...

County Commission candidate Lourdes Ramirez will be back doing a second walking tour of Lake Sarasota this Friday, April 25th. She was in the community on April 14th and met a number of residents. She plans to walk several streets east of Mauna Loa Blvd (Palau, Friendship, Lancaster, Westminster Drives). If time remains, she'll walk further east to Berkshire. If you see a car with her nameplate, stop and say hello. If you wish to sign a petition to get Lourdes Ramirez on the ballot, you can download a petition form here  and mail it in. Deadline is May 9th. View Larger Map

County Commission candidate Lourdes Ramirez will visit Lake Sarasota Wednesday afternoon, April 16th. Ms. Ramirez, a Republican, is the first candidate to come to the neighborhood this campaign season, and the visit is on her own initiative. She is president of the Sarasota County Council of Neighborhood Associations, or CONA. Her candidate page is here . One key issue of this year's County Commission campaign concerns the "2050 Plan" -- the County's directives for new development east of I-75. The position of CONA is that new development should pay for itself. From CONA's home page : NO new taxes for current county residents, especially to pay for new development. Ramirez will be meeting residents of Lake Sarasota on Wednesday afternoon. Look for her car (with name signs) on Mauna Loa Blvd as well as other neighborhood roads. More about Ramirez and this year's issues  here ,  here, and here .

At a Planning Commission hearing on April 3, the agents for TerraCap, the owner of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce, were directed by the Commissioners to work with nearby residents to establish an understanding of what the neighborhoods would consider friendly and welcome uses for the commercial spaces. On May 21, the County Commission will be asked to approve the rezoning of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce. About 7 acres of the 40-acre site will be converted from  PCD to CN zoning . The rest remains PCD. As the above link shows, PCD allows a very wide range of uses, from clubs to liquor stores to gun and archery ranges. Even under the narrower CN zoning, the range includes several uses that Lake Sarasota and other area residents cited as objectionable. These included: Stormwater facility in different zoning district than principal use Clubs & lodges Day Care Bars Boarding House Entertainment Outdoors Animal Hospital On April 3, TerraCap agents Richar...

A public hearing on the fate of Spine Road resumed Wednesday, April 9. The head of County Transportation presented the County Commission with a detailed history showing that Spine Rd. was originally put in the County Comprehensive Plan in 1989, but as a straight line that, if built, would have run through existing homes, he said. Spine Rd. was removed in 1992 from the plan, but it was later realigned and put back into the Comp Plan by a 4-1 vote of the 1996 County Commission. The Transportation Dept. feels the road is buildable and will be needed in the future, and recommended the County take no action to remove it. The developers of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce (BRPOC) had requested the removal, prompting the hearing. The Board took no action Wednesday, but may revisit the issue on May 21, at a final hearing on a proposed rezoning of the BRPOC. Jonathan Paul went on to say that the concerns expressed by community residents of Lake Sarasota had some justification. "...

Welcome to Sarasota County's community e-newsletter. If you have questions, ideas for articles, or feedback on the system, contact us at pubcom @scgov.net.     Do you know what your county government does for you? SARASOTA:  Sarasota County government provides essential services that the public relies on every day.  Find out more from the staff of many Sarasota County departments at Gulf Gate Library in the Westfield Sarasota Square Mall on  Saturday, April 12 , from  10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Libraries and AARP offer free tax assistance Sarasota County libraries and the American Association of Retired Persons are offering free assistance with the preparation of 2013 tax returns through April 15 .  Sarasota County selected by United Nations as host for World Environment Day  Sarasota County has been selected by the United Nations Environment Programme's Regional Office for North America (UNEP RONA) as the ...

The Sarasota County Planning Commission voted 6-1 to forward the re-zoning petition for the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce to the County Commission. That is, the Planning Commissioners, after about an hour of probing discussion and remarks from nearby neighborhoods, agreed to give Mr. Peter Dailey and Richard Fischer the right to convert 6.9 acres of the Park of Commerce -- adjacent to the north and east of the Racetrac parcel - to Commercial Neighborhood. In a separate ruling, they allowed the agents to expand from CN's usual limit of 20,000 square feet to 37,000 square feet for one building, without committing to specific uses for it, or for two other parcels. In return, Dailey and Fischer on behalf of TerraCap agreed to honor a 50' setback buffer along Bee Ridge Rd. The CN designation does not require that large a buffer, but it was already built into the plan and will remain intact. Commissioner John Burrus cast the only dissenting vote, stating that the absence of specif...

Welcome to Sarasota County's community e-newsletter. If you have questions, ideas for articles, or feedback on the system, contact us at pubcom @scgov.net.     Libraries and AARP offer free tax assistance Sarasota County libraries and the American Association of Retired Persons are offering free assistance with the preparation of 2013 tax returns through April 15 .  County announces new Web-based bidding system Sarasota County has announced a new partnership with BidSync, a company that develops cloud-based procurement solutions for the public sector. The move marks an expansion by Sarasota County into electronic procurement, which began in 2011 with a system called "eProcure" that allows electronic filing and tracking of bids, requests for proposals and invitations for quotes. Selby Library welcomes National Steinbeck Center playwright Octavio Solis In collaboration with the Asolo Repertory Theater's production of "The Grape...