The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

Update: On Nov. 28, 2023,  despite the absence of any traffic study. the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the Sarasota Baptist windfall proposal for 87 unaffordable homes on Hand Road.  Six people from the community offered several reasons that a rational judge would consider to be compelling, but not this Board. This commission reads the Comp Plan not as a set of strategies to prevent poor planning, but rather as a mandate to mindlessly approve growth. From the follow-up story in the Sarasota News Leader : The new homes will increase car trips from 66 to 847 daily on crippled Hand Road.  Commissioner Mark Smith noted Transportation staff had provided a chart in the report on the application showing that the daily number of trips on Hand Road linked to the existing zoning, Open Use Estate, was 66. That figure was attributed to data found in the 11th edition of the Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE) manual, which the Transportation staff use...

  To the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners: From: Tom Matrullo Re: SE 1875/ RZ 23-19 Date: Nov. 16, 2023 Commissioner: 1. The community of Lake Sarasota has roughly 1,600 homes. Yet when a poorly conceived proposal to wedge 80+ homes onto a narrow road, at a tight blind curve, where two schools tie up traffic each day both in the morning and afternoon, very few residents were notified about the Neighborhood Workshop. I live on the street that leads to this proposed disaster - if built, I would see it from my home - yet I was not informed of two workshops held by Bo Medred months ago. A handful of residents actually attended. So the first point is, the County planning code should drop the 750-foot rule and replace it with a competent planner's sense of what homes, roads, and areas will be directly impacted by a proposed project. 2. The major problems with Hand Road pre-exist this intensifying proposal,  SE 1875/ RZ 23-19.  They are laid out...

This email from a Lake Sarasota resident offers six strong reasons why the Sarasota Baptist Church / David Weekly Homes proposal for Hand Road must be revised or abandoned. Feel free to use these arguments - emails of the Commissioners are below. To the Board of County Commissioners From Jami Caseber: My family and I are opposed to the RZ3-19 as proposed for the following reasons: 1. Accumulative Traffic/Congestion We assert that the traffic study was inadequate and incomplete because it did not include traffic measurements at peak times such as when school starts and lets out, commute hours, church hours and levels on voting days. Because of congestion on Bee Ridge around Cattleman many people in Lake Sarasota are opting for using Hand to Proctor. However passage on Hand when school lets out is impossible. 2. Restrictions, Stipulations and Safeguards We request a revised Binding Concept Plan along with multiple restrictions stipulations and safeguards be implemented Significant Floo...

  Parents and schoolchildren on Hand Road - school traffic   Typically, in Sarasota, and with any SPECIAL EXCEPTION, AND REZONE if a landowner is seeking an increase in density, or change in use, or anything that does not explicitly meet the current code, specific RESTRICTIONS, STIPULATIONS AND SAFEGUARDS should be recorded and run with the land in perpetuity. Lake Sarasota is a 1,600-home community. We request a revised Binding Concept Plan  along with multiple restrictions, stipulations and safeguards be implemented in order to move forward at this time.  Sarasota County should not be adding additional burden to its current tax base by allowing a developer to increase its currently permitted density without such strategies for protection of its existing community members! We request the Developer and the County allow engagement of a Binding Concept plan that addresses the community’s CONCERNS!! List of Issues/Concerns:  Stormwater/Floodplain Hand Road currentl...

Notices about the proposed  80+ luxury home project with two entrances on Hand Road  have been mailed out, but it's unclear how much of the Lake Sarasota community is included in the mailing. Note that this project poses potential safety considerations for our school children as well as parents driving their kids to Lakeview Elementary and Oak Park Schools.  No traffic study has been done. The County Commission Hearing on Nov. 28th will be the final decision on this project. Here's a  link to the official hearing announcement , which indicates a 9 a.m. time, but this could be updated when the official Agenda comes out. - More information about this project and Sarasota Baptist's sale of acreage to David Weekley Homes, is at these links: We spoke at the Planning Commission Hearing . Two commissioners saw the potential hazard of the design and voted against the proposal.  Does this project invite danger? The Planning Commission is an appointed board  of Real...

An important message from Keith, President of the Lake Sarasota Community Group: Neighbors, we now have a new front on the #SaveLakeSarasota battle: 80 luxury homes proposed for Hand Road, with entrance/exit near the blind curve. More about this here and here . 80 Luxury Homes on Hand Road  Planned exit at blind curve A planning commission meeting is being held Thursday and very few people from Lake Sarasota received notice of a neighborhood workshop held in April 2023. Please, your neighbors need EVERYONE to email the following letter, with your name ***BY WEDNESDAY 9/20*** To Email these planning commissioners, send the letter below, or use your own words. To the Planning Commission: We are asking the commission for a delay on Agenda Items #4 ( SE 1875) and #5 ( RZ 23-19 ) of the 9.21.23 meeting , as the Lake Sarasota community has not had adequate notice of the plans nor of the meeting. Due to clerical errors and to the county's highly restricted notification range of 750 fee...

ReZone Petition 23-19 On Planning Commission Agenda 9.21.23 An 80-home development is proposed to be built on the open space on Hand Road opposite the Lakeview Dog Park. As residents know, Hand Road is basically blocked by school traffic every morning and afternoon as parents and buses usher kids to and from school. The plan raises additional safety issues as well. The 90-degree curve from Lago Street onto Hand Road is basically blind, and it's at this curve that school kids cross the road each weekday to and from their schools - Lakeview Elementary and Oak Park.  Before the 90-degree curve, Lago Street is a long straightaway where drivers enjoy building up speed. During school hours, a crossing guard is posted to make sure cars allow schoolchildren to safely cross. Note Access Point #2 above.  Will drivers coming rapidly down Lago Road be able to see cars entering onto Hand Road at that access point right around the curve?  Will placing an entry from an 80-home project n...

As seen on Hand Road: Site Plan for 80 homes on Hand Road  The Baptist Church on Hand Rd. plans to sell some 26 acres north of its church and school to a home builder who plans to build 80 single family homes. The layout calls for two entrances/exits onto Hand Rd. from the new cluster, to be built by David Weekly Homes .  The development proposal, which can be found in full here , raises questions. For example, what will be the impacts on traffic on Hand Rd., a narrow two-lane road which has two schools - Lakeview Elementary and Oak Park - that attract large numbers of cars and buses on weekday mornings and afternoons? In addition, Lake Sarasota is currently facing another developer's initiative - a 208-unit condo proposal called West Bridge that would squeeze into the wooded land between Molokai and I-75. This project. would add some 400 cars to Lake Sarasota's internal streets, primarily Jarvis, which leads to Hand Road.  The Sarasota County Planning Commission will re...

  Dear Neighbors, Thanks to everyone who attended the LSCG meeting on 7/27. The information to be distributed is too much for a post or an email. Please, read the summary of the meeting and the next steps moving forward. If you wish to help or have questions, please email  keithcrusso@gmail.com Thanks. First, an open letter, then more details below. To no one’s surprise, the attendees of the Lake Sarasota Community Group meeting on July 27th unanimously decided to fight the new development proposed by developer Josh Graber and his agents. We are opposed to this type of development, not to the current zoning for single-family dwellings. No number of amenities or concessions offered by the developer in the neighborhood workshop were persuasive to the twenty-thirty people who came or attended via video last night.  The community  wanted me to share this message, too: please, know that this and other developments in the area will affect every one of us, from Molokai to B...