Write, Speak to the Planning Commission before Hand Road becomes a further nightmare

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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 feet, virtually all of Lake Sarasota's 1,600-home community was not informed in a timely manner of plans to develop 80 luxury homes on Hand Road. We were never informed of a neighborhood workshop held online on April 26 2023, nor of a prior workshop apparently held in February of this year in regard to this project. In addition, the video of the workshop has not been made publicly available, only audio, which is not adequate to judge the plans. We have requested the full video of the workshop from the agent, but are not yet in receipt of it, as of Sunday, 9.17.23.

We are also formally requesting that any decision be delayed until a traffic study is performed. In a capacity as community partner with the commission, we must point out that to our knowledge no traffic study has been performed for this project. Lack of study is both dangerous to Sarasota County residents - especially schoolchildren who cross at the blind curve from Lago Street to Hand Road. 
Hand Road is a narrow two-lane road that enables Lake Sarasota residents to enter and exit their community to or from Proctor and Clark Roads. It has two busy schools that complicate traffic each morning and afternoon. Now, a developer is asking to build 80 homes on Hand Road - with an access point at a blind curve.

Only a handful of residents learned of this project back in April, when the Neighborhood Workshop was held. It would seem difficult to judge the dangers of this plan without consulting the video of the neighborhood workshop.

Please consider our safety concerns, which are posted here:

https://lakesarasota.blogspot.com/2023/09/does-this-project-risk-creating-danger.html

Thank you,

The Lake Sarasota Community Group

You should be able to copy these addresses and paste them into your email TO: line.

If you are able to attend the Planning Commission meeting Thursday 9/21, it starts at 5 pm in the first-floor meeting room at the County Administration: 1660 Ringling Boulevard.

If you wish to speak, simply fill out a card at the back of the Commission Chamber and hand it to the secretary. Even if you do not speak, your presence can have impact.

Thank you.

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