The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

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...

Longtime editorial writer and managing editor of the Herald Tribune Waldo Proffitt Jr. died Dec. 6. This reflection was shared with us by Dan Lobeck: Waldo Proffitt Jr. October 8, 1924 - December 6, 2016 As Managing Editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune from 1961-1998, and as a columnist and editorial writer, Waldo Proffitt  helped shape Sarasota County for the better (together for most of that time with Publisher David Lindsay).   He always favored carefully managed and controlled growth, as reflected in these interview excerpts. Waldo Proffitt is greatly missed. From an Interview – 10/16/2013:  … growth is not necessarily good, it’s only the right kind of growth that will help the community remain a good place for people to live and that is the product that Sarasota has to sell: that this is a good place to live. And I believe that that idea has become fairly widely circulated, I certainly hope so. ... Well, don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by d...

The third and last public meeting focusing on changes to the Sarasota 2050 Plan was held Monday evening at Twin Lakes Park. Approximately 125 people were there to listen and to discuss many ramifications of the proposed changes. There is still time to get up to speed on this very important issue. The plan will be going through public hearings in July and August and is scheduled to be voted on before the November election. Some background information is here . Many more documents focusing on parts of the plan are here, on the lower right side of the page. From this page residents can also submit comments or questions that are posted here . In brief: Many people feel that the changes to the 2050 plan dilute it and essentially open the floodgates to rapid and poorly conceived development east of I-75. They see the primary movers of the changes to be a handful of developers and builders who simply wish to put more of the same sort of housing and commerce in the rural lands to the Ea...

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 "progre...