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...

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...

Members of the Lake Sarasota Community Group delivered $1,000 in gift cards to Lakeview School on Wednesday. The cards will go to 10 children from five eligible Lake Sarasota families designated by the school. The funds were raised at the Nov. 6th  Adopt-a-Family Festival at Lakeview Park. Thanks again to all who helped make the event a success.

A while back some people from the county looked at the space between Mauna Loa Boulevard and Hand Road -- it's a sidewalk with a wooded area, mainly, with a crossing on Jarvis -- and suggested it might be possible to create a kids' walk that would offer a safer, "greener" walkway, and possibly fun-use and educative environment for the many Lake Sarasota kids and parents who use that route to get to Lakeview Elementary, or to the park. So far, the area has been cleared of invasive plants, risks and brush.  What's next might involve getting some input from the community. But first, there needs to be clarity on the question of whether the community does or does not wish to have a road punched through from Mauna Loa to Hand Road. Apparently this issue has never been completely resolved. Please give this some thought and let us know what you think about the road, and the walkway idea. You can email us at lakesarasota@gmail.com , and/or come out to the Lakeview Park Cle...