The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

Full Tent Joe O'Hara and Commissioner Charles Hines (seated) Dignitaries and Citizens Dig In Laughter, speeches and cookies made today's groundbreaking for the widening of Bee Ridge Road an enjoyable moment. The road project, which is expected to take two years to complete, will transform Bee Ridge Road East of I-75 into a gateway to the East.  The road will be widened to four lanes up to Laurel Oaks/Bent Tree. It will have a planted median, bio-swales, sidewalks, bike paths, four roundabouts and buffering -- some 12,000 trees, bushes and plants will be put in with drip irrigation. The project began with a proposal that came from the communities of Bee Ridge Road. Joe O'Hara initially approached Sarasota county officials in 2002, and formed the Bee Ridge Neighborhoods Committee to work with the County to work on every aspect of the project to make sure that in the end -- after the dust settles -- it will add beauty, value to the communities alon...

A future road alignment plan coming up before the County Commission on March 18th could have major repercussions on Lake Sarasota. Basically, county planners wish to justify the eventual creation of a north/south artery that would connect Mauna Loa Blvd. with Fruitville Rd. via a road that right now only exists on future maps, called Spine Rd. The planners' reasoning and details are in a Board Memo available via this link.   Spine Rd. will be the subject of discussion at the Board of County Commissioners sometime during the afternoon session on March 18th. The session begins at 1:30, but will have other items. Public input will be possible. Here is the basic scenario as we understand it: The developers of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce (TerraCap BR and agent Peter M. Dailey and Richard Fischer) wish to remove Spine Rd. from the future plans, presumably because it will save them money to do so.  The planners wish to retain Spine Rd . because they s...