The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

Members of the Board and other interested residents of Lake Sarasota will meet today with representatives of TerraCap in a final effort to negotiate a neighborhood-friendly agreement addressing the concerns regarding safety, tranquility, and property values. The results will be reported here. === A conversation about a legally binding Covenant between Lake Sarasota residents and agents for TerraCap Mgmt. has not progressed since a June 12 meeting . The community has concerns about traffic, nuisance noise and odors, and damage to property values that could arise from mishandled development of the commercial land opposite the front entrance of the Lake S. community at Mauna Loa Blvd. and Bee Ridge Road. Agents for TerraCap , the Canadian owner of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce who sold the front property to Racetrac, were approached in April about a Covenant, but ignored the Community's overture. After the developer's latest rezoning plan failed to receive County app...

Highlights of the June Quarterly meeting of the Lake Sarasota Community Group (LSCG): 1. Representatives of TerraCap Mgmt Inc. told the LSCG board and members of the community that they could be open to a "Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions" modeled upon that employed at the Publix Plaza at Bee Ridge Extension. A rough draft of a Declaration for the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce will be drawn up and shared with the Community for comment and feedback before further talks are held. The purpose is to identify legally binding constraints that would protect Lake Sarasota residences from noise, glare, and other potential nuisances, as well as produce an appealing upscale commercial center. 2. Plans were made to rescue the Lake Sarasota signs at the entrance at Mauna Loa. The task proved easier than expected, and the signs are now in safe keeping. The concern was that they might be lost once the Bee Ridge road widening begins. If a child reports that they were stolen, plea...

This evening, June 12, is our quarterly Lake Sarasota Community Group meeting. It begins at 7 pm at Sarasota Alliance Church, on the North side of Bee Ridge Rd., opposite Chaucer, in the meeting rooms behind the church. Here is the Agenda: Discussion of Neighborhood-Friendly Covenant for the development opposite our front entrance with Representatives of TerraCap. Rescuing the existing Lake Sarasota signs at Mauna Loa and Bee Ridge before the road widening begins. Update on the timing of the Bee Ridge Road Widening. Update on Sheriff's report for Lake Sarasota. Brief background on the first item: Ever since the residents of Lake Sarasota were surprised to learn about the plan for a supersized Racetrac gas station at Bee Ridge Rd. and Mauna Loa Blvd. in 2012, some of us have tried to keep an eye on plans for "Bee Ridge Park of Commerce" (BRPOC) to avoid further surprises. In April, we wrote a letter to the developer asking him to work with us o...

Representatives of the developer of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce say they plan to attend the quarterly meeting of the Lake Sarasota Community Group this Thursday, June 12. They indicate the possibility of working with Lake Sarasota residents on a neighborhood-friendly Covenant regarding the site and business uses. The meeting begins at 7 pm at Sarasota Alliance Church. The letter from Mr. Peter Dailey reads in part: Thank you for inviting us to your  June 12 th Lake Sarasota Community Group meeting. We have been authorized by our clients (Terracap Management, Inc.) to attend and look forward to sharing meaningful dialog per matters of concern (this is “Notice” we will attend).   As requested, please accept the following outline of matters we are prepared to discuss and those we simply cannot:   We are prepared to discuss the possibility of a “privately initiated” Restrictive Covenant Agreement (to be filed with Sarasota Clerk of Circuit Court) per permitte...

The Sarasota County Commission Wednesday voted to continue the rezoning petition brought by the developers of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce. The Commission voted unanimously (5-0) to postpone consideration of the proposed plan for the BRPOC , situated opposite the entrance to Lake Sarasota at Mauna Loa Blvd. and Bee Ridge Rd. The Commissioners cited several reasons for not approving the petition:  For one thing, the proposal for an 77,000-square-foot building lacked clear definition of how it would be used. "You could do something more imaginative and appealing," said Commission Nora Patterson, adding that with some creative work, it could prove to be a community asset. For another, the request for an extra median cut in North Mauna Loa Blvd. opposite the planned Racetrac Gas Station raised public safety concerns because of its proximity to the signal at Bee Ridge and Mauna Loa Blvd. A third issue mentioned by three of the five Commissioners was that the developer,...

A letter requesting the developer of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce was sent to the developer, TerraCap Management, to its agents, Peter Dailey and Richard M. Fischer, and to several members of the County's planning staff. The letter asks that the BRPOC voluntarily sign a binding agreement, or Covenant , stipulating that they will not allow adult entertainment, shooting ranges, or other uses that could degrade or otherwise harm the property values and / or relative tranquility long enjoyed by residents of Lake Sarasota and other communities along the Bee Ridge Corridor. The uses identified as objectionable were determined through neighborhood polls. A copy of the letter is here , or here . If neither link works for you, you can request a copy by writing to LakeSarasota@gmail.com. The developers are seeking Sarasota County's approval to rezone a portion of their 40-acre site to Commercial Neighborhood. They come before the Board of County Commissioners at a hearing on May ...

At a Planning Commission hearing on April 3, the agents for TerraCap, the owner of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce, were directed by the Commissioners to work with nearby residents to establish an understanding of what the neighborhoods would consider friendly and welcome uses for the commercial spaces. On May 21, the County Commission will be asked to approve the rezoning of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce. About 7 acres of the 40-acre site will be converted from  PCD to CN zoning . The rest remains PCD. As the above link shows, PCD allows a very wide range of uses, from clubs to liquor stores to gun and archery ranges. Even under the narrower CN zoning, the range includes several uses that Lake Sarasota and other area residents cited as objectionable. These included: Stormwater facility in different zoning district than principal use Clubs & lodges Day Care Bars Boarding House Entertainment Outdoors Animal Hospital On April 3, TerraCap agents Richar...

The Sarasota County Planning Commission voted 6-1 to forward the re-zoning petition for the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce to the County Commission. That is, the Planning Commissioners, after about an hour of probing discussion and remarks from nearby neighborhoods, agreed to give Mr. Peter Dailey and Richard Fischer the right to convert 6.9 acres of the Park of Commerce -- adjacent to the north and east of the Racetrac parcel - to Commercial Neighborhood. In a separate ruling, they allowed the agents to expand from CN's usual limit of 20,000 square feet to 37,000 square feet for one building, without committing to specific uses for it, or for two other parcels. In return, Dailey and Fischer on behalf of TerraCap agreed to honor a 50' setback buffer along Bee Ridge Rd. The CN designation does not require that large a buffer, but it was already built into the plan and will remain intact. Commissioner John Burrus cast the only dissenting vote, stating that the absence of specif...

On Thurs. April 3, a request to rezone a portion of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce from PCD to CN will be heard by the Planning Commission. See here for details . Below are descriptions of what is permitted under each designation. Are there any uses we as nearby residents would prefer not to see across from our front entrance? Have a look, let us know . =========== PCD vs. CN by level of permission (Sarasota Cty Code Appendix 5) Info taken from the Municode for Sarasota County 4.7. - Commercial and Industrial District Intent Statements. 4.7.1. Commercial Neighborhood District (CN). a. The CN District permits small-scale, neighborhood-oriented commercial facilities. Their proper development and use shall be facilitated through design techniques and sufficient buffering (as set out in Article 7 ), which provide for walkable, pedestrian-friendly uses compatible with nearby residential uses. The district is not intended for use by major or large-scale commercial...

The Planning Commission will review TerraCap and Peter Dailey's request to rezone the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce from PCD to CN, and to create a right-in/right-out turn on Bee Ridge so cars heading West can enter 460 feet East of the Mauna Loa intersection.

The agent for the Canadian owner/developer of the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce -- the site opposite the entrance to Lake Sarasota -- offered a more detailed, pared-down version of a plan he presented in February . The plan now calls for creating a 77,400-square-foot commercial building and two restaurants on land on the north and east sides of the site designated for a Racetrac gas station. The presentation by Peter Dailey contained a few surprises, and was somewhat different from what appeared on earlier paperwork submitted to the county planning department. This is a summary of key items. A longer analysis will come later. 1. The petition seeks permission to build a single commercial building about 77,400 square feet in size. Earlier, the developer had wanted two separate buildings. The single structure now proposed would have one floor, eliminating a second-story residential floor sought in earlier stages of the plan. 2. The developer seeks to raise a limit to 33,700 square f...

The topic did not come up at the Neighborhood Workshop, but aside from the 90,000 square feet that TerraCap is seeking to rezone to CN for retail, offices and restaurants, there are other parcels totaling another 85,000 square feet which are already approved for a bank, drugstore, etc. Yet another parcel of unspecified size is approved and designated for a hotel. Here's the letter from Peter Dailey stating all this - click to enlarge:

The TerraCap Rezoning Neighborhood Workshop of 2.20.13 was attended by roughly 65 residents of the East Bee Ridge Communities. The point of most pressing interest to many at the meeting -- the size of Racetrac , and the potential nuisance and safety factors of its 24-hour operation -- was not addressed, because Racetrac Petroleum Inc. recently chose to remove itself from the rezoning petition. TerraCap’s first act, upon purchasing 40 acres of the BRPOC for $3.2 million in 2011, was to sell two acres at the intersection of North Mauna Loa Blvd. and Bee Ridge Rd. to Racetrac for $1.35 million . The rezoning petition is limited to 7.7 acres which TerraCap, the Canada-based developer, is asking to change from PCD to CN. See more about those two kinds of zoning here. The Workshop disclosed little in the way of new information. Peter Dailey of Dailey Design, who represented TerraCap and is the consultant working for them on permitting issues, said the rezoning to CN would replace an ...