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...

Virtual Neighborhood Workshop Notice: PLEASE NOTE: The previous Zoom Meeting for July 15, 2020 is Cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience. The New Date is Thursday, July 23, 2020 at 6 pm. This Rezoning/Special Exception will allow for the creation of a mixed-use development consisting of a maximum of 270 multifamily units and 8.87 Acres +/- of PCD commercial uses on four parcels fronting along Bee Ridge Road. The entire project is contained within two PID Nos. 0240100030 and 0240140010. Please visit the following scheduled Zoom Meeting: Topic: Proposed Small Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment; Rezone Petition/Special Exception for the Enclave at BRPOC, Sarasota, Florida 34231 Time: 6:00 PM (Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting :  [Click link above or type the entire link into your browser] https://zoom.us/j/9336201982?pwd=VHA0dFZ3dVRmNS91UUJQeU1qemdLUT09 Meeting ID: 933 620 1982 Password: 123456 Call-In Number: 1 646 876 9923 T...

Do you have children attending Tatum Ridge Elementary? Hearing on the siting of a Waste Processing Plant at the Celery Fields - this will affect traffic throughout our entire road system. June 1st Planning Commission, 5 pm

A caravan of road paving vehicles came down Friendship  Tuesday and turned onto Palau. A short while later, they had begun work on Palau by Lauzon

Many of the road surfaces on Lake Sarasota's streets have been milled to make them ready for resurfacing. According to the County, Preferred Materials will be back tomorrow to start paving. They will be in the neighborhood for the next 2 weeks and then the roads should look great.

Come out to the Fire Station #8 to celebrate the start of the widening of Bee Ridge Road,  the single most significant transformation of the area in decades. The Groundbreaking is at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 11.  Learn about how the roadwork will proceed, and find out how it will look when done. Plenty of parking available around the Firehouse. Free refreshments!

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...