Step one: Picking a planner. One lobbyist is taking a high-profile role in the process.
Gretchen Cochran
Original Air Date: March 7, 2025
Host: New Urbanism pioneer Andrés Duany created Sarasota’s downtown master plan 25 years ago. The city’s center has since become a magnet for luxury condo developers and buyers, and the kinds of businesses this clientele wants. Now, it’s time for an update of the plan. Our news reporter Gretchen Cochran was at a meeting at City Hall that kicked off the process.
The first meeting of the ad-hoc committee. Photo by Gretchen Cochran
Gretchen Cochran: The 13-member body created to select Sarasota’s next Andrés Duany has already shown the threads of the city’s next soap opera. Its first meeting March 4 featured selected leaders from the dueling camps for our waterfront performing arts centers. Committee members questioned the city’s operating directives, and the former city manager jumped in to stir the pot.
Andrés Duany, you’ll recall, is the renowned “New Urbanist” brought in years ago to help Sarasota craft a plan to guide future development. In some ways the plan was ignored, but he returned last year to generally approve. Now the city seeks to select a new leader to guide it through envisioning its next 20 years or so.
This cumbersomely called “Downtown Master Plan Update Ad Hoc Committee” was neither docile nor compliant. Members voiced their frustration that the city’s timelines were vague, and goals sketchy, causing the plot to thicken.
“When” and “how” were recurring queries, as was the movement around the room of Marlon Brown, the former Sarasota city manager, who has just left the city to become a lobbyist for the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce.
Howard Davis was elected committee chair. He is a board member of Architecture Sarasota, an architect and a developer specializing in re-using old buildings. Think perhaps Van Wezel. The elected vice-chair is Bill Wadell, former chief operating officer of The Bay, the organization into which a new performing arts center might plop. He was at the Coalition for City Neighborhood’s meeting Saturday presenting for the new center.
This temporary city committee will advise on the selection of a person or firm which will help craft the next master plan. We know already they will not be pushovers. The committee was first asked to select its leaders, but member Chris Voelker wondered if they shouldn’t first know their purpose, as none of them had yet received supporting documents for their jobs or even a description of what they were to accomplish.
Voelker’s credentials, by the way, were as well suited for this work as are the others’. She is past chair of the city’s Downtown Improvement District board and the owner of two downtown restaurants. Members were asked to include a “fun fact” with their self-introductions. Voelker mentioned two: her involvement with the Humane Society and that she had taught women to climb telephone poles in a school to teach them to seek alternative careers.
Others named to this group include: Melissa Laughlin, a leader of the Rosemary District, who works teaching consultants on growth strategies. She told of working in Johannesburg in South Africa to develop its master plan.
Will Luera, an actor and improv professional, said he represents the Latino community and lives in Gillespie Park.
Marlon Brown huddles with the city attorney. Photo by Gretchen Cochran
Brown, the Chamber of Commerce guy, had already been working the room—whispering with the city attorney, passing notes—and was now requesting time to address the committee. Brown let them know right off the bat he didn’t much care for the instructions the committee had been given.
Marlon Brown: So please take your time and do this right and do it for the right reasons. You want to make sure that the outcome of this process is a result or product upon which this entire community agrees. Please take your time. There is no rush. I know that the chairman spoke about a timeline, but let this timeline be your timeline. I love the staff. They worked for me for several years. Again, I’ve been in government for 31 years, unlike Mr. Wadell. I don’t know why there should only be one person on the evaluation committee. I would like to see the Florida statute or the federal stature that says that. If it’s not, approach the city commission and have—and if it’s a city ordinance, have them change it. It is important that the community drives this process and that it’s not from the bottom up but from the top down. Because at the end of the day, whether it’s ten years from now, 20 years from now or 30 years from now, I want to go back and see that the community is the one that developed this product and it was not staff.
GC: Then he shifted gears to his lobbyist’s script.
MB: I want to make sure that businesses are included in some way, form or fashion in this entire process and that they’re not given a second hand in this entire process.
GC: He noted the chamber has 1,400 members representing over 60,000 employees. They wield enormous economic impact. Brown emphasized the importance of including nearby affordable housing to deter 40-mile commutes to work.
After the meeting, Wadell, the Performing Arts Center guy, and Voelker waited outside to speak with Brown.
The next public episode of this unfolding drama will occur in about two weeks.
Reporting for WSLR News, Gretchen Cochran.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.