For now, Selby Gardens drops below city’s recommended canopy coverage.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: September 17, 2025
Host: Selby Botanical Gardens wants to break ground on a $61 million makeover that includes construction of a new conservatory it calls the “crown jewel” of its campus on the Bay. Selby promises a “stunning crystal palace” that will be home to what it says is the “best scientifically documented collection of orchids and bromeliads in the world.” But that new conservatory will require the removal of 102 trees, including seven grand trees, which enjoy special protection under the City of Sarasota’s tree ordinance.
Johannes Werner: On Monday, with Jen Ahearn-Koch dissenting, the Sarasota City Commission rejected a resident’s appeal, arguing she did not have legal standing.
But the more than hour-long discussion about Kelly Franklin’s appeal put Sarasota’s high-profile botanical garden in an awkward position. Selby saw itself forced to make legal arguments why it should be allowed to cut down trees. Selby’s lawyer argued that Kelly Franklin has no legal standing because the value of her home, half a mile from Selby, is not affected, and because she is not more affected than anyone else. Franklin’s daily kayaking around the gardens does not meet the legal threshold, he said.
Here’s Dan Bailey, making Selby’s case.
Dan Bailey: She indicates that she shares private moments that are perched in the trees on the campus of Selby Gardens that she can see when kayaking out in the water. That’s no different than the thousands of people who drive past Selby Gardens on Mound Street every day. They can look over and see those same trees and those same birds.
JW: Dan Bailey also argued that a loophole for commercial nurseries in the city’s tree ordinance allows Selby to remove the trees.
The organization says there’s no other way to make space for the crystal palace than removing those trees.
Kelly Franklin disagrees. She says a simple flip of the new building’s footprint could spare most of those trees. If Selby cuts them down, she argues, the botanical garden will fall way below the minimum percentage of tree canopy recommended by the city. And that, she says, will produce more runoff into the bay.
Kelly Franklin: They tried to act as if I was making things up in terms of canopy coverage, but the standard I pointed to—the Tree Equity index from American Forests—is the city standard. That is the field, the gold standard. That’s how you measure it. It’s not something I created. And Selby is well under 30% now. If they take these trees out, they’ll probably be at the same level as the rest of downtown, which is 10 to 15%. And we all pay the price for that in terms of runoff, in terms of heat islands, in terms of cleaning the water before the runoff hits it. About the worst thing you can possibly do is taking out this great, beautiful, productive natural barrier. And it’s senseless.
Rendering of Selby Gardens with the planned crystal palace at the center. Graphic courtesy Selby
JW: A Selby spokesperson responded to questions by WSLR in an email, suggesting they are taking all possible steps to minimize damage to the environment. Nancy Seijas-Kipnis argued that the goal applies city-wide, not to individual sites. Once Phase Two construction is completed, Selby Gardens’ canopy will make up 42%, which would be above the city’s target.
Only 34 trees of the 102 trees will actually be cut down, she said. Selby will relocate the remaining 69 within the gardens.
Of those that will be cut, many are storm damaged, she added.
The Selby arborists found “decay and cavities in every single grant tree proposed for removal, which is why they cannot be relocated, and shouldn’t be preserved in close proximity to critical infrastructure or pedestrians.”
There will not be more runoff, Selby argues. Construction of the recently completed garage and welcoming center includes a stormwater retention vault sized to catch the runoff of all existing and planned buildings. And the new conservatory will collect rainwater for irrigation.
Selby says it needs to remove 102 trees, including seven grand trees, to make room for the crystal palace. Sixty-nine will be relocated elsewhere in the park. Photos: K. Murray
Big picture, Selby says it’s doing the right thing for the environment.
“The entire project features the utmost in green technology for the built environment, while safeguarding our more than 20,000 living research plants and historic landscape. In the wake of the recent hurricanes, hundreds of new trees are being planted, which more than makes up for what needs to be removed.”
The next step will be to pull permits with the city. Selby Gardens expects to break ground on Phase Two by the end of this year, with an opening date by the end of 2027.
Kelly Franklin’s plans, after the city rejected her appeal? She says going to court will be an uphill battle, given she will first have to establish legal standing, and that a new Florida law could have her end up footing the legal bill of both sides. In the meantime, she will continue to use the court of public opinion.
KF: I had the billboard truck drive around the farmers market and around Selby for the hearing day, and the driver said they saw people pointing at it and discussing it. Everybody I’ve heard from certainly says this is wrong, particularly if they can solve their problem without doing this. I hope they will reconsider. I have tried to get petition signatures—I’ve seen maybe 30 or 40 people write in—but it’s very hard to get bandwidth these days, particularly when most of the media is not providing the kind of in-depth coverage that we need on these local issues. A lot of readers are focused on other things. But I’m not giving up yet because I don’t think there’s any kind of broad public support for randomly removing trees, and I don’t think that any donor is going to want their name on a building that’s sitting on a grove graveyard unnecessarily.
Title card for SelbyLand via keepcanopy.com
JW: On her website, keepcanopy.com, Franklin even produced a tongue-in-cheek video game called SelbyLand. It allows players to compete by gobbling up trees on a Selby Gardens-shaped peninsula. Her personal record: 26 seconds.
Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
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.
