Prodded by activist crowd, the Planning Commission votes a narrow ‘no’.
By Johannes Werner and Della Hale
Original Air Date: November 22, 2024
Host: Just weeks after the massive flooding caused by Hurricane Debby, a proposed development in one of those flooded areas was up for deliberation by a county panel on Thursday. The Sarasota County Planning Commission met in Venice to discuss a planned development along the edge of Celery Fields, a popular birding destination. A national homebuilder is asking the county to rezone 50 acres of agricultural land to build 170 homes. Two local groups organized a massive showing of opponents, and — to say it right away — the seven commissioners voted in unexpected ways.
Johannes Werner: The County Commission Chamber in Venice was buzzing with more than 150 activists looking to prevent the development from popping up next to Celery Fields. The planning commission’s deliberations were livestreamed on screens set up in the hallway to accommodate the overflow crowd. The meeting saw over 2 hours of public comment — most of it against the project — which meant that the meeting ran late — really late, until past 11pm.
The presentation for the developer, national homebuilder D.R. Horton, was given by Kelley Klepper and Charles Bailey from consulting firm Kimley Horn. The presenters did have a plan that was slightly different from the surrounding developmentsThe plan includes a minimum 80-foot buffer between the development and the fields, which would be planted with native trees and shrubs. They also agreed to comply with light standards by the International Dark Sky Association, which would avoid scaring away many birds.
The presentation did not do much to quell the concerns of neighbors and activists.
Throughout the many speeches there was one common theme: Preserving the Celery Fields and all of the species that reside within it.
Among the speakers was a guide for the Sarasota Nature Center at Celery Fields. She talked about how she has guided thousands of birders through the preserve, how it has become a major natural attraction in Sarasota County, and that the birds will be affected by the construction of 170 homes nearby.
Nancy Simpson, a floodplain expert and former State House candidate, took the time to speak about flood concerns. She talked about her experience with engineers trying to combat nature in regards to flood waters.
The proposed D.R. Horton development.
Nancy Simpson: My career began back in Minot, North Dakota, where in 2011 they had experienced a 500 year flood that brought nearly 26 feet of water into the Souris River basin. It was a river that ran right through the middle of town. 4,000 homes were affected. Many factors contributed to that unprecedented event, whether it was natural or man made. But in my professional opinion, it was a man made factor that contributed the most.
In the 1960s, there was a flood in the same area, and the Army Corps of Engineers came in and tried to engineer their way out of what Mother Nature wants to do. And I think that exacerbated what happened in Minot. So they came in and channelized the river. And so floodwaters rose instead of going out into the natural oxbows that were there previously before human intervention. So after the Army Corps left, whether the infrastructure was not maintained appropriately, memorandums of agreement were not upheld, or just maybe lost a time or apathy, I’m not sure. But I tell you this as a cautionary tale, that you can only engineer your way so much out of a flood. They will happen, and we don’t know when, and we don’t know how severe they will be.
View from Celery Fields
Let’s consider when we are developing areas that are currently undeveloped, whether there’s development around them. I currently live in an infill development. There were supposed to be over 100 homes on 5 acres and now there’s only 37 because the right decision was made to not engineer our way out of the flood plain. And as someone said previously, nearly 60% of this property is within the floodplain. What are you going to do with all of that water when we exceed 11 inches in 24 hours? What are you going to do when there’s 11 inches the 24 hours before and the next 24 hours?
JW: At the end of the long meeting, the Planning Commission voted 4 to 3 against recommending a rezone to the County Commissioners. Chair Colin Pember cast the decisive vote on a panel that has rarely voted down big development projects.
Tom Matrullo is one of the co-founders of Sarasota County Citizens Network, or SCAN, one of the two local organizations organizing the resistance against the project. He says he was surprised by the vote.
Disclosure: Matrullo is a board member of WSLR.
Tom Matrullo: You have people on the planning commission who are site consultants for major builders, they’re marketers, they’re realtors, and they tend to be in favor of growth, with some exceptions. The problem for them is that, close to 200 people or maybe more showed up to say, “You don’t do this to the Celery Fields.”
There’s a curious thing in Sarasota County about this, that we have allowed Pat Neal to just grab 6,500 acres south of Clark Road. We’ve allowed 3H Ranch to get permission to build 13,000 homes in their ranch. But this little Celery Fields domain, beloved of everybody who goes there, the bird lovers, the athletes, the dog walkers, the whole shebang, has a special position in people’s hearts.
And so we didn’t know what to expect. And up until the very end, it was like a great soccer game, where the last goal comes at the very last second of the game, and that was basically it. And it was sitting in Colin Pember’s lap. He’s the chair and he is a marketing consultant for Pulte Homes. He has consistently been pro growth and he said last night, quite clearly that he tends to favor growth. This particular case, he could not accept it.
JW: The recent experience with flooding — in addition to noise and traffic — seems to have played the biggest role in the rejection.
TM: There was a cascade of reasons. Flooding was certainly uppermost on many people’s minds because they have just experienced some flooding. They had pictures of past flooding. One woman brought in pictures of her neighborhood from 1992. Because the area didn’t just flood for the first time. It has a history.
JW: Matrullo senses that change is in the air.
TM: We’ve had a switch in the county commission, but remember, last night was not the county commission, it was the planning commission. And so, we can’t really gauge what the county commission will do based on what the planning commission did. But we can say that the previous county commission, the one where two people have now exited — Rainford and Moran — that commission, the same day that they heard from their managers about the flood, went ahead and approved a gigantic plan and a very vague plan from Pat Neal for 6,500 homes on 2,700 acres, south of Clark Road called 3H Ranch. They didn’t even hesitate, they didn’t think about, oh, floods and all that, even though the Neal development is in a floodplain. So, that commission was never going to stop.
But Moran and Rainford are out. Moran was term limited. Rainford was voted out. Tom Knight replaced him. Tom Knight has a pretty strong story about how upset he is by the power of the developers in Sarasota County. So we’ll see what happens. The new commission has already made some moves. It did this past Tuesday to suggest that they’re not going to just give the blessing to everything a developer wants. They prevented two projects that came before them from getting approval.
JW: But it’s hard to predict how the county commissioners will vote; they have overruled recommendations from the planning commission in the past. No date is set for a hearing of the D.R. Horton project.
Johannes Werner for WSLR News, with reporting from Della Hale.
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