Newtown Gateway brownfield redevelopment clears hurdle

The city commission discussion came down to a single word.

By Noah Bookstein

Original Air Date: October 7, 2026

Host: Newtown Gateway’s rezoning cleared another hurdle at City Hall this week. Noah Bookstein reports on a discussion that came down to a single word.

The rezone is for the Newtown Gateway south parcel.

NB: On Monday, the Sarasota City Commission approved the rezone of nearly 10 acres of the Marian Anderson Brownfield on MLK Way. That clears the way for a warehouse to be built on the southern part of the site.

A brownfield is environmentally contaminated land, and redeveloping one often requires complicated remediation. The Marian Anderson site has sat empty for more than 80 years after being used as an informal dump.

The developer, Newtown Gateway, is led by Miami-based real estate investor Barron Channer, founder of Woodwater Investments. The company plans (https://wslr.org/city-keeps-newtown-brownfield-redevelopment-project-alive/) medical offices on the northern portion fronting MLK and a logistics warehouse to the south, and they say cleaning up the environment at the site is part of the project. The city is still negotiating a deal to sell the land to Newtown Gateway.

Christian Toller, a senior planner with the city, said the rezone covers about nine acres of the nearly 14-acre parcel. It changes the zoning from “commercial residential” to “industrial general”.

Toller walked commissioners through the condition they hammered out at a first reading of the rezone last month. It bars primary uses and open-air activities involving the processing or recycling of refuse, and the crushing or grinding of materials such as concrete, asphalt and asbestos. It is written to still allow small-scale activity, like recycling cardboard at an office.

Christian Toller:   This commission reviewed the planning board’s rationale for limiting open-air activities on the subject property involving, one, the processing or recycling of refuse, refuse or trash, and two, the crushing, breaking, grinding, or pulverizing of rocks, concrete, mortar, asbestos, asphalt, or substantially similar materials. This commission agreed that the condition should prohibit primary uses and open air activities involving the listed activities, while not being so restrictive as to prohibit small scale on-site recycling activities typical of a commercial business such as an office recycling, you know, cardboard boxes or paper. 

NB: Toller said the only other change was swapping the word “site” for “subject property,” so the restriction would not be read as covering the entire parent parcel, but just the southern part where the warehouse will be built.

Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch then raised a question about the phrase “substantially similar materials,” which closes out the list of banned substances. She asked why the ordinance did not just say “similar.”

Jen Ahearn-Koch:  I just have one question. In the paragraph A, where it talks about the processing and recycling, and it says, “The crushing, breaking, grinding, or pulverizing of rocks, concrete, mortar, asbestos, asphalt,” comma, “or substantially similar materials.” Maybe this is a question for the attorney, the word “substantially”, what kind of weight that holds. Why not just similar materials? 

NB: Channer told commissioners the stronger wording actually works in everyone’s favor. He said “similar” alone is open to interpretation.

Barron Channer addresses the Sarasota City Commission

Barron Channer:  ”Substantially similar” – I don’t know the origin of this particular word, but often we’re in these conversations- Yeah … and when someone says, “Hey, you, you will not drink alcohol or something similar.” Well, water is similar in the sense that it’s a liquid, but it’s not substantially similar because it’s not alcohol. So that’s the one retort that I would have, is if we’re going to have similar, the context of what similar means needs to be included because a box is a solid similar to cement in one way in the court of law. But substantially similar, no one would interpret a box to be substantially similar to cement. 

NB: Ahearn-Koch said her intent was to ensure the site does not become a concrete crushing facility such as the one in the Central Coconaut neighborhood formerly known as US Recycling, now called Central Sarasota Recycling. 

JAK:  The intent of this is to not repeat what’s already going on in the city that’s causing so much of a problem, the health issues and so on and so forth. And I know that’s not your intent, but it doesn’t lie necessarily in your hands or in my hands in the undecided future. So I just want to make sure we’re protecting our neighborhoods and our citizens from activity that’s going on right now, not your fault, for the future. And words matter. One word matters, uh, as we know. So I just want to make sure that the intent is clear that we don’t want to extend uses unintentionally, that are a problem now, and that we’re protecting our citizens. That’s my concern here. 

NB: In the end, commissioners were satisfied with leaving the language as written, relying on the city attorney’s review. Here’s Commissioner Kyle Battie. 

Battie:  I echo that. I think, substantially is substantial enough. 

NB: Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich moved approval and Battie seconded. The roll call vote was five to zero. Newtown Gateway has to come back to the city commission at least one more time for a further approval. 

Reporting for WSLR News, Noah Bookstein.

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