The 5,000-acre development plan looked like a done deal, but last week, it hit a roadblock.
By Noah Bookstein
Original Air Date: August 27, 2026
Host: A year and a half ago, the Sarasota County Commission approved the 5,000-home Lakewood Ranch Southeast expansion. In principle. Now, the developer found that the devil is in the details. Noah Bookstein reports.
Noah Bookstein: Lakewood Ranch is a sprawling, comprehensive development built by the Schroeder Manatee Ranch Company, or SMR, under CEO Rex Jensen.
The suburb of 80,000 residents is spread across 35,000 acres in Sarasota and Manatee counties. Now, developers are attempting to expand Lakewood Ranch Southeast into 5,000 acres of Sarasota County’s historically agricultural and wetland areas.
Lakewood Ranch Southeast seemed like a done deal when, in early 2025, the Sarasota County Commission approved SMR’s initial master plan.
But then last week, Sarasota County’s planning commission met, and that did not go according to SMR’s plan. The advisory board that makes recommendations to the county commission about land use considered two rezone petitions for about 900 acres from the Lakewood Ranch developers so that they can build on the land.
Becky Ayech
Becky Ayech, a farmer and longtime resident in Old Miakka, spoke at the Planning Commission and told WSLR News she opposed the development.
Becky Ayech: Lakewood Ranch started off from the very beginning by saying, “We don’t care and we’re not going to be compatible, and therefore we’re going to call ourselves Lakewood Ranch Southeast.” It doesn’t exist. They made it up. It’s a beast that needs to have a stake driven in its heart. It’s Lakewood Ranch and Old Miakka.
NB: Ayech and others at the meeting expressed concerns that Lakewood Ranch Southeast would not be compatible with the local environment. Under Sarasota County’s planning rules, developers are required to preserve a certain percentage of open space, but the county allows them to count retention ponds toward this requirement alongside parks and other public facilities.
While developers market these bodies of water as lakes to prospective home buyers, they are really unlined stormwater storage ponds. They are designed to hold millions of gallons of treated wastewater, which is pumped out to irrigate neighborhood lawns.
Residents and environmental advocates oppose counting them as open space because they are not safe for swimming, boating, fishing or drinking, and the treated wastewater often leaks sideways into the surrounding soil.
BA: That’s like a big septic tank, except it took the solids out.
NB: They are ecologically unviable, and when the treated wastewater leaks into the ground, it has devastated nearby ecosystems.
BA: We know from Flatford Swamp, which is at the headwaters of the Myakka River, that agricultural runoff—lateral seepage—killed all of the trees in Flatford Swamp. It was a hardwood swamp that the district bought with taxpayer dollars to preserve it. It killed trees in Crowley Museum and Nature Center. It killed 101 acres of trees in the Myakka River State Park.
NB: At the planning commission meeting, attendees and commissioners pointed out that the developers’ plans for including wildlife corridors were insufficient. Commissioner John LaCivita pressed the developer’s environmental scientist Chris Kennedy about the corridors.
John LaCivita: The question is, the corridors you have—the wildlife corridors, the crossings—the animals are going to have to cross pavement, correct?
Chris Kennedy: Yes, that’s correct.
JL: So it’s up to the drivers to pay attention to the signage. There’s no bridge overpass or anything of that nature, correct? No AI camera with a light for a car or anything at this point?
CK: For the wildlife crossings that are in our neighborhood, those will be marked with signage. There will not be an overpass or anything like that, but they will be marked with signage and/or rumble strips to alert motorists of the wildlife crossing.
Jane Grandbouche
NB: Attendees and commissioners were also concerned that Fruitville Road already carries more than 7,000 cars a day on two rural lanes with no shoulder to pull over speeding cars. They say it could not handle the traffic from another 1,000-plus homes. Old Miakka resident and WSLR board member Jane Grandbouche shared her experience on the road.
Jane Grandbouche: I don’t know if you’ve been out Fruitville Road. It really is a disaster, and it is dangerous every day. Between the trucks, the traffic, the school bus. The traffic’s halfway out Fruitful Road.
NB: Planning Commissioner Jon Thaxton doubted the development was paying for itself, pointing out the project burdens county finances beyond what is allowed, and that the county is already subsidizing the expansion of roads.
Jon Thaxton
Jon Thaxton: I don’t see what universe, with the evidence and testimony presented today, that we can say that these two petitions are going to have 100% of their infrastructure cost funded by the properties within the village transition zone when we have expert, competent testimony that says otherwise.
NB: Under the developer’s proposal, the county would need to put more taxpayer money into supporting the development.
JT: The applicant is going to give the county property for a county park and a fire station, but they’re not assuming responsibility as it’s required in the ordinance and village transition policy for the construction of those facilities.
NB: By the end of the hearing, all eight commissioners agreed the numbers did not add up. Commissioner Thaxton moved to recommend denial, citing the comprehensive plan, incompatibility with the neighborhood and the strain on public facilities. The vote: 8-0. Becky Ayech was in the room and told WSLR News her reaction.
BA: Well, hallelujah! That’s my reaction. 8-0. I keep telling people, if you put facts in the record that give either the planning or the county commission facts that they can use to deny it, they will.
NB: Planning commissioners also recommended to deny Lakewood Ranch’s request for a new cell tower. Bruce Franklin spoke about how none of the current residents in Old Miakka are concerned about their cellphone reception.
BF: We never have anybody up here that says, “This is great because I can’t get cell phone reception,” and I didn’t hear anybody get up here and say, “I live here, and I have unreliable service.” The other thing is, since we did recommend denial of the rezoning petition, it’s my view that this would be premature.
NB: The issue will now go before the county commission.
Reporting for WSLR News, Noah Bookstein.
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