Sarasota County Comp Plan update focuses on futures

SARASOTA -- The Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan is not the county staff or government plan. It's the community's plan, Sarasota County long-range planning manager Allen Parsons said Wednesday.

"The Comprehensive Plan is a plan that is the community's plan for the county's future," Parsons said at the county's Comprehensive Plan update kickoff. "Sarasota County has a desire for where it wants to go and how it gets to that future."

At Gulf Gate Library, county staff began the first Comprehensive Plan update since 2006. It weighs 12 pounds and is 1,300 pages. Some data in it is from as early as 2000.

Roughly 60 county residents -- 86 percent from unincorporated portions

of the county -- participated in an interactive poll to learn more about how the county has changed since the plan was last updated and current county demographics.

County planner Elma Felix said the update's tagline is "Sarasota County: Today, Tomorrow, Together.

"The way we grow today, tomorrow and the most important part is that we do it together," she said.

Dan Lobeck, an attorney and president of Control Growth Now, said he thinks the county seeking public input is just a show.

"I and others are very fearful that this is just a show to cover what really is a scheme to repeal limits on development in the Comprehensive Plan," Lobeck said, adding there were public meetings when the county amended the Sarasota 2050 plan but many people said no one listened to their ideas.

"Why is there any more anticipation that they will listen to people now than they did then?" he asked.

Residents weigh in

Sharron organ, who lives in the unincorporated portion of the county, said she is interested in what is going on and plans to stay involved throughout the process.

"Smart growth has to include more things than houses," she said.

Ron Saba, who also lives in the unincorporated portion of the county, said he hopes Sarasota grows at a "rate livable for all of us."

"I want to contribute as much time as I can to help Sarasota grow in the right ways," he said.

County staff is scheduled to evaluate the plan through a series of eight-week cycles, which will include public workshops and a website for the educational materials and surveys.

The project will focus on five areas: updating baseline data and information; improving plan clarity, purpose and intent; strengthening connections between chapter and topic areas; concentrating focus on lands inside the Urban Service Boundary; and improving implementation.

To update the plan's 12 chapters, each cycle will be organized around one of seven central planning themes: environmental systems, mobility, economic development, public utilities, land use and urban design, quality of life, capital improvements and completion cycle.

The process will take 18 months. The first draft will be completed in September 2016 with county commission workshops held in October and then May 2016. A public hearing and plan adoption is tentatively scheduled for December 2016.

Information: scgov.net/CompPlanUpdate.

Claire Aronson, University Parkway/Sarasota reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024 or at caronson@bradenton.com. Follow her on Twitter @Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published February 12, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Sarasota County Comp Plan update focuses on futures ."