Item the last business matter on agenda of first meeting since board members returned from summer break
On June 5, Pat Neal, the former state senator who founded Neal Communities, told the Sarasota County Commission that he would need to delay a hearing on his latest development application to reach the public hearing stage — 3H Ranch.
The reason, Neal said, was that his “long-time lawyer,” Edward Vogler of Plantation, was unable to be present for the hearing that had been scheduled that day. Therefore, Neal added, he respectfully requested a postponement. “We hope to come back on another day with a full team.”
No commissioner objected.
As it turns out, that hearing has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 27, when the commissioners will conduct their first meeting since their return from their four-week summer vacation.
Formally, Neal Communities is seeking the commission’s approval of a residential community with up to 6,576 dwelling units, 120,000 square feet of office space and 250,000 square feet of commercial/retail space. The property is located south of Clark Road and east of Lorraine Road.
Further, Neal Communities has applied for the rezoning of the site from Open Use Estate-1 and Open Use Rural to the Village Planned Development zoning that is part of the county’s 2050 Plan for development east of Interstate 75.
The staff report on the project explains that Open Use Estate allows one dwelling unit per 5 acres, while Open Use Rural provides for one unit per 10 acres. Village Planned Development zoning permits five units per “developable acre.”
The county staff memo about the hearing, included in the Aug. 27 agenda packet, further notes that “the project will distribute the proposed residential and non-residential uses within fourteen (14) Neighborhoods and at least one (1) Village Center.”
Based on the project’s market study, the memo continues, additional non-residential square footage, above the 300,000 square feet allowed per County Code, “can be supported by the residents, and therefore can allow for a potential second Village Center.”
Further, the memo says, “Each Neighborhood will include at least one (1) Neighborhood Center that can serve as a focal point [for] the residents,” while a minimum of 140 acres of space for recreation has been proposed throughout the Village; that will take the form of parks of various sizes.
The project will be served by public utilities, the memo adds.
Moreover, it notes, Neal Communities will create an interconnected network of roads, bike lanes, sidewalks, and multi-use trails for motorists and pedestrians.
Further, “The Applicant will reserve an area on the Master Land Use Plan for a future school site and has included a Fiscal Neutrality Analysis … that demonstrates the project will be Fiscally Neutral to the County,” the memo points out.
The hearing is the final matter of business on the Aug. 27 agenda, Item No. 60.
The meeting will be held at the R.L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice, which stands at 4000 S. Tamiami Trail. It will begin at 9 a.m.
Since commissioners a couple of years ago changed the Rules of Procedure for their meetings, this reporter has found it impossible to predict exactly when a given agenda item will be heard. For example, Chair Michael Moran typically has been allowing everyone who signs up to speak at the first Open to the Publicperiod to do so, even though one of the Rules of Procedure modified several years ago allows the board members to restrict the number of people who make remarks at that time.
With a long list of speakers the commissioners can spend 30 minutes or more listening to comments before they even address their Consent Agenda of routine business matters, which precedes other business during the first of two meetings in a given week or a solitary meeting in one week.
Even though the 3H Ranch item was removed from the June 5 agenda, Moran pointed out that people who had come to that meeting with the intention of testifying during the hearing could offer their comments during Open to the Public. Three did so, including Joan Farrell, a member of the Venice City Council, who said she was speaking on her own behalf that day, not the city’s.
All three individuals voiced opposition to one or more facets of the plans for 3H Ranch.
Correspondence submitted to the county’s Planning and Development Services Department, decrying Neal Communities’ proposal, comprises a 92-page document in the Aug. 27 agenda packet, The Sarasota News Leader found.
A number of the writers have protested Neal’s request to reduce the open space requirement for such a 2050 Plan Village development from 50% of the site to 33%. That proposal is one of several that the company is seeking for the project that deviates from the county’s standards for Villages.
Details of Neal’s requests for variations
The staff memo included in the Aug. 27 agenda packet provides details about all of the variations that Neal Communities is requesting, in regard to the requirements for a Village Planned Development (VPD) in the 2050 Plan.
“An integral component of the VPD compliance is the provision of at least 50% of the subject site as Open Space. Subject to approval by the [commission],” as part of the Clark Road Properties site under the Sarasota 2050 plan, the memo adds, the developer “may request a reduction to the Open Space size, if the project can be found consistent” with a specific county Comprehensive Plan policy and it is “in compliance with Unified Development Code (UDC) Section 124-271(c)(3)(c).”
The Comprehensive Plan guides growth in the county. The UDC contains all of the county’s land-use and zoning regulations.
“These policies and regulations require that projects meet the following conditions for a reduction,” the memo points out:
- “Clear demonstration that the reduced amount of Open Space creates a net ecological benefit relative to what would be provided by the implementation of the standard minimum 50% requirement.
- “Substantial Open Space network of Greenway [resource management areas], native habitat, and other Open Space areas along the east, south and west perimeters of the Clark Road Properties.
- “Ecological enhancements of the Open Space network.” Because the site encompasses approximately 2,727-acres, the memo continues, the standard 50% Open Space requirement would equal about 1,364-acres. “The Open Space naturally would include any onsite native habitat,” which, according to the current conditions, is only approximately 438 acres, the memo adds. Therefore, the additional 926 acres “required to meet the full 50% would consist of portions of the remaining site that are mostly composed of improved pasture lands, agricultural ditches and cattle ponds.”
Further, Neal Communities is seeking commission approval to ensure that, at a minimum, the open space would comprise 33% of the property — the equivalent of about 899 acres — by providing the following criteria, “which the Board may or may not find consistent with the reduction conditions noted above,” the memo continues:
- The plans for the development would preserve approximately 378 acres of the existing 438 acres of native habitat and would create about 294.74 acres of habitat on site, “for a total of ±672.35 acres of protected habitat, which results in an increase of ±234.35 acres of habitat over what already exists.”
- An Open Space network would connect Greenway portions along the southern boundary with protected native habitats onsite and with adjacent Open Space areas within the neighboring VPD to the east.
- “An ecological enhancement” would be provided, with external connections to off-site environmental lands within the neighboring Skye Ranch VPD and future Strazzera VPD.
Moreover, the memo notes, a Village is required to include 500-foot-wide Greenbelts, “which are meant to provide a significant mitigation buffer around the perimeter of the Village …” However, the memo says, as the development would be “part of the Clark Road Properties incentives,” Neal Communities can request exceptions to the Greenbelts, subject to approval by the Board.”
Therefore, as part of the 16 UDC modifications requested with the rezoning application, the company is seeking exceptions to decrease the Greenbelt width from 500 feet to 50 feet along the northern and northwestern boundaries, along with a waiver “(i.e., zero-width buffer)” of the requirement along the eastern and southern boundaries.