Representative of nonprofit talks of county’s need to determine why area experienced significant flooding during Tropical Storm Debby
On Sept. 10, in response to a staff recommendation for what Sarasota County Planning and Development Services Director Matt Osterhoudt described as “housekeeping” action, the county commissioners unanimously approved the designation of a county-owned roadway as public right of way for Raymond Road.
The roadway is located in the eastern part of the county, next to the Celery Fields Stormwater Management Project.
However, before the vote, attorney Susan Schoettle-Gumm appeared during the Open to the Public comment period to ask that the commissioners hold off on any action “until you know more about the flooding situation in this area.”
She was speaking on behalf of the Sarasota Audubon Society, Schoettle-Gumm pointed out. Sarasota Audubon, she said, “is very concerned” about the proposed right of way designation.
The Celery Fields has become an internationally known bird-watching destination. In accord with that, Sarasota Audubon leaders collaborated with Sarasota County staff years ago to create a Nature Center at the Celery Fields, which the nonprofit operates. The facility opened in late January 2016.
Schoettle-Gumm showed the board members a video that she had taken shortly before 1 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 5, as Tropical Storm Debby was on its way to dropping more than 18 inches of rain on portions of the county. She added that she was driving south on Raymond Road at the time.
Referencing the footage, Schoettle-Gumm pointed out, “There’s significant flooding during the storm, Debby.” The resulting stormwater, she added, was about 2 to 3 feet deep.
She especially directed the commissioners to take a look at the view from the left side of her vehicle, as she was driving into the road’s “S” curve. “There’s been a dramatic drop in the surface level of the land,” she said.
“It is not unusual for Sarasota County … to have public roadways on lands owned by the county without designated public right of way,” Schoettle-Gumm continued.
For example, she indicated that it is her understanding that 1.5 miles of North Cattlemen Road, which runs through Nathan Benderson Park — near University Parkway — has no designated right of way.
She did note that the materials in the Sept. 10 agenda packet implied that some improvement to traffic flow would result from the Raymond Road action.
The county staff memo in the packet said, “The proposed reclassification will establish the entirety of Raymond Road as right-of-way consistent with the intent of the roadway enhancing public roadway access and improve north-south traffic flow east of
Interstate 75. This segment of Raymond Road within the Property, located south of Palmer Boulevard and adjacent to the eastern boundary of Celery Fields south within the Palmer Farms Unit 2 Subdivision, encompasses approximately 0.53 miles of 2-lane roadway and roadway appurtenances.”
“Why not vacate the abandoned right of way concurrently with this [classification]?” she asked.
Then she posed another question: “Does this reclassification encourage or enable development in this area?”
“You do not have answers” for the level of flooding that part of the county sustained during Tropical Storm Debby’s rains, Schoettle-Gumm pointed out, even though that situation pertains to the County Commission’s priority to protect the health, safety and welfare of county residents.
Moreover, she said, the Celery Fields must be able to continue to function adequately, to prevent even worse flooding in neighborhoods.
A second speaker, attorney Charles D. Bailey III, of the Williams Parker firm in Sarasota, came to the podium later during the Open to the Public period, explaining that he had not intended to speak about the right of way issue but had chosen to do so since Schoettle-Gumm had offered her comments.
Referencing a map in the agenda packet, Bailey said, “Up until about 20 or so years ago,” the right of way for Raymond Road ran north-south. Then, after the Celery Fields project was completed, he continued, that part of Raymond Road was relocated.
Bailey noted that one of his clients owns property along Raymond Road and relies on that road for access to the property.
Bailey told the board members, “I view [the proposed action that day] as a housekeeping issue … so the right of way is moved into the county’s roadway network.
Schoettle-Gumm’s concerns about stormwater flooding were not germane to the staff recommendation for the Sept. 10 vote, Bailey added.
The staff explanation
Following the Open to the Public period, as Chair Mike Moran turned to the Consent Agenda of routine business matters, he asked whether any of his colleagues wished to pull an item. (Typically, the Consent Agenda items are approved with no discussion; however, any member of the board has the prerogative to ask for staff remarks or to offer his own comments on an item.)
Commissioner Mark Smith requested a short presentation from staff on the Raymond Road matter.
Osterhoudt, the director of Planning and Development Services, stepped to the podium and used both maps in the agenda packet to discuss the proposal.
In the lower half of the Celery Fields, he pointed out — with the map on the overhead projector — Palmer Boulevard runs east-west. Then, as attorney Bailey had done, Osterhoudt pointed to the former north-south roadway that was part of Raymond Road; it bisected Palmer Boulevard in 1995, Osterhoudt said.
In 2001, presenting the second map on the overhead projector, he noted the orange lines depicting the old Raymond Road right of way.
When the Celery Fields was created, he explained, “We did this ‘S’ curve,” along the property border.
Although it was labeled right of way, Osterhoudt said, the former roadway was not classified as such.
Staff would be back before the board at a later date to seek a vote on vacating that right of way, he added.
Commissioner Smith referenced Schoettle-Gumm’s comments about the flooding in that area during Tropical Storm Debby’s rainfall event. Would the right of way designation facilitate the county’s pursuit of a project to deal with such flooding, Smith asked.
As he understood the situation, Osterhoudt replied, the right of way designation had nothing to do with drainage. “It’s just a designation of land.”
However, in a second attempt at clarification, Smith asked county Public Works Department Director Spencer Anderson the same question.
“I think you could address [the drainage issues] either way,” Anderson told Smith.
Following those exchanges, Smith made the motion to approve the right of way designation, and Commissioner Neil Rainford seconded it. The motion passed unanimously.