Latest proposal entailed creation of Critical Area Plan

In the example of a developer who has been trying for several years to win Sarasota County Commission approval to build a commercial center in the northwest quadrant of Proctor Road and Clark Road in Sarasota, the third time did not prove to be the proverbial charm.

In fact, following the Sept. 10 presentation of the third iteration of the proposal to the board members, a statement by Commissioner Teresa Mast could have been taken as a warning for the developer to pursue nothing more than what the existing zoning permits.

During a hearing that lasted approximately 65 minutes, Mast told the project team members that “a couple of homes” could be constructed on the property, as it is zoned Open Use Estate-2, which allows for one dwelling unit per 2 acres.

Commissioner Ron Cutsinger suggested that perhaps as many as five houses could be built on the 11.51 acres.

“I drive this road on a regular basis,” Mast said, adding that she has become very familiar with the traffic congestion on it. “It’s a very challenging corner,” she noted of the planned development site.

Kelley Klepper, a certified planner with the Kimley-Horn consulting firm in Sarasota and a member of the project team, had noted during his presentation that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) plans to widen the road network in that area. A Project Development and Environment (PD&E) study is underway, he said. That encompasses the area from Interstate 75 to just east of the intersection where the roundabout stands at the convergence of Proctor and Clark roads and Dove Avenue, Klepper continued.

The study is to be completed by the end of the year, he noted. “The fact that they have already funded the design is a very good positive,” he stressed.

However, Klepper conceded that no money has been set aside for construction.

“These projects take an extremely long time to come to fruition,” Chair Joe Neunder stressed. “We don’t know how long that timeline could be.”

Moreover, during the hearing, Neunder pointed to concerns of surrounding residents about the proposed ingress and egress from the site, if it were turned into a commercial development. They fear that the design would lead to greater danger to drivers, Neunder added.

The proximity of the roundabout is another factor, Neunder indicated, that makes use of the site for commercial purposes questionable, given the roundabout’s effects on the traffic network.

County Planner Everett Farrell pointed out that the site “is just at the culmination [of the roundabout to the east].”

Commissioner Tom Knight also stressed, “The biggest thing we hear … is we don’t have enough capacity for roadways …” That was all the more reason, he continued, that “It’s common sense” to deny this latest request.

The six residents who addressed the board members during the hearing pointed to a number of worries related to traffic issues.

Joe Herling, who lives on Trillium Boulevard, noted that school buses pull in at the entrance to the Trillium community, which means “Children are out there in the morning and in the afternoon.” The speed limit is 45 mph, he continued, and the road curves in that area. “It is just a potential, horrific accident waiting to happen,” if vehicles also are coming in and out of the proposed development site. “It just makes no sense,” Herling emphasized of the plans.

The hearing last week focused on an application for County Commission approval of the boundary of a Critical Area Plan (CAP) that would encompass the approximately 11.5 acres of the site, along with the proposed scope of work for the CAP process.

Planner Farrell, who handled the application, pointed out to the commissioners that the first application for a project on the site was addressed during a board hearing in 2022. At that time, the proposal focused not only on the 11.5-acre parcel, but also on a 12.5-acre site directly east of it; the parcels were to be combined for a new commercial center.

Following that hearing, he said, the commissioners denied the application after they determined that the project would not be compatible with the surrounding land uses and the residential communities in the area.

The second attempt came in 2023, Farrell continued. That one entailed the same piece of property that was the focus of the Sept. 10 hearing.

Again, he said, the commissioners voted 5-0 to deny the application, once more citing incompatibility with the surrounding land uses and communities.

“What’s disturbing,” Commissioner Mark Smith said at one point on Sept. 10, “is this is the third time [that a proposal has been brought to the board in regard to that site].” He emphasized the two previous, unanimous denials.

The CAP application entailed plans to change the Future Land Use designation of the property from Low-Density Residential to Commercial Center (Village I), Farrell said.

The application that Klepper of Kimley-Horn had filed with the county for the latest plan named 2023 Proctor Sarasota LLC as the entity behind it. The Florida Division of Corporations shows that the manager of that limited liability company is Paul S. Ferber of Ponte Vedra Beach. A Sarasota News Leader search found that the Ferber Co., as explained on its website, “is a privately held real estate development and investment company that has built an impeccable reputation over four generations of success. The company is involved in a broad array of commercial real estate projects and our clients range from local businesses to large national brand retailers.”

Klepper told the commissioners last week that Ferber would be the contract purchaser for the site, indicating that the company would buy the property if it could win board approval for commercial development there.

The site is owned by Bedstone Holdings Inc., whose address is listed as 1990 Main St., Suite 801, in Sarasota in the records maintained by Sarasota County Property Appraiser Bill Furst and his staff. The market value of the land this year is $994,900, the property record shows. Bedstone has owned the site since July 2003, the record adds.

Linda Talbot, a former Sarasota resident who lives in Waynesville, N.C. — as Florida Division of Corporations records note — is one of the officers of Bedstone.

The agent for the applicant for the Sept. 10 hearing, shown in county documents, was Stephen Rees, an attorney with the Icard Merrill firm in Sarasota.

A much narrower focus

During his remarks, Klepper acknowledged, “We know that most of you have seen this in some form or fashion previously.” The project team has worked on a proposal for a number of years, he added, especially in regard to the traffic generated in conjunction with the growth of the nearby Skye Ranch community.

Further, Klepper stressed that the team members had listened not only to remarks that the commissioners had made in the past about the site plans, but also to neighbors in the surrounding area and to county Planning and Zoning Division staff.

The proposal before the commission on Sept. 10, Klepper continued, is for a “fairly refined, fairly narrowly focused type of approach that we’d like to study.”

He likened the site to “almost … a remnant piece of property, especially when you look at the aerials.”

In terms of the latest ideas about commercial construction on the land, Klepper said, “We did a preliminary market assessment,” including a look at services that Skye Ranch residents would need. The goal this time, he added, is to build “something that is less intense.” He stressed, “No gas station; none. … That was one of the things that we heard loud and clear …”

He showed the commissioners potential concepts for development on the site. One included a doctor’s office, an urgent care center and a daycare facility. Another swapped out the medical office and urgent care center for retailers.

During the project team’s research, Klepper indicated that significant interest in more daycare facilities had been discovered.

He used a slide to point out that the closest urgent care facility to the site is 2.7 miles away, while no bank, doctor’s office or restaurant exists within 2 miles of the property.

Klepper also addressed the wetlands on the property. The design work that the team has undertaken has focused on minimizing the impacts to that wetlands system, he stressed. Moreover, he emphasized, “We’re looking at enhanced stormwater features.” In fact, he added, the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), of which Sarasota County is a part, is “actually coming out with enhanced [stormwater] standards.”

Speakers during the hearing also talked of the importance of that wetland, especially during periods of heavy rain. They pointed out that the wetlands absorbs stormwater that otherwise could flood their neighborhoods.

Commissioner Smith did address Klepper about a statement Klepper had made regarding the developer’s plan to seek rezoning of the property to Commercial General, if the board approved the CAP boundary and scope of work, and the project proceeded accordingly, The Commercial General zoning district, Smith pointed out, “has a multitude of uses.”

He asked whether the project team would be willing to proffer that the uses Klepper had cited in his presentation would be “the only uses that are going to be constructed on the property?”

“I will tell you, on the record: no gas station; no car wash, for sure,” Klepper responded.

He and attorney Rees, Klepper added, also would proffer that the plans would entail limited development.

“You’ll be looking to the neighborhood [for approval]?” Smith asked.

“Yes, sir,” Klepper replied.

‘No urgent need for retail’ and buffering concerns

During the public hearing, another resident of the affected area — Stephen Schwalbe, told the commissioners, “There is no urgent need for retail [on the property].” Grocery stores, medical and professional offices, restaurants and banks are “all within 2.3 miles of this location, or about a 4-minute drive.

Skye Ranch, which he characterized as being close to the site, has ample land that could be developed for commercial uses, he emphasized.

Moreover, he said, the plans include inadequate buffering of the site from the “high-end residential homes” on three sides of the property.

He, too, cited traffic concerns, especially as a new school opened in Skye Ranch this year, so buses transporting students each day to that facility have been added into the transportation mix.

Like Chair Neunder, Schwalbe expressed worry about the potential for vehicles coming in and out of the commercial parcel “to disrupt traffic flow in an already heavily traveled traffic circle.”

A third resident who spoke — Ellen Barry — pointed to the “many fatalities” recorded in collisions in the area.

Tom Shapiro, president of the Bent Tree Homeowners Association — which represents 450 households — told the board members, “Today, when you try to get out of Bent Tree on Proctor … before or after school hours, it can take you 10 or 15 minutes.”

“I really see this [proposal] as … taking a look at the needs of the developer over the desires of the many,” he added.

“We have easily a thousand homes within a mile of that intersection,” Shapiro pointed out. People who chose to buy homes in that area, he said, had done so because they were seeking the quiet that those communities offered.
He understands that landowners have the right to make use of their property, Shapiro added, “but I don’t think we give them the ability to supersede the needs of the thousand residents …”