Virtual access could be offered as complement to in-person sessions
Reprising a proposal he last raised almost a year ago, Sarasota County Commissioner Mark Smith this week finally appeared to be on track for a board vote requiring that any entity or individual proposing a land-use change must conduct an in-person Neighborhood Workshop.
The workshop could include a virtual component, Smith’s motion made clear, resulting in what he characterized as a hybrid session.
When Smith last brought up the topic — on May 20, 2025 — he and his colleagues agreed that they would put the plans on hold until he could compile a list of churches where such sessions could be conducted.
During that prior discussion, Smith acknowledged concerns that some of his board colleagues had expressed in the past, especially in regard to applicants being able to find venues to hold Neighborhood Workshops.
Such a session is an early step in the process of submission of an application to county staff that would entail a new development or other land-use modification, including amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, which guides growth in the community.
As County Administrator Jonathan Lewis reminded the commissioners this week, the applicant is responsible for conducting an informational workshop for property owners who would be affected by the proposal, if it were to win final approval.
That session typically precedes the filing of the formal application with county Planning Services staff.
During the May 2025 discussion, Commissioners Joe Neunder and Teresa Mast also expressed interest in amending the county guidelines for the workshops to enable project teams to hold the sessions within a wider radii of the sites planned for the land-use changes.
As part of a presentation to the commissioners that day, Matt Osterhoudt, director of the county’s Planning and Development Services Department, noted that county regulations called for any in-person workshop venue to be within a 2-mile radius of the proposed project site, if the latter is within the county’s Urban Service Boundary, where such infrastructure as water and sewer lines already exist. If a proposal involves property outside that boundary, Osterhoudt said, the radius is 5 miles.
At the same time, Osterhoudt noted that staff had received a variety of complaints throughout 2019 about facets of the workshops, including developers’ difficulty in finding venues. “On the heels of that,” he also pointed out, “we unfortunately, of course, had the onset of COVID,” so venues where workshops had been held no longer “were available for those larger public gatherings.”
As a result, the County Commission seated in April 2020 voted to direct staff to transition to virtual Neighborhood Workshops.
Yet, since then, numerous county residents have complained about audio and visual difficulties they have encountered during virtual workshops. Further, The Sarasota News Leader has heard an abundance of residents say they felt project team members paid more attention to questions and concerns when those team members were facing affected property owners.
‘Listening to the neighbors and neighborhoods’
In preparation for the April 7 board discussion, Smith had included in the agenda packet a document that provided details about venues where the in-person workshops could be conducted. He explained that the smaller circles on the graphic represented 2-mile radii, while the larger circles marked 5-mile radii. The latter were in the rural areas of the county, Smith added.
“I’ve talked to ministerial groups about helping us out,” Smith told his colleagues, referring to the use of churches for the sessions.
He further noted that he had discussed the use of library meeting rooms with Renee Di Pilato, director of the county’s Libraries and Historical Resources Department. She had assured him that those facilities also would be available for the workshops, Smith said.
Rich Collins, director of the county’s Emergency Services Department, had agreed to check into the potential use of fire stations, as well, Smith continued. However, he had not heard back from Collins prior to the board meeting that day.
In talking with County Attorney Joshua Moye, Smith continued, he had learned that the virtual component he was proposing would make it possible for the commissioners to approve wider radii than those applicable in the current regulations for in-person workshops.
He was hoping for his colleagues’ support to direct staff to pursue the shift back to in-person workshops, he added.
When Chair Ron Cutsinger sought clarification that Smith was seeking support for staff to work on the topic for a future board discussion on the language necessary for the change, Smith confirmed that that was what he was asking of his fellow commissioners.
“Mark, you certainly did your homework here,” Commissioner Joe Neunder told Smith before expressing his support for the next step. Neunder added that he believes members of the public would be able to rent Sarasota County high school facilities for the workshops, as well as rooms in some middle schools.
Commissioner Teresa Mast misunderstood that Smith was calling for project teams to conduct in-person workshops, with a virtual component option. Her initial comments indicated that she thought he was calling for the opposite, with the in-person workshop to be optional.
Smith clarified his proposal: “All these will be in person, and the applicant has the option to make it virtual also. … So it’s not either or.” The applicant would not have a choice of doing just a virtual workshop, he emphasized.
Mast also stressed that the goal of the workshops is to share information about proposals. Yet, Mast said, “Sometimes there are individuals that are very passionate about items, and it doesn’t turn into an informational meeting, so it becomes very unfair to those that have come to gain information.”
Commissioner Tom Knight expressed his support for Smith’s idea, noting that it is his understanding that the in-person workshops would not entail a new expense for the county.
Knight has stressed many times this year that the board needs to keep budget expenditures down in coming fiscal years, out of concern that state action could lead to a significant decrease in local governments’ property tax revenue.
Chair Cutsinger was the only board member on April 7 to indicate opposition to Smith’s proposal. “We’re living in an absolute digital age,” Cutsinger pointed out. “And anybody that doesn’t realize that … you’re not leaving your house, or something …”
Cutsinger further noted, “You can’t even apply for a permit in Sarasota County without doing it digitally … Everything we do is online.”
Conducting Neighborhood Workshops virtually, he continued, enables people to attend the sessions from home, instead of having to drive in the dark of the night. Moreover, he said, “You have much more participation.”
Cutsinger added that he could not imagine getting 100 people to a fire station for a workshop. Then he indicated that if the firefighters received a call for service, the crowd in the station, and “cars all over the place,” could complicate the firefighters’ response time.
“It seems to me,” he continued, “that if the purpose is to get more people involved, make it more efficient, the online Neighborhood Workshop is the way to go.”
In his experience, he further noted, the hybrid workshops have been problematic, with some of the online participants complaining afterward about having been overlooked by the project team when they wanted to ask questions or offer comments.
“I’m going to struggle with the idea,” he told his colleagues.
Cutsinger said he believed the issue should be placed on a future agenda for more discussion, which would include “the stakeholders.”
At that point, Smith formally made his motion, and Commissioner Mast seconded it.
“This is not necessarily for more people to come to [the workshops],” Smith said of his proposal. “It’s for listening to the neighbors and the neighborhoods.” People who cannot attend the sessions in person would have the virtual option, he noted.
Commissioner Knight pointed out that if the board ends up voting in favor of Smith’s recommendation, after the future discussion, “We’ll know within a year” whether members of the public will see the change as a means of making it easier for them to participate in local government issues.
Commissioner Neunder added that if the in-person sessions are required once again, and people choose not to attend them, “Then that’s on them.”
He, too, indicated that he saw the switch back to in-person workshops as an effort by the local government body to provide their constituents a better opportunity to participate in issues that will affect them.
The motion passed 5-0.