County and community leaders discuss growth

The Better Government Association of Sarasota County held a forum Saturday at Gulf Gate Public Library to talk about growth in Sarasota County.

County Commissioner Charles Hines, former Commissioner Jon Thaxton and former CONA president Bill Zoller spoke to an audience of about 50 people, including BGA members. BGA is a non-partisan community organization founded in 1987 with the aim of educating the public and supporting government that benefits neighborhoods.

Wade Matthews, vice president of BGA, moderated the forum and pointed out an anomaly about the three panelists—all three of them were natives of Sarasota County.

"If you don't build it, they're still coming," -County Commission Charles Hines

Here’s a summary of two questions and the panelists’ answers.

How do you feel about the growth Sarasota County is experiencing?

Hines: Sarasota County hotels had a 72% average hotel occupancy rate last year. People are finding us, and we can’t put up gates up around the state of Florida. If you don’t build it, they’re still coming. It’s bigger than Sarasota County.

Thaxton: We have an opportunity for better planning. Sarasota has a lack of service workforce housing. For every 100 marketplace housing you building, you need at least 20 workforce priced homes. If we keep building the way we are, we’ll have to increase social services.

Zoller: People keep saying, we need to think about traffic. It was time to think about traffic a long time ago. We’ve got to get government and staff to get a handle on decision-making so we don’t get where we are now. We need a public that’s educated, and we need elected officials who don’t treat developers as something to be pandered to and coddled.

What’s the balance between business and residential development?

Hines:  I agree, we don’t have the blue collar jobs. We have room in North Port and Englewood. Sometimes it’s a compatibility issue when surrounding neighbors don’t  want to be next to an industry. When we get proposals for out east, we get push back, but when we try to increase density in urban areas, we get push back.

Thaxton: Building houses is unsustainable economic development. It shouldn’t be the only zoning in our portfolio. You need a portfolio of all land uses.

Zoller: The comprehensive plan calls for redevelopment and infill, but we’re doing it in reverse. We’re developing out east instead of redeveloping within the Urban Service Boundary.