- December 3, 2024
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While supporters of the internationally recognized bird sanctuary at Sarasota’s Celery Fields are celebrating a preliminary victory against a developer’s plans for a nearby property, they realize the issue is far from settled.
The Sarasota Planning Commission on Nov. 21 voted 4-3 to not recommend a rezoning request for a 50-acre piece of land nestled next to the bird sanctuary known as the Smith farm.
However the Planning Commission’s recommendation is not the final word. The Sarasota County Commission will take up the request early next year and does not have to abide by the Planning Commission’s recommendation.
Smith Properties is asking the county to change its zoning from “open use rural,” which allows for one unit every 10 acres, to “residential single family,” which would allow 3.5 homes per acre.
If the rezoning is approved, Arlington, Texas-based D.R. Horton, one of the largest homebuilders in the country, is poised to buy the property and build 170 single-family homes.
“What it means to me is that we had a small victory by one vote … and this fight is not over,” said Sara Reisinger, the president of the Sarasota Audubon Society.
“We still have to keep the momentum going and get everyone charged up for the county commissioners’ meeting, because that's really where it's important.”
The Smith Farm sits along Raymond Road, south of Palmer Boulevard, bordering the eastern edge of the bird sanctuary.
Right now, a single home sits on the Smith property, along with some sheds and a few dozen cattle.
Opponents of the plan have said the density of homes is not compatible with the surrounding area, and the mostly two-lane roads around the property will not be able to handle the added traffic.
They also say light from the development will disturb the birds in the sanctuary and spoil the Celery Fields as a location for stargazers and local astronomy clubs who routinely use the area because of its remote location.
The Sarasota Audubon Society has helped manage the Celery Fields, a 400-acre site owned by the county. In addition to the birding areas, there are walking and biking trails, and lakes for fishing and kayaking.
The county and the local Audubon Society have restored more than 100 acres of the Celery Fields into a wetland area. The county also built two boardwalks that extend over lakes to provide vantage points for wildlife watching.
Kelley Klepper, an attorney representing D.R. Horton at the Planning Commission hearing, said their plan is consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan, complies with all codes, and argued the 170 homes will be compatible with the surrounding development.
Klepper told the Planning Commission Nov. 21 the developer is doing more than they are legally required to do to go ahead with the housing project, including providing open space, buffers in the form of trees, landscaping and berms, and increasing building setbacks.
He also reminded commissioners the county has expected the property to eventually be developed. “This is listed on the county’s future land use map as moderate density residential,” he said at the hearing.
Klepper said they’ve tried to negotiate with the Audubon but neither side will budge. “We did have discussions with the Audubon leadership,” Klepper said. “Again, we’re going to agree to disagree.”
Kelley, along with land use attorney Charlie Bailey, said this is not a unique situation, pointing to other development projects in recent years that have been reviewed and approved, “consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan, the land development code and, more importantly, the standards that have been adopted by the county,” Klepper said.
Bailey pointed to projects next to ecological areas that were successfully rezoned for homes, including Palermo, a development next to Oscar Scherer State Park, and development around Red Bug Slough, south of Clark Road; and Urfer Family Park at Bee Ridge Road and Honore Avenue.
Reisinger disagrees, saying 170 homes just won’t work on the Smith land. “Unfortunately, there is no way to mitigate yourself out of this situation like this,” she said. “There's too many issues to overcome, too many things to fix. It's just not compatible with that piece of property to be a development.”
The recent hurricanes also exposed another red flag, opponents say.
Attorneys for D.R. Horton says their construction plan goes beyond county requirements of 10 inches of rain in 24 hours (a 100-year storm event), saying this development will be designed to handle up to 11.8 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.
Opponents say recent history proves that’s not good enough anymore.
“Unfortunately, in the last six months, we've had two storms that have exceeded that,” Reisinger said. “And the real issue, to me, on some of those stormwater related issues, is that we really as a community, need to ask for a change in the standard.”
Susan Schoettle, a member of a citizens group called the Sarasota Citizen Action Network, says there is documented evidence that suggests those criteria need to be revised. “The 100-year storm has more rain in it now than it used to,” she said. “It's more like 12 or 13 inches instead of 10 inches.”
Schoettle noted the Smith farm was nearly entirely underwater during Hurricane Milton. “The way the county is letting people develop in flood plains means that the house may or may not be high enough to not be flooded, but the roads will certainly flood, the yards will certainly flood.”
I think it's going to be a ring of houses built up on fill. So it's going to look pretty funky, I think.”
Before the Planning Commission voted Nov. 21, commissioner Donna Carter sided with the Audubon Society. "We have a lot of reasons, whether it is schools, the stormwater, the flooding," she said.
"I don't think that is a buildable property and I hope the county does find a way to buy that property and just add it to the Celery Fields," she said.
Commissioner Colin Pember later cast what was to be the deciding vote. “This is a unique property, a unique place, and I just don’t think this is the right place for this project. I can’t support 170 units on this property.”
Both Schoettle and Reisinger say they’ll use information from the Planning Commission hearing to refine their arguments before the County Commission.
“I'm certainly going to listen very carefully to everything the applicant said and glean any additional information from that,” Schoettle said.
Reisinger said she was buoyed by the fact the planning commissioners asked good questions. “I do think they read the emails that came into them,” she said. “They do listen and they are trying to understand the issue.”
“I'm going to shorten my speech up. I'm going to get my points in,” she added.
But will county commissioners heed the planning commission's recommendation?
“I really don't know, but I do know they often will not do what the Planning Commission says,” Reisinger said.
“It is a completely different set of decision makers,” Schoettle observed, “They may take into consideration some of the concerns the planning commission expressed and the fact that the planning commission recommended denial, but they're not bound to that.”
Reisinger said she was interested in how the new county commissioners will vote. “I think there's a lot of assumptions out there about how certain people are going to vote one way or the other. And that's not always the case,” she said. “I hope that the county commission is just as engaged and thoughtful about the process.”
The fight continues, Reisinger said. “We have to continue on in January and see it through to the end to make sure that this rezone gets denied. It's not a time to rest on our laurels.
“It's a time to regroup, hone our arguments from the information that we learned last night, and come back again strong … whenever the Board of County Commissioners meeting is.”
