- November 14, 2024
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Illustration by Marty Fugate
A lot has happened in your wintertime home while you were away for the summer, some of you perhaps returning to homes damaged by the back-to-back Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Perhaps some of your favorite restaurants are still closed because of storm damage, for certain some merchants — particularly on Siesta, St. Armands and Longboat keys — as the sometimes slow road to recovery continues. But home, even part-time, is where the heart is, and those who love the Sarasota area will make the most of it.
In addition to tropical storms and hurricanes, plenty of news was made while you were away, and here are 10 top stories to bring you up to date.
In addition to escaping the summer heat, one reason seasonal residents flee to the north once season ends is to avoid encountering the occasional tropical weather system, which this year came in triplicate while they were away.
Although likely anxious about the condition of their wintertime homes, our fair weather residents weren’t faced with the quandary posed by the 1970s and ’80s British punk band, The Clash, in their iconic hit titled “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” Still, the back-to-back-to-back body blows delivered by Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricanes Helene and Milton left year-round locals weather-weary dealing with plenty of damage in their collective wake.
Many seasonal residents returned here earlier than usual to assess damage to their properties, finding something of a different Sarasota than when they left. Their dual-home lifestyle, though, means they didn't face the hardships imposed on year-rounders over whether to evacuate and take their chances in traffic and dwindling fuel supplies versus taking their chances by hunkering down and riding out the storms.
As The Clash sang, “If I go, there will be trouble. If I stay, it will be double.”
It turns out Hurricanes Helene and Milton had a baby, blessing Little Sarasota Bay with a reopened Midnight Pass, which had been closed by human intervention for four decades.
As Helene passed 100 or so miles to the west, she carved a narrow channel from the Gulf of Mexico into the bay, slightly restoring the inlet between Siesta Key and Casey Key. And just as Midnight Pass enthusiasts were wondering how long the pass would remain open — some of them arriving with shovels in an attempt to help — Milton came along 13 days later and answered the question.
Shortly after Milton passed directly overhead, boaters, beach-goers and others began visited the restored inlet, reveling in fact that Mother Nature, with all her destructive power, will eventually take back what is hers, sometimes constructively.
The question remains how long Midnight Pass will remain open. Inlets naturally want to close, experts told Sarasota county commissioners this past summer. The push and pull of sand beneath the hydralic exchange of water tends to borrow sand from other areas of the beach and deposit them there.
Nature will decide if it closes again.
For five years, the cylindrical sculptor known as Tube Dude brightened the east end of Main Street with his whimsical fabrications found along the streets, in back yards and at businesses throughout the Sarasota area. With plans to redevelop the south side of the 1700 block of Main Street into an apartment building, Scott Berger has relocated his fabrication shop to a larger, 16,712-square-foot space at 2306 60th Drive E., near Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.
The additional room facilitates Tube Dude’s new power coating capability, which Gerber brought in-house to apply the finishing touch to his whimsical functional art from the original mailbox to one of his latest creations, the mermaid outdoor showers. Opening the giant 500-degree oven to retrieve the finished product, Gerber said, would overheat the small downtown shop.
Although Tube Dude’s work is no longer prominently displayed in downtown, examples of Gerber and company's work are scattered throughout the city and are prominent along the streets of St. Armands and Longboat Key. Now a global company, Gerber estimates it has some 10,000 installations around the world.
More space and no outsourcing means even greater productivity, putting the signature Tube Dude smile on Gerber’s face.
When you left for your northern homes, the CO-suite (constitutional officers) at City Hall was stable. By the time you returned, Marlon Brown had retired as City Manager and the City Commission selected a new city attorney and associates to replace City Attorney Robert Fournier and Deputy City Attorney Michael Connolly, both retiring next spring.
Citing non-specific personal and professional reasons, Brown gave his required 60-day notice of his intention to retire on Oct. 15, his departure delayed by six days because of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The commission has named Public Works Director Doug Jeffcoat as interim city manager while embarking on a nationwide search for Brown’s permanent replacement, and Joseph Polzak as the new city attorney and John Shamsey and Joseph Mladinich as co-deputies.
Why not elevate Deputy City Manager Patrick Robinson to the top job, one might ask? He didn’t want the job. As for Polzak, Shamsey and Mladinich, they are the remaining partners of the firm led by Fournier and Connolly. With the future of the City Attorney’s Office set, the commission will consider whether to continue with the three as outside counsel or bring them in-house.
For their part, the three attorneys have said they are amenable to either option.
Any seasonal residents holding tickets to fall performances at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall will be getting checks in the mail for refunds. Although the bayfront theater survived Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricane Helene with minimal impacts, the storm surge brought by Hurricane Milton flooded the lower levels of the facility, forcing cancellation of the fall season.
This while the city’s Purple Ribbon Committee settles into its second year of receiving information to prepare a recommendation(s) to repurpose the Van Wezel should the city go forward with building the proposed Sarasota Performing Arts Center. That facility is currently under design by the world-renown architecture firm of Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
The preliminary concept released by the firm shows a series of four buildings along Tamiami Trail spanning the east end of the current parking lot across the 10th Street Canal and into Centennial Park. To deal with the type of storm surge that swamped the Van Wezel, the complex would be elevated with parking and public spaces located beneath.
By the end of November, the city is due to enter into an implementation agreement with the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation to construct the new facility, all while the community awaits the Purple Ribbon Committee’s reuse recommendation.
Meanwhile, come early 2025, the shows must go on.
Rather than wait for what appeared to be an inevitable second rejection from the Federal Aviation Administration, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport withdrew the appeal of its request to sell some 30 acres of land that it currently leases to New College of Florida.
In April, the FAA denied the proposed $11.5 million land deal, which the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority promptly appealed. After months of waiting for a response, the airport learned of new guidance requiring airports to consider how to accommodate electric take-off and landing and drone aircraft as that technology further develops.
In short, don’t ask to dispose of property until the FAA can figure out the details of an emerging transportation technology.
Since 2016, the SMAA has attempted to convey the land to New College, whose lease with the airport will expire in 2056. The concern of both the airport management and the college is that, when the 100-year, undervalued lease does expire, FAA requirements to pay full market value on land it conveyed for civil aviation use will render it unaffordable.
In withdrawing its appeal, SRQ President and CEO Rick Piccolo said it became evident that eVTOL and drone technology won’t require runway access and that the FAA would not be amenable to any land release at SRQ, or any other airport.
Long-serving as primarily a commercial airline center, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport is emerging as an economic development driver with a growing aviation ecosystem.
In August, the airport announced the lease of 17 acres of airfield property to Swiss aircraft manufacturer Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd., which will invest more than $40 million to build a manufacturing and sales facility projected to create more than 350 jobs averaging salaries of more than $80,000 each.
It’s only the latest piece of a growing manufacturing, educational and private aviation synergy that is bringing aircraft maintenance schools, fixed-base operators and aircraft manufacturing to the airfield.
Pilatus will join French small aircraft maker Elixer, which is currently under development, along with Manatee County’s Team Success grades 6-12 charter school and the Manatee Technical College airframe and power plant program to create a classroom-to-employment symbiosis.
Also under construction on the northeast quadrant of the airfield next to the future Pilatus site is fixed-base operator Sheltair Aviation, which will join Dolphin Aviation and Atlantic Aviation.
Revenue generated by the land leases will help balance SRQ’s revenue sources, which was historically dependent on income from commercial passenger operations.
“When I first came to the airport in 1995 the airport was almost exclusively dependent on airlines,” said SRQ President and CEO Rick Piccolo. "Our industrial revenues were about $200,000 a year then. Today, they're about $3.5 million.”
The two-year odyssey of One Park in The Quay has come to an end with the Planning Board approval of the second of two towers of similar nomenclature, and with that draws the curtain of the regulatory process for the high-end residential enclave known as The Quay.
Over the summer, construction began on both One Park and Ritz-Carlton Residences II, was completed on the lone rental property Cordelia by Lennar, and opening soon is upscale seafood restaurant Ocean Prime. With the approval of One Park West, the city’s work has culminated on the plan that began with a 2016 general development agreement with Jacksonville-based GreenePointe.
Now all that remains is the buildout of residential towers with condos that will range from the low $1 millions to more than $10 million, eventually to be joined by the redevelopment of the adjacent Hyatt Regency property. Those plans by developer Kolter Urban are currently being vetted by the city’s Development Review Committee and are currently proposed as a mix of boutique luxury hotel, condominium and retail space.
Still, cranes will remain a prominent feature of The Quay skyline for years to come as construction is of the remaining 18-story towers is completed.
Since last winter, the focus of The Sarasota Players, formerly The Players Centre for the Performing Arts, has shifted from an expansion of the city-owned Payne Park Auditorium to building anew on a parcel of land, also owned by the city, at the northeast corner of South Washington Boulevard and Laurel Street.
The Players had planned to quadruple the size of Payne Park Auditorium by attaching a new main theater to the current structure, much to the consternation of Alta Vista residents and park enthusiasts alike. During the July 15 meeting of the Sarasota City Commission, it became apparent the expansion was a hard sell and it was suggested the organization consider the possibility of building its new theater outside of the park along Washington Boulevard.
By the time a lease agreement came before the commission on Oct. 18, The Players’ proposal morphed into a lease of the auditorium excluding expansion of the current structure if and until the a facility is built. At that point, the 30-year lease on the current auditorium may be terminated. The Players will pay $100 per year plus $1 for every ticket sold for events held there, with cost escalators every five years tied to the Consumer Price Index.
The Players has not made public a development plan for the Washington Boulevard site.
Seasonal residents who enjoy the occasional fishing or seagoing sight-seeing charter may soon find it more difficult to book one. That’s because the Sarasota County Commission voted to accept the report prepared by a task force it seated to recommend a solution to the unauthorized use of county park boat launches and piers by private charter operators.
It’s been a decades-long practice that only became a capacity problem during the pandemic, and lingering since, as more charter captains took to the water to accommodate the influx of COVID-weary tourists flocked to the area to escape protracted lockdowns up north.
The recommendation is to limit permits to a total of 124 once an ordinance is adopted, a cap of two per operator in each of three zones — North, Mid-County and South.
The permits will be auctioned at a starting bid of $1,200 each.
At the time the ordinance is enacted, though, Nora Patterson Park may be unavailable for the program. As a county park in the Sarasota city limit, licensed commercial operations there will require a rezoning by the city.
The permit program applies six-passenger non-inspected passenger vessels — or “six pack” — fishing charters and tour excursions operated out of the county parks system. It does not apply to the Centennial Park boat ramps nor Ken Thompson Park at City Island, both of which are owned by the City of Sarasota.
