STORMY WATERS
Visitors enjoy the waters of Warm Mineral Springs in south Sarasota County. Photo by Rachel
Levey-Baker
NORTH PORT COMMISSION PUTS THE BRAKES ON WARM MINERAL
SPRINGS REDEVELOPMENT
By Cooper Levey-Baker
Associate Editor
The North Port City Commission slammed the
brakes on a process designed to solicit ideas
to redevelop Warm Mineral Springs during an
adversarial — and, at times, downright snide
— public meeting held Monday, Nov. 26.
ing, at which both commissions unanimously
voted to begin soliciting long-term plans for
the property. The contract with the company
currently doing business at the springs expires
next June, and commissioners hoped to have
at least the rudiments of a long-term solution
The commission gathered to consider going in place by then.
forward with an Invitation to Negotiate, which
would allow private developers to put forward But that plan came to a halt Monday, when the
their ideas for how to redevelop Warm Miner- North Port commission — led by Mayor Linda
al Springs, the 87-degree "Fountain of Youth" Yates and two newly elected commissioners
jointly purchased by North Port and Sarasota — shot down a motion to approve the Invitation to Negotiate. Yates, who voted in favor of
County in 2010.
the Invitation to Negotiate in July, raised sevThe Invitation to Negotiate process was set in eral concerns about the plan, from the makemotion in July during a joint city-county meet- up of the selection and negotiation teams that
