Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/110922
Sarasota News Leader February 22, 2013 ���It was kind of a bad example,��� said Downtown Improvement District Chairman Ernie Ritz. ���Why would I build $1,000 rentals when I could sell $800,000 condos?��� Page 54 of opinions on the density question. Many candidates are ready to board the DROD train. ���I���m willing to look at the DROD,��� said Mayor Suzanne Atwell. ���I like the DROD,��� said Candidate Richard Dorfman. The first DROD died after two years, expiring from lack of interest and application. There Candidate Susan Chapman, who sits on the was a short-lived attempt to revive it called Planning Board, says the DROD puts the cart before the horse: ���We talk a lot about creat���Son of DROD.��� ing supply without analyzing whether there is Ritz and his DID board members are inviting demand.��� the author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America One Step at a Time (Jeff THE NTOD Speck) to speak in March as a prelude to holding workshops or even a charrette to push an- The North Trail Overlay District is another planning scheme, and it, too, is a work in other DROD. Call it ���Grandson of DROD.��� progress. Last year the City Commission set a strategic goal to ���grow the city.��� Because the city is ef- Late last month, the Planning Board took its fectively built out, increasing density of new first official look at the NTOD. The plan is construction is one answer. Density pays off the fruit of three years of labor by dedicated in several ways, including more units to sell volunteers called the North Trail Redevelopment Partnership. That group is composed of and higher taxable values per acre. businessmen, professionals, landowners and The current political campaign for two at-large neighborhood residents eager to do something City Commission seats opens up a wide range to improve Sarasota���s seedy front doorstep. The draft NTOD plan features examples of attractive options for buildings that will be located on corners. Image courtesy City of Sarasota The draft NTOD plan shows good and bad examples of parking layouts. Image courtesy City of Sarasota