Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/112475
Sarasota News Leader March 1, 2013 Page 25 Lauderdale embraced the high-rise cul- B. Would you favor expanding administure. Sarasota did not. What is the dif- trative site plan approval to the North ference? Trail? Holland: We���re just better people. We���re more thoughtful, we���re more kind, more aware. Chapman: No. There is a strong environmental community in Sarasota. I don���t know much about the histo- Citywide? ry of the East Coast. The desire of the people who live in the city and county is very strong Chapman: No. environmental. It���s the people, the good peo- Why? ple. Chapman: I believe it���s important for the res��� ��� ��� idents to have a say-so when development is B. Would you favor expanding administrative site plan approval to the North in their front yard. And I believe it���s a constitutional right to assemble and petition your Trail? Atwell: That���s going to be coming to us, April government. or May. I tend to look favorably on administrative review. The [proposed] North Trail [Overlay District] is an optional thing. I���m a commissioner and policymaker. I have to craft policy based on information from everybody, including the neighborhoods. The basis for administrative site plan approval in planning is that you have clear planning and design regulations that you stick by. That isn���t what has happened in Sarasota. What has been predictable in Sarasota is the changing of every plan. Even though the staff would like that, there are no clear criteria upon which we can base administrative site plan approval. So it gives staff maximum discretion to harm residents and neighborhoods The staff are planners; they have that resume. and even areas that are commercial with inYes, the neighbors live there, but some might compatible development. have only been there two years. We don���t have a form-based code anywhere Citywide? in the city at this point which has very clear Atwell: Yes. I would love to look into that. standards to stick by. We don���t have an urban And I���m willing to look at the DROD [Downtransect with a step-down in intensity as it town Residential Overlay District] again and moves toward the neighborhoods. tie that into the form-based code. When we have a Planning Department and zoning, and they go out and give their imprimatur to this and the neighbors say, ���No,��� you get into a dilemma. When do you stop that? Do you think the planners don���t know the neighborhoods? You���re assuming it���s the staff and the neighborhoods. ��� ��� ��� ��� ��� ���