Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/114013
Sarasota News Leader March 8, 2013 Page 11 Commissioner Christine Robinson took issue with Patterson's analysis. "You were inferring that we were agreeing to accept all of these [proposed changes]," she said. "No way am I suggesting by any means that we end up looking like Miami." Commissioners Charles Hines and Carolyn Mason chimed in to say they agreed. The strongest criticism of the 2050 plan has repeatedly come from County Commissioner Joe Barbetta, who said in January he would "like to scrap" the whole thing. "It'll never work," he said during a meeting last September. Patterson tells the News Leader she has not heard from many constituents on the issue. "There are a handful of people that have heard what this is about and don't really understand the parameters of 2050, and the majority of those are people who own land that's affected," she says, "and then maybe five or six people that I've heard from that have taken part in creating the plan that are concerned." She says she "can't imagine" the commission will accept all 38 developer recommendations, but she is not comfortable going public yet with the ones that trouble her. Commissioner Nora Patterson/Photo by Norman Schimmel far-reaching the changes might be and arguing that 2050 is a much more important fight than the Walmart battle. Think of the potential increase in traffic along the major east-west thoroughfares, he says. It is already at a standstill during rush hour. "It would be a shame if people don't get aroused until it's too late." "I spent a number of years working on it and I think we should keep the essence of 2050," Patterson says. She cites the Neal project as a success story. "It has really only been nine years since the plan was put on the table," she notes. "At least four, maybe five, of those have been in a deep recession with no housing market whatsoever, and it's supposed to be a 50-year plan." "If you gut the regulations, you've approved development that's pretty massive without getting back the advantage to the public of 2050," she says. "It's a really complicated plan Upcoming Sarasota 2050 public meetings: and it all fits together." 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, and But the fight to preserve the fundamentals of Wednesday, March 20; Green Building Con2050 may depend on whether county residents ference Room, Twin Lakes Park, 6700 Clark become engaged. Road, Sarasota. "If enough people rise up against this push To join the county's Planning and Developfor urban sprawl, it's possible it could be de- ment Services email mailing list, send your feated," Lobeck points out, stressing how contact information to planner@scgov.net. %