FULL-COURT PRESS
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS STEP UP THEIR OPPOSITION TO PROPOSED
SARASOTA 2050 OVERHAUL
By Cooper Levey-Baker
Associate Editor
Opposition to developer-proposed changes to
Sarasota County's 2050 plan may have been
minimal so far, but environmental groups and
their allies are making a big push to educate
their members and press the County Commission to keep the land-use program intact.
the time or patience to read 73-page land-use
planning documents.
But those 73 pages are important: They lay
out a series of rules intended to encourage
village-style neighborhood development instead of urban sprawl. Those regulations have
Linda Jones, the chairwoman of the Mana- been under attack by developers, who say
they are so restrictive
tee-Sarasota Sierra
that instead of producClub, says even her
highly engaged memThe way they're worded, they're ing smart growth, they
bers do not know the getting rid of everything. That's what the have led to no growth.
While more than 7,000
ins and outs of 2050, developers are trying to do.
new units have been
and that it is a chalapproved under 2050
Linda Jones
lenge to inform them.
Chairwoman
guidelines in the deThat makes sense.
Manatee-Sarasota Sierra Club
cade since the plan
Not many people have
A partner with the county in the promotion of the Celery Fields as a tourist destination east of
Sarasota, the Sarasota Audubon Society also is taking a stand against pro-development changes to
the 2050 plan. Photo by Rachel Hackney
