Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/115375
Sarasota News Leader March 15, 2013 Page 10 was first implemented, only one new project, es so those bodies of water count toward Neal Communities' Grand Palm, has launched. preservation minimums. That is just one example of how the proposals might significantLast fall, in a series of meetings with county ly degrade 2050, Jones says. "The way they're staffers, developers submitted 38 proposed worded, they're getting rid of everything," she changes to 2050, changes that opponents ar- says. "That's what the developers are trying gue would eviscerate the plan. to do." Jones says it is "hard getting the word out" The Sarasota Audubon Society is also officialabout how important it is to protect 2050, but ly opposed to any changes. The board passed she is trying. The Sierra Club is putting a state- a resolution recommending that the county ment about the issue on the front page of its leave the plan alone. Conservation Chairman newsletter. Wade Matthews says Audubon does not have a A slightly different version of that newsletter piece appears on the Sierra Club website, and it unsurprisingly frets about the changes' potential consequences for the environment: "Sarasota's beautiful natural habitat and open spaces are integral to our high quality of life and we must protect them for economic and aesthetic reasons. The proposed changes have an enormous price tag in terms of fiscal costs, environmental degradation, air pollution, and loss of wildlife habitat." The Sierra Club calls on the county to, among other things, retain all of 2050's open space stipulations and to "not allow lakes or developed spaces such as golf courses to be used to meet these requirements." One of the developers' 38 recommendations is to allow them to classify lakes as open spac- problem with minor tweaks that may be needed to fix technical flaws in the plan. "If there are some little twitches that don't change anything substantive, we would consider them," he adds. But that is not what is on the table, he argues. In a piece he wrote for his group's newsletter, he says the 38 modifications would "gut Sarasota 2050," and that builders want to "return to their old practice of getting the County Commission to allow exceptions to the Comprehensive Plan for almost any piece of sprawl they want to build." The Sarasota 2050 plan includes numerous definitions relative to provisions for development and open spaces. Image courtesy Sarasota County The article calls on Audubon members to attend the c o u n t y 's o p e n house events on the 2050 debate — the second of which will be held 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. next Wednesday, March 20, at Twin Lakes Park.