Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/143399
Sarasota News Leader July 12, 2013 Page 19 rules may need to be reworked. "We're not looking to tear down or defend 2050," Parsons said, making the case that the county now has "the benefit of user experience" and that 2050 will "benefit from an objective and open-minded evaluation." Parsons then laid out the details of the staff's proposed Scope of Work. One example: how to specifically define "evaluation parameters" for "alternative greenway configurations" that developers may propose when designing a new neighborhood. Matt Osterhoudt, the county's manager of conservation and environmental permitting, tells The Sarasota News Leader the goal is to recCommissioner Nora Patterson. File photo ognize there's not a "one-size-fits-all approach" to greenways and that the county should seek adds the county has an opportunity to create "to truly create meaningful corridors and en- "more effective and more meaningful" greenvironmental features rather than just saying, ways. '550 feet.'" THE BIGGEST DEBATE According to Tuesday's staff report, the county's Environmental Technical Manual "currently provides a framework for evaluating alternative open space plans that include native habitats," and Osterhoudt says staff will look there for ideas on how to frame 2050 alternative greenway guidelines. The issue that generated the most debate among commissioners involved fiscal neutrality. The staff report called for outside help from "an independent, non-biased, academic institution," which would analyze fiscal neutrality "to provide a more factual basis with which to potentially consider changes." The goal of "Those evaluation parameters are not num- bringing in an academic outsider would be to bers," he adds. "They talk about context. They "limit concerns or perceptions that results are talk about: How well is an alternative proposal pushing any particular agenda." meeting the needs of connectivity? How well is the alternative proposal related to quality? Barbetta swiftly attacked that suggestion: "I Is it a manageable system that's being creat- don't want an academic. I don't want a team of people coming in here who don't know anyed?" thing about 2050." Even a decade after the plan was approved, Osterhoudt says the county still has "limited "All we need is a good, quality economist who experience in 2050 practice" because of the has development project experience," he said. low number of applications it has seen, but he Team him or her up with "a couple of lenders,