Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/149186
Sarasota News Leader August 9 & 16, 2013 Page 56 sary before the groups take the matter back to the County Commission. However, Gaddie added, she was hopeful that by September the organizations' discussions would have made clear how each felt about any proposed changes. Gaddie said she and Cooper had met both with County Commissioner Nora Patterson — who lives on Siesta Key — and with Catherine Luckner, president of the Siesta Key Association, to talk about the project. "We're moving forward with trying to figure out exactly what the needs are for outdoor displays," Gaddie said. One key factor, she pointed out, is the concern that if displays are allowed, they remain in a "very tight and well defined" area. The discussion originally arose during the June 4 SKVA meeting, when Martha Smith — owner of Le Grand Bisou Caribbean Boutique in Siesta Center on Ocean Boulevard — saw her sales revenue drop from $1,600 a day to $195 a day in one week after a Sarasota County Code Enforcement officer told her it was a violation of the SKOD to display clothes on racks outside her shop. Martha Smith makes a point to Siesta Key Association members on Aug. 1. Photo by Rachel Hackney Using the material he had compiled, he drafted an amendment to the SKOD and provided it to various people on Siesta Key for their comments. Cooper explained that after Smith and Rick Lizotte, the owner of Comfort Shoes in Siesta Village, had provided Patterson a copy of those proposed changes, Patterson brought up the matter on July 9 during a commission James Ritter, manager of Siesta Key Outfitters meeting. However, her fellow board members — also in Siesta Center — had described a suggested the organizations on Siesta collabosimilar situation in loss of sales. rate on any changes before the commissioners weighed in on the matter. Subsequently, Cooper explained to members during the Aug. 6 meeting, he undertook re- Cooper added that it was clear from the comsearch to determine what other Florida com- missioners' comments that any changes to the munities allow in terms of outdoor displays. SKOD will have to be "closely aligned" with The answers he received, he said, ranged from the original intent of the ordinance —main"'Do whatever you want'" to a prohibition, as taining the character and aesthetics of the Village — and easy to enforce. in Sarasota County.