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Sarasota News Leader October 18, 2013 Page 59 the database. Otherwise, the federal funding So on Monday evening, a senior city will disappear. planner will attempt to lead the city commissioners through years of history and MONEY SHUFFLE thousands of pages of red tape in the search Almost every city agenda has at least one item for understanding. moving funds from one account to another Not only is the current plan complex, but to keep the books straight. On Monday, the county commissioners want to revise it. They city will be asked to move (or lose) $408,000 have had strong pressure from developers — in Community Development Block Grant and campaign contributors — to amend the money. plan to make it less stringent. The sum was to be used for a new athletic field west of the Robert L. Taylor Community The city commissioners will have the opportuComplex in north Sarasota. However, the nity to read 174 pages of backup material full ground was found to be environmentally of strikeouts and additions. For example, the old plan called for creation of "villages" with contaminated. distinct centers of commerce surrounded by So the city will be asked to spread the money neighborhoods. Developers do not like that around. Staff suggests $200,000 be spent for model. It can be argued that they would prenew playground equipment in Gillespie Park. Neighbors say the current equipment is bro- fer a strip mall on the edge of a suburb. What follows is an example of the tweaking that ken and unsafe. has been proposed: More than $100,000 would be spent on drainage improvements to Goodrich Avenue, and Eliminate this sentence: "A village center $108,000 would be devoted to "street improve- shall be separated from the edge of the develments to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way and oped area by at least one neighborhood and by no less than 1,000 feet from the edge of the adjacent streets." developed area." Replace it with this: "A vilPONDERING 2050 lage center is intended to serve the daily and The commissioners always hope for an early weekly retail, office, civic and government end to the evening session. But their final item use and services needs of village residents, could go until dawn and beyond, depend- and shall be located and designed so as to be ing on how deeply they want to understand easily accessible by all village residents." Sarasota County's 2050 Plan. While the city commissioners will never vote A day after their regular meeting, Oct. 22, the city commissioners will sit down at 2 p.m. with the county commissioners for a joint meeting. (See the related story in this issue.) On the agenda is 2050. The city has twice asked the county to send a planner to brief the commissioners on it. The county has refused. on the 2050 Plan, it could have a dramatic impact on the city's future. If developers are allowed to return to their suburban-sprawlover-cow-pastures model, with strip malls dotting major roadways, the city would lack any economic impetus for infill and urban improvement. %