Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/235968
Sarasota News Leader January 3, 2014 Page 81 officials have put it at $20 million, she notes, meeting on Aug. 6. Cooper adds that he is not though the latter figure includes "a very large certain whether the three groups working on contingency." the issue — the Chamber, the SKVA and the Siesta Key Association — will have reached any agreement by September on modifying Sarasota County soon could become the owner the Siesta Key Overlay District, the special of Little Salt Spring, "one of the most signif- zoning ordinance that governs activities on icant archaeological sites in the Southeast," the island. Cheryl Gaddie, the SKVA president, says University of Miami Research Associate points out that such an agreement would be Steve Koski, who has lived on the property necessary before the groups take the matter since 2004. The University of Miami has back to the County Commission. owned the site since 1982, thanks to a dona tion. However, because of cuts in funding to the university's Rosenstiel School's Division As many as six new hotels are planned for of Marine Affairs program — which managed the downtown area, City of Sarasota Chief research at the spring — the university is look- Planner Steve Stancel tells the Downtown ing to sell the property. Talks are continuing Improvement District board Aug 6. While five between Sarasota County and the University of them are already well-known projects as over the cost. a result of recent community discussions, Commissioner Christine Robinson tells The Stancel says there is "potential for a sixth, Sarasota News Leader she believes the uni- which I cannot tell you about." If just five versity wants to sell the site soon. "I think were actually built, they would add more we are talking months, not years," Robinson than 1,000 hotel rooms in the downtown area. notes. Unlike Warm Mineral Springs — which And just as important, Stancel notes, would began operating in the 1960s as a health spa be the range of room rates: "That makes a — Little Salt Spring should be protected as a difference, because you reach different marlimited-access archaeological and ecological kets." One of them — the Gulfstream Sarasota — would be adjacent to the Ritz-Carlton at preserve, Robinson points out. the intersection of U.S. 41 and the Ringling Causeway. Embassy Suites has filed pre-apIt likely will be September at the earliest plication paperwork for a 200-room hotel at before the Sarasota County Commission again Second Street and Tamiami Trail, across the addresses a request by Siesta Village mer- street from the Ritz. chants to amend the zoning code to permit some types of outdoor merchandise displays. That is the assessment Kevin Cooper, executive director of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce, provides to about 20 members of the Siesta Key Village Association (SKVA) during the latter organization's monthly During the Aug. 19 City Commission meeting, Commissioner Paul Caragiulo says now is the time to start planning for a public homeless shelter in the city of Sarasota — and setting aside funding to build it. He adds the details