Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/293799
Sarasota Community Group, neighbors are concerned about what the changes might mean. "A recent poll of Lake Sarasota res idents shows that many who responded are concerned that the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce will present traffic, noise, and per haps other problems for the quiet community directly across the road," Matrullo wrote to the Planning Commission on April 3. Neighbors are also concerned about Spine Road, a planned artery that would extend north from the Bee Ridge/Mauna Loa inter section and then west toward I75, before turning back east, where it would hook up with Porter Road. Marked as a "future thor oughfare" in the county's comprehensive plan, the road would create a muchneeded northsouth corridor east of I75 in an area of major interstate congestion. A primary cause of that congestion is local drivers who use I75 to hop an exit or two. But those who live nearby worry that Spine Road would dump traffic directly onto Mauna Loa, south of Bee Ridge. Mauna Loa is lined with singlefamily homes. "Mauna Loa, the main internal road for the wholly residential neighborhood of Lake Sarasota, would now become a segment of a northsouth connec tor fed by at least seven significant eastwest corridors: University, Fruitville, Palmer, Webber, Bee Ridge, Proctor and Clark," Matrullo wrote in another letter, this one to the County Commission. Graphics show future land use planning for Sarasota County as of 2010. Images courtesy Sarasota County Sarasota News Leader April 11, 2014 Page 43