Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/320652
BESIDES THE NOISE … Among lighter items on the June 2 agenda, Jim Shirley, executive director of the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County, will seek an extension of the right of way use permit for the popular Sarasota Keys program. The 180-day trial period the commission allowed for pianos to be placed outside for leisurely play at various downtown locations is up on June 2, Shirley notes in a May 21 memo to city administrative staff. According to the backup material provided with the item, "The program has been work- ing very well and staff hasn't received any complaints on the pianos." Other items under New Business Monday night will be the proposed 2015 fiscal year budget for the city's bayfront mooring field and a request by Floridays Development Co. to pursue a $3.5 million Economic Development Assistance grant in the city's name for pub- lic improvements on Cocoanut Avenue from Gulfstream Avenue to Fruitville Road and adjacent public areas. A memo for that item reminds the commis- sion that the city has a purchase and sale agreement as well as a redevelopment agree- ment with Floridays "to purchase land and to construct Hotel Sarasota at the corner of Cocoanut Avenue and Palm Avenue." The land expense is $2.5 million, the memo notes, with $1.2 million credited back to Floridays for public improvements associ- ated with the hotel. Those improvements were limited to Cocoanut Avenue between First Street and just south of Palm Avenue, including the construction of a roundabout at Palm and Cocoanut. Some prep work was under way late last summer at the site of the planned Hotel Sarasota next to the Palm Avenue parking garage. Photo by Norman Schimmel Sarasota News Leader May 30, 2014 Page 11