Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/83745
PERVIOUS PARKING PARRY The proposed redesign of the existing parking lot of Siesta Public Beach calls for use of bioswales to help filter stormwater before it reaches a new collection pond. Photo by Rachel Hackney PLANS CALL FOR PERVIOUS CONCRETE, NOT ASPHALT, IN SIESTA BEACH PARK IMPROVEMENTS. By Rachel Brown Hackney Editor Days after hearing a discussion about plans for the proposed new parking lot at Siesta Public Beach to have a pervious surface, Commissioner Nora Patterson raised con- cerns during the Sept. 11 County Commis- sion meeting about a letter from a Saraso- ta asphalt contractor who questioned those plans. As it turns out, the beach design includes pervious concrete, not asphalt, Program Manager Carolyn Eastwood, a project team member in the Public Works department, informed the commissioners in an email on Sept. 17. During the Sept. 11 commission meeting, Patterson pointed out the contractor's com- ments in a letter sent to a member of the consulting firm that is assisting county staff in designing the beach park improvements. Copies of the letter went to Patterson, Com- missioner Joe Barbetta and representatives of Siesta Key organizations. That Aug. 24 letter from Gregory D. An- derson, president of Anderson Asphalt of Sarasota, to Erik Stuart of Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. said pervious asphalt "does not work on the Key or the beach." Yet, Patterson pointed out, county Project Manager Curtis Smith had told members of the Siesta Key Association during their Sept. 6 regular meeting that, according to the current proposal for the beach improve- ments, "All the new parking that we pro- vide will be pervious pavement." SKA Director Ron Flynn specifically had asked about that aspect of the beach plan, as it has been important to SKA members