Seeking to strike a better balance between the needs of existing residents and conditions that would foster commercial development along State Road 776 in south Sarasota County, the County Commission sent its staff back to the drawing board on revisions to the 15-year-old highway corridor plan.
The plan was originally conceived with four cornerstones: pedestrian-friendly development, mixed land-use development, eco-tourism and eco-education, and economic development.
Those cornerstones are visually typified by a 50-foot setback from the road for development to allow for greenways and trails — even though the trails jumped from one side of the road to the other and were not interconnected.
The plan covers about 633 acres, with as many of 540 acres eligible for multifamily development, noted Steve Kirk, the county planner in charge of proposed amendments to the S.R. 776 plans.
Changes proposed by county staff would have, among other things, shrunk the setback from S.R. 776 to 25 feet, in part to give the new development an additional 25 feet between it and adjacent single-family residential homes.
Another provision would have allowed for a gradual increase to a maximum height of 45 feet, where allowed by zoning, and another would have eliminated a requirement for structures in the corridor to be built consistent with an Old Florida or Key West theme.
Commissioner Charles Hines worried that those changes would erase the unique character that the county hopes to preserve and foster in the corridor.
“What I’m struggling with, though, is if we do too many changes, take away those setbacks — I don’t know if we need that full trail, that full walkway, that greenway — we lose the intent of a corridor plan or an overlay district to help create sense of place,” Hines said.
“I would sure hate to see 776 look like" U.S. 41, he added, after relaying a story of how he saw the U.S. 41 corridor near Stickney Point Road change over time as he visited his aunt and uncle who lived there. “If you drive that strip of 41, there really is no sense of place, it’s just a long road with commercial development.”
Eight people spoke during the public hearing. Most had concerns about the impact of any intense development, either commercial or multi-family.
Edward Denecke took issue with the thought of chopping the 50-foot greenway in half and was equally concerned about removing the mandate for Old Florida architecture.
Gerald Gray said that the combination of multifamily homes, varied building heights and the change in architectural guideline troubled him.
“To remove the style of building is to remove the face of Florida as we knew it, when we came here,” Gray said, then added that it would neither improve property values nor make it a place where he would want to live.
John Spencer noted that the reduced setbacks could make it hard to see traffic when exiting his home in Dale Lake Estates.
Dawn Moore said she applauded cutting back part of the buffer because her main concern is the proximity of multifamily homes next to her development, which was built at one house per acre.
“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done on the 776 corridor plan,” she later added.
Board members agreed. Faced with the prospect of going through the existing plan and “wordsmithing” it, as Hines said, to make changes, or sending it back to staff, the commission opted for the latter — with a six-month window for the plan’s return.
“No criticism of staff, I think you’ve solved several problems that were proposed,” said Hines, who also suggested the county host at least one more community meeting, too. “We’re almost there and with a bit more work, we can have a better model.”