Government planners cite need for updated traffic analysis.
SARASOTA — Sarasota County planners have found the most recent update to a development plan for Siesta Promenade at U.S. 41 and Stickney Point Road still incomplete, according to letters sent to Benderson Development Co. on Feb. 1.
In its most recent, scaled-back Critical Area Plan application, Manatee County-based Benderson Development wants to build 140,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 130 hotel rooms and 415 condominium-style residential units on the 24-acre site, at the northwest corner of the busiest access point to Siesta Key.
The biggest missing piece is an updated traffic analysis which was discussed on Jan. 24, in a meeting between county planning officials and Kimley-Horn and Associates, Benderson’s consultant on the job.
The next analysis should address issues raised both by county planners and the Florida Department of Transportation.
Chief among the areas unaddressed in the current analysis is the proposed traffic light at Stickney Point Road and Avenues B and C.
Previously, DOT officials noted via email that Benderson and Kimley-Horn have not met requirements to justify a traffic signal there and expressed concern that such a signal may cause traffic headed west to Siesta Key to back up all the way to U.S. 41.
Kimley-Horn also suggested that the county should designate Constitution Boulevard, which connects U.S. 41 at Phillippi Estate Park to Swift Road, as a significant local roadway — something not reflected in the county’s 2040 future road plan.
While there are traffic signals at either end of Constitution Boulevard, it currently winds through several neighborhoods, with residential driveways connecting directly to the roadway.
Plans also call for a realignment of Crestwood Avenue.
Besides the lack of a definitive traffic analysis, most of the issues raised on both Benderson’s rezone petition and Critical Area Plan applications involve missing details or minor errors.
For example, the project density is incorrectly calculated for the rezoning application, and the graphics show 29 feet between the edge of Glencoe Avenue and the property line, while the correct spacing is between 15 and 18 feet.
Siesta Promenade is still in an early review stage. Once the submission is deemed complete by county staff, it will undergo a formal review, including a neighborhood workshop, and then must go through formal hearings before both the Planning Commission and the County Commission for approval.
Residents of the Pine Shores neighborhood have been monitoring the project, concerned about its overall scale and the potential to dump traffic into neighborhood streets, including Beechwood Avenue, which intersects with U.S. 41 north of the project and Stickney Point Road west of the project and may become used as a cut through to Siesta Key.