Growth Management

Last year, the "1000 Friends of Florida" organization issued a white paper titled Growth Management for Florida's Future. Many excellent ideas are presented in this paper.

An excerpt from this paper:

"Encouraging vision-based planning, starting at the neighborhood level.

Adequate, directed funding is crucial for effective growth management. Equally important is determining how a community wants to grow. Citizen-based neighborhood planning should be the foundation of a community's comprehensive planning process. Neighbors (citizens representing a mix of residential, school, civic, office and commercial areas in geographic proximity) gathering together with local planning staff can evaluate current development policies and recommend alternative growth scenarios.

Local governments should build on this neighborhood process when creating community-wide visioning strategies. The collaborative process of visioning should be consensus-driven and articulate the desired future of the community. Policy statements on the quality of life and graphic representation of the community's physical form and land use patterns should have the support of the public and politicians.

To ensure accountability, the vision document recommendations should be incorporated into the comprehensive plan, land development regulations and capital expenditures. It also should clearly define the steps for implementation. Additionally, the document should explain why, how, and when amendments to the community's plans are sought. Above all, it must provide for accountability so that measurable implementation is achieved"

While Sarasota probably is further along than most Florida localities, there is still room for improvement when measured against the statement above. A local vision tied to the comp plan, land develoment regulations and capital expenditures would provide focus for our leaders and measures of accountability. Save Our Sarasota supports these concepts. Citizen involvement and leadership accountability are needed to make Sarasota a truely great city that brings a vision of a "small town with urban amenities" more clearly into focus.