Downtown Visioning

We see that the Downtown Partnership is starting a process to clarify their vision for downtown Sarasota. Recently they held a meeting entitled "Enough of the Plan … We Need a Vision.". An on-going series of discussions will include Community Redevelopment/ TIF funds, Parking/ Transportation, Workforce Housing, Retail, and Downtown Architecture.

This is encouraging. Save Our Sarasota encourages community discussion of the issues that face Sarasota. Too often developers sell their projects to Commissioners in a vacuum. There is no community vision against which the proposal can be measured.

True we have a "downtown plan" that identifies "downtown" and what kinds of buildings and uses are allowed in there. It generally follows the principles of "New Urbanism" so that it is pedestrian friendly. However, there is no big picture vision of how everything fits together or even what the citizens of Sarasota want their city to become.

Currently a pitch is being made for a large, high end, retail complex that would change a significant portion of downtown. Our City Commissioners are being pushed to approve the proposal and there is no vision for Sarasota that we can measure this proposal against. For now it is only the developer's ability to market his plan - "make the sale", if you will - to the Commissioners that will determine whether this goes forward. So far at least one Commissioner has been sold on the concept.

We would like to point out some excellent concepts for growth management (are we managing our downtown growth or is it wildly out of control?). As articulated by the organization, 1000 Friends of Florida, planning begins with a citizen based vision. A portion of their comments are given here:

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.

To promote vision-based planning, it is essential to:

Support and fund local governments to create vision plans at the neighborhood and community levels.
Provide additional funds, and additional funding alternatives and incentives, for local governments to use in implementing their plans.

We support the Downtown Partnership in their process to begin discussions on the vision for downtown.