Thursday, September 14, 2006

Listening to the Community

Recently Michael Saunders sent an e-mail to fellow board members of SCOPE asking for support of the School Ave proposal. In the e-mail it was indicated several times that only a small number of vocal neighbors oppose the proposal.

As of today the groups that oppose this proposal include:

City's professional Planning Staff
City's appointed Planning Commission
Respected members of our local American Institute of Architects (AIA) chapter
Pelican Press
City Coalition of Neighborhood Associations
Alta Vista Neighborhood Association
A number of individual neighborhood associations
Sarasota Herald Editorial Board

This is hardly a small group of vocal neighbors. It is a wide ranging group of community leaders, none of whom have a monetary interest in the project and do not stand to profit if it is accepted.

The city commission would do well to listen to the voice of these community leaders.

The SHT editorial is aptly titled "Good Idea Gone Bad". The affordable housing ideas may be good but this particular proposal for this particular location is bad.

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