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JUlLY 2017 941.349.0194 | ISLAND VISITOR PUBLISHING, LLC
MEMORIAL DAY PHOTOS
Memorial Day BBQ attendance breaks all-time high
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HOLIDAY TRASH Bracing for the month of July
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POOL PARTY
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Beach Road charter amendment effort continues |If successful, the charter amendments would cost the county $450,000 to hold a countywide special election, timing may get tricky By Roger Drouin Sarasota County residents continue to sign a pair of petitions related to the increasingly tense fight over a 357-foot stretch of Beach Road. There are two separate charter amendment initiatives spurred by longtime Siesta Key resident and carpenter Michael Cosentino — the first, if approved by voters, would prohibit the county from vacating public lands, including beach and waterside roadways, and parks and preserves; the second would overturn the county’s decision to relinquish a portion of Beach Road, the last road remaining on the Key with a direct view of the Gulf. Cosentino is leading a passionate campaign against the County Commission,
contending the board broke its own rules when it agreed in 2016 to vacate a stretch of public right-of-way along Beach Road to three landowners there. Although Cosentino says petitions continue to pour in, the effort to ask voters to weigh in has some way to go before reaching the ballot box. As of last month, Cosentino and a group of volunteers behind the political action committee “Reopen Beach Road,” was just above a quarter of the way towards the number of petitions needed to get both charter-amendment questions onto the ballot. If successful, the effort could cost the county $450,000 to hold a countywide special election.
Cosentino wants the roadway improved and open to the public. The county, meanwhile, has accused Cosentino of conveying misinformation. The county agreement sets out a 60-foot-wide rightof-way, and an additional five-foot-wide permanent beach access path at its south end, although it does not explicitly discuss improvements to the right-of-way. As of last month, on the first issue of protecting public spaces, the group had collected 3,788 petitions that were OK’d as valid by the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Office, which is tasked with making sure that valid signatures are from county residents. Continued on page 20
Potential for a new public parking lot at 6647 South Midnight Pass steaming ahead By Rachel Brown Hackney Photos from the annual pool
party sponsored by the LMA Community Events Committee
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KID’S CORNER
Hayden Bailey (9) - Visiting granddaughter of Francie Hall
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Lin Kurant, manager of the county’s Real Estate Services Division, had identified the 1.84-parcel as owned by the county’s Utilities Department, with a structure on it used for training purposes by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Although the commissioners were talking about surplus property the county could sell, Kurant recommended the board hang on to the Midnight Pass Road parcel. Commissioner Alan Maio wholeheartedly concurred with that. “That property, I would say, may be our last and only opportunity for a parking lot on Siesta” or for a turnaround area for a trolley or bus, Maio pointed out. During the board’s May 26 budget workshop, the commissioners not only reinforced their desire to keep the property, but they also directed staff to begin working with “folks on Siesta Key” — as Commissioner Charles Hines put it — to come up with prospective parking lot proposals.
Siesta Chamber Chair, Mark Smith addressed the board that morning during the Open to the Public period, pleading the case for the parking lot as well as for continuation of the open-air trolley service. He believes, he said, that the South Siesta parcel will hold 182 parking places plus a building in the center that could be used as a facility for people wanting to catch rides on the trolley. An architect with his own firm in Siesta Village, Smith presented the board members with a copy of the concept for the parking lot, including the 20-foot by 40-foot Siesta Key Breeze trolley stop with a courtyard. When Chair Paul Caragiulo asked about Smith’s recommendation that shell be used for the surface of the lot, instead of asphalt, Smith noted that shell is allowed under the guidelines of the Siesta Key Overlay District zoning for the island. It would be an enormous benefit to the Utilities Department not to pave the
lot, Smith pointed out. Because the site originally belonged to the Siesta Key Utility Authority, pipes are still in place underground, Smith said. All county employees would need to do to reach those pipes would be to remove the shell and begin digging, Smith added. Commissioner Hines asked for clarification about which of the two buildings on the site is used by the Sheriff’s Office. Smith replied that the red property lines on his drawing encompassed that one. The other structure — outside the property boundaries — is owned by the Utilities Department. “Thanks for the work you’ve done on this,” Caragiulo told Smith. When the board members began their surplus property review later that morning, Kurant reiterated her February remark that the county’s Utilities Department staff “recommended hanging on to that parcel.” Continued on page 13