Update: More Action Required
Tuesday, January 31, 2017: Our community was well represented amid the hundreds who showed up (ABC 7’s estimate) at last night’s “Neighborhood Workshop” to oppose the proposed Recycling Center project near the Celery Fields.
>200 people last night at the Neighborhood Workshop for a proposed Recycling Center @ Palmer Blvd & Apex Road in #SRQ #CeleryFieldsDump pic.twitter.com/o6YAZYvh5K
— David G. Johnson (@TheDavidJohnson) January 31, 2017
But this is only the beginning of the fight to prevent this project from being built. As of last night, the developer, Mr. James Gabbert of TST Ventures, LLC, has not yet formally applied for the property’s rezoning from OUR (“Open Use Rural”) to ILW (“Industrial, Light Manufacturing, Warehouse”), nor for the Special Exception which would be required to develop a Recycling Center on the parcel.
But Mr. Gabbert and his representative, Mr. Bo Medred of Genesis Planning, through their presentation and their responses during the subsequent Q&A session, indicated their commitment to filing the necessary applications and seeing the process through to its conclusion. This process will likely take months, and at some point in the future a hearing will be scheduled before the Sarasota County Planning Commission, at which time a decision will be made about whether or not to recommend that the Sarasota County Commissioners approve the petitions.
Restaurant Depot Public Hearing This Thursday, February 2nd, 6:30PM
In the meantime, the Sarasota County Planning Commission will hear conduct a public hearing this Thursday on a separate project which is already much further along in the process: Rezone Petition 16-33, for the proposed “Restaurant Depot” on the northwest corner of Palmer Boulevard & Apex Road.
Since this is a formal public hearing, and not a Neighborhood Workshop, comments from residents who attend will be much more likely to have an impact. Please consider attending this meeting.
You can see all the details of this Rezone Petition here.
Where: Sarasota County Administration Center, 1660 Ringling Boulevard, Sarasota (Map)
When: Thursday, February 2nd, 6:30pm
What: Public Hearing
The original content of this post appears below:
Your attendance at Monday’s “Neighborhood Workshop” can make a difference!
Where: Church of Hope, 1560 Wendell Kent Rd, Sarasota, FL 34240 (Map)
When: Monday, January 30, 2017, 6pm
What: Public Meeting
In case you aren’t aware, a developer has already begun construction on a “Waste Transfer Station” at the corner of Porter Road & Palmer Boulevard, less than a mile west of Meadow Walk.
In addition, however, they have applied for a “Special Exception” in the zoning of that property and an adjacent chunk of land. This exception, if granted by the Sarasota County Planning Commission, would allow them to construct a 16-acre Recycling Center.
Documents filed with the planning commission indicate that waste will be piled as high as 35 feet, and reports from members of the Meadow Walk HOA Board who were in attendance at a recent similar meeting indicated that the developer plans to build an 8-foot-high wall to obscure the waste from view. Of course, this means that only the bottom 8 feet of the 35-foot high piles of debris will be blocked from view.
In addition to being an eyesore, this project will, if approved, bring with it as many as 75 trucks per day hauling construction waste and other debris to and from this property. You can imagine the traffic from this, as well as the noise, the odors, and the threat to our property values that this project represents.
This includes an undetermined number of dump trucks and landscaping trucks bringing in debris daily, resulting in approximately a dozen semi-trucks hauling away debris every day. They will have dump trucks, loaders/backhoes/tractors with claws and equipment to break up large pieces of concrete, trees limbs, and other debris.
They can call it what they want but it is a dump that will be unsightly, noisy, and will certainly have a negative effect on all of our property values.
Your attendance at this meeting can help our voices be heard!
This meeting takes place tomorrow (Monday, January 30th) at Church of Hope. Please join your fellow Meadow Walk homeowners as we speak up to prevent this project from being approved.
Note: A huge “thank you” to Sharon Stringer & Gary Walsh from the Meadow Walk HOA Board of Directors for representing us at the last neighborhood workshop about this project. Their reports contributed to the substance of this post. We hope you’ll let your voice be heard at this meeting also!
