SCANNING Sarasota PLANNING

If you care about the Celery Fields as a healthy public amenity for humans and wildlife, tell the Sarasota County Planning Commission that you oppose Rezone Petition RZ 23-30 . The Petition would give DR Horton the opportunity to build 170 homes on the Smith Farm property, yards away from the Raymond Road Boardwalk and a critical nesting area: Smith Farm is the light green - steps away from the Raymond Rd. Bird Walk and Nesting Area. Virtually the entire Farm property is a floodplain. Below, the FEMA map indicates that a very large portion of the Farm, showing in blue, is AE - which means it's in the 100-year floodplain. The grey area is in the 500-year floodplain: Smith Property: FEMA Flood Map  According to the Comprehensive Plan, the county is not supposed to approve dense housing in a floodplain. The reasons might be obvious after this hurricane season: Smith Farm under feet of water the day after Debby THREE THINGS TO DO: 1. WRITE to the Planning Commission ( planner@scgov.ne

Sarasota County Administrator Jonathan Lewis gave an overview of how he sees the past couple of years of county actions and challenges.  Lewis was hired 10 years ago -- before then he was the city manager of North Port. His entire talk is here:      Lewis smoothly covered several facets of county governance, but when asked about the breach in the dike separating Cow Pen Slough from homes in Laurel Meadows, he grew testy and appeared to either not understand what was asked, or to completely get the facts wrong. He interrupted the question and suggested the questioner and the Herald Tribune were incorrect in their account of the Laurel Meadows flooding, where 84 homes were seriously damaged. That brief segment of his presentation is here:                    The analysis of the flooding by water engineer Steve Suau and the news coverage about it are here .

The recent flood presentation by Steve Suau at Selby Library drew an overflow crowd. It has also generated media coverage.  Suau said he's still gathering data and should finalize his report and recommendations in early November, but what he had to say got a lot of attention.  So far, we have the stories published below. Ramon Lopez at WSLR News : Sarasota hydrologist has an idea. And what to do next. ======== Kerry Sheridan at WUSF / NPR: A YouTube video reveals a dike breach during Debby that caused mysterious Sarasota flooding :                                                                            ======= = Carrie Seidman at the Herald Tribune: Opinion: We know why Sarasota flooded during recent storms. How will we handle future ones? Laurel Meadows: 84 homes flooded