SCANNING Sarasota PLANNING

Spencer Anderson 2022 Sarasota County officials downplayed flood risk. Tropical Storm Debby exposed their failures   Florida Trident & Suncoast Seachlight Laurel Meadows after Debbie 2024 Blame game begins after feds deny Sarasota County emergency dredging of Phillippi Creek   Herald Tribune Homeowner in Laurel Meadows  Confusion arises after Phillippi Creek residents learn county administrator said Army Corps of Engineers denied emergency permit for dredging   Sarasota News Leader PHILLIPPI Creek No emergency permit: Dredging of Phillippi Creek to wait another hurricane season    Florida Trident & Suncoast Searchlight Berm at Cow Pen Slough Residents express concern as Phillippi Creek dredging project reclassified to standard permit    Fox 13 Tampa Bay

This letter to the Board was sent May 31st, 2025: Dear Commissioners Neunder, Knight, Smith, Mast and Cutsinger, As a former reporter for the  Herald Tribune , I covered issues of development and planning that involve giving attention to the pulse of the public. I continue to do this as an independent journalist via social media, email, and attending public hearings. I’m no stormwater engineer, but I can gauge where the public sits on the stormwater issue. The public is not sitting, it’s standing -- out of anxiety and outrage. Today is May 31. Storm season starts tomorrow and we do not appear to have an actual plan, or a clear-cut understanding of what went wrong last year, and of what needs to be done to ensure that disastrous county failures do not repeat during this storm season or in any future year. Alarm bells went off during Debby .  I live next to a park with canals. Prior to Debby, the canals were completely dry. An unnamed storm, or invest, filled the canals nearly o...