Bring Back Neighborhood Workshops -- Letter to the Board


Sarasota County is considering revising its Neighborhood Workshop policy to return to an in-person format. SCAN fully endorses this. We ask all who understand how significant this public communication is to write in favor of this resolution to the County Commission - the Board's email address is  Commissioners@scgov.net

The commissioners' individual emails:

Ron Cutsinger rcutsinger@scgov.net

Tom Knight tknight@scgov.net

Teresa Mast tmast@scgov.net

Dr. Joe Neunder jneunder@scgov.net

Mark Smith mhsmith@scgov.net

 

                    ====================== 


December 08, 2025

Board of Sarasota County Commissioners

1001 Sarasota Center Boulevard

Sarasota, FL 34240

RE: Neighborhood Workshops

Dear Commissioners:

For many years I participated in numerous Neighborhood Workshops, which were always in person until Covid triggered a change in policy. These meetings were a rich learning opportunity - not just with regard to whatever specific proposal was under consideration, but also because planning staff was on hand to answer questions of all kinds - it was a real education for citizens.

The adjustment to online during Covid made sense, but led to a workshop format that was weak, often minimally informative, and lacked the personal and communal reality of in-person gatherings. One never could see who else was in the meeting; the sound at times was inaudible, and if one wanted to review the workshop later, one received only an audio file, which meant a loss of maps and visual cues presented in the online workshop.

The Board has recently discussed amending the Workshop Requirements pursuant to Resolution 2025-082 to move back to in-person meetings. I urge you to take this step. The county offers many locations to hold such workshops, and the public gain outweighs the minor inconvenience for developers who prefer the online format.

Speaking both for myself and for Sarasota Citizen Action Network (SCAN) I support this change back to in-person workshops (with the option to attend virtually). SCAN can assist in the identification of in-person meeting locations and would welcome participating in meetings with the County and with other communities and development interests in preparation of revisions to Resolution 2025-082 as required to facilitate the venue change and desired outcome.

Respectfully,

Tom Matrullo

Sarasota, FL 34241

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