SCANNING Sarasota PLANNING

  On the popular bird tracking app eBird, Celery Fields is ranked as the third most popular birding hotspot in Florida. Photo provided by Sarasota County. Sarasota County voted against a development next to a bird sanctuary. The builder won’t quit. Published On: April 24, 2026 4:45 am Last Updated: April 23, 2026 10:10 pm By:  Christian Casale | Suncoast Searchlight Three times now, environmental advocates hoping to stave off a housing community proposed next to the Celery Fields bird sanctuary have seen huge victories in the Sarasota County Commission chambers. But a developer that calls itself “America’s largest homebuilder” is still carrying on with its plans. D.R. Horton has continued a relentless effort to bring a new housing community to the edge of Celery Fields, now turning to a 1990s state law to challenge the commission’s prior decisions and steer the development forward through court mediation. Dozens of residents and environmentalists are still fighting the proposa...

Massive Tatum Ridge apartment proposal underscores Live Local concerns By: Derek Gilliam | Suncoast Searchlight and Michael Barfield | Florida Trident Dozens of residents gathered inside a quiet, gated subdivision off Tatum Road last week, many dressed in yellow golf shirts, to protest a plan they fear could transform their rural corner of east Sarasota County. They came in waves — retirees in polos, young families in T-shirts and jeans — united by frustration over a proposal to replace the Tatum Ridge Golf Links with a sprawling apartment complex that could bring thousands of new renters into a low-density area where cows and horses still graze along narrow country roads. “Our kids and our grandkids play outside,” resident Mark Salomonsky said. “You put 4,000 cars running down Racimo Drive, there’s gonna be a dead kid.” The proposed development was filed under Florida’s Live Local Act. Passed in 2023 and expanded in 2025, the Live Local Act was designed to accelerate affordable housin...

A summary review 0f the impacts 0f State Changes - and Pre-empti0ns 0f H0me Rule and L0cal Planning Auth0rity from Miles T0der 0f SEERD M arch 2026 Update-Focus on State Legislation It's been a busy month in Tallahassee where our state legislature wrapped up its session. Our lawmakers considered many changes in state law, some quite controversial, so it could not agree upon many bills, and left more than a few loose ends. There is a strong possibility that the governor will call the legislature back into session shortly because they failed to pass a budget, one of the few "must-do" tasks that our state constitution requires of our lawmakers. The governor also seems to want the legislature to pass a redistricting plan for elections even though redistricting depends on federal decennial census data that we will not have for four more years. And the governor appears eager for the legislature to finish work on a plan to reduce or eliminate real property taxes to be pl...