Growth, Airport Major Issues

Growth will be the main issue in November when three seats on the seven-member Venice City Council are on the ballot.

Mayor Fred Hammett and Councilmen Bill Wilson and Jim Woods are in the final four months of their current terms.

Because the filing deadline for council candidates is not until September, it is too soon to know who will run for mayor and for the other two council seats.

But there is no doubt that growth is the issue most on the minds of voters.

The hottest issue is what the City Council will do at Venice Municipal Airport, where five development groups have proposed resort developments on open, public land.

Nothing in years has brought so many citizens to City Council meetings as the controversy over airport land.

Airport development was not on the agenda for this past Tuesday's bimonthly council meeting, but the issue was brought up at the tail end of the nearly six-hour meeting by City Manager Marty Black.

On Black's recommendation, the council voted, 6-1, to hold a "charette" over the weekend of August 3, 4 and 5. Citizens will be asked for their ideas about possible development on more than 100 open acres at the airport.

The timing of the charette will fuel the controversy over the airport because many Venice residents are away in August.

The timing is questionable, too, because the council has delayed approval of a new airport master plan until a consultant answers questions not addressed in the draft submitted in mid-June.

The council wants to know, for example, how much it would cost to reconfigure a municipal golf course on airport land if the council approves changes at the airport recommended by the Airport Advisory Board.

Why not get a solid plan in hand before making decisions about the development of open, public land at the airport?

The airport-development issue will be moot before November if the council rushes to a decision on what to do on public land at the airport, but the controversy over the decision-making process could become even more heated if people disagree with the decision.

If council members truly want public involvement, the council could hold off on a decision about development at the airport until after the issue has been thoroughly aired during this fall's election campaigns for mayor and the other two council seats.

Another growth-related issue certain to fuel debate this fall is the City Council's policy of encouraging growth in the city's northeast corner -- an area city officials like to refer to as "North Venice."

That effort, under way for several years, begins with Sarasota County landowners asking the City Council to annex their property. The City Council does so, and then approves development plans.

Land around and near the Laurel Road interchange on Interstate 75 is the focus of much of that development activity.

On Tuesday, for example, the council preliminarily rezoned 46 acres of annexed land west of Pinebrook Road and north of Edmondson Road. Bella Citta, the proposed development, would have 180 condos and townhouses.

The Sarasota County Commission sought to delay that rezoning. Chair Nora Patterson sent a letter to Mayor Hammett in which she suggested the county and city staffs could first meet and talk about the commission's concern that the proposed development might not be compatible with a nearby large-lot subdivision in the county.

The mayor did not agree, and the council proceeded to give Bella Citta preliminary approval. Final approval is pending.

On Wednesday, the commission had County Administrator Jim Ley notify City Manager Black that the commission wants to engage in the dispute-resolution process under a joint planning agreement the two governments reached in January.

The idea behind the meetings is to talk about differences of opinion and to seek resolution without without resorting to legal action.

What the mayor and council members say to commission members about the Bella Citta project could give Venice voters insight into the council's growth policy.

For one thing, the policy is to encourage new, dense and mixed-use development in the city's northeast corner.

Another obvious aspect of Venice's growth policy is to increase the population of a city that now has around 20,000 people.

That's about 30,000 fewer people than both of Sarasota County's other two cities, Sarasota and North Port.

Larry Evans is a Herald-Tribune editorial writer, columnist and blogger based in Venice. He can be reached at 486-3075, or at: [email protected]

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