This week’s post is a youtube video of my Florida CNU lightning round presentation on Sarasota 2050.
Florida’s Congress of New Urbanism (CNU) convened last week at New College in Sarasota. CNU is a non-profit organization that works with multi-disciplinary professionals to promote walkable, neighborhood-based development as an alternative to sprawl. Great information was shared, and the conference provided an opportunity to learn from national thought leaders, including Andres Duany, Victor Dover and John Kohl. In addition, we also heard great presentations from Florida Department of Transportation District Secretary, Billy Hattaway (Mr. Hattaway is Sarasota’s FDOT District Secretary) and the former Mayor of Pittsburgh, Tom Murphy.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in the conference’s lightning round presentations. Participants spoke on a topic using 20 slides, and speaking no more than 20 seconds per slide. Whew!
My focus was Sarasota 2050, and how neighborhood advocates are opposed to subsidizing a failed development business model: sprawl. Sprawl robs our communities, because the built environment fails to generate enough tax revenue to cover its long term infrastructure costs. Sprawl development also narrows housing choices, homogenizing communities in generic,cookie cutter fashion, instead of providing an array of living choices, from urban to rural.
CONA objections to Sarasota County’s intent to weaken 2050 standards are summarized in less than 7 minutes. Please take a look!
The people of Sarasota’s neighborhoods are responsiblity for their property, not the rest of us. And yes you are eliminating choice with people that don’t share your agenda. Somewhere in hear I am hearing distribution of wealth. How much land is off the tax roll in the county, that should go to schools,police, etc. I don’t want to live within the city, any city, and that is the choice I as a Free American has. I don’t want to live like a cockroach like they do in NYC. And if you live within you means, there wouldn’t be a debt, something our elected officials don’t get.END OF CONVERSATION. America, Love It or Leave It.
Neil – I am not asking you to live like a cockroach. Did you look at my presentation?
If you don’t want to live in any city, you should be particularly concerned. If you are a taxpayer, you get stuck with the costs I’m talking about. Redistribution of wealth occurs when higher density zoning is conferred and the taxpayer is expected to foot the bill for surplus infrastructure. You are being told to foot the bill for developer welfare by your County Commission. And if that isn’t bad enough, at times they just give your money away before a project even starts. Like they did with Schroeder Manatee Ranch:
https://thedetail.net/2013/10/01/if-its-good-for-schroeder-manatee-is-it-good-for-sarasota/
Neil – please tell me what you mean by “this”. I am not getting rid of my car.
When you consider infrastructure costs, you must look at more than just roads and sewers. Fire, police, schools – the public employees required along with their salaries, pensions and benefits. Long term maintenance and debt liabilities are key considerations. You can meet those obligations with smart design that generates value (like early Americans built, the way our founding fathers built). First you maximize what you have – you ensure that what is there generates enough tax revenue to cover it’s expenses.
Sarasota’s existing neighborhoods are being overlooked. Sarasota County’s existing neighborhoods already have total potential housing units that can provide 600-800% of projected 10 year household demand. I am NOT talking about eliminating choice. Actually, gobbling up rural land before existing areas are financially self sufficient deprives people of housing choices. There is a lot to discuss here. What is being planned is horrible for homeowners and taxpayers.
You raise important questions, and I think there is a lot of common ground that may not be initially evident.
Are you for this? We wouldn’t have a problem with the cost of infrastructure costs,if the FDOT stop funding the Greenways with our tax dollars,and planting seeds along highways, these are temporary jobs, land acquisition and permanent easements. If your for this then you should be the first to get rid of your property, car, and put on a pair of walking shoes and move in. This is being forced on the people that understand what is going on (while the rest are being kept in the dark). This is taking away people’s choice on how and where they want to live. This is socialism, communism and “Regionalism”. Regionalism is against the U.S. Constlitution, Article IV Section 4, the U.S. Government guarantee’s every State in the Union a Republican form of Goverment. Please do your homework. We owe it to our children that we shall not depart and leave them in a condition of bondage and slavery to Organized Greed.
Hi Sherry – Great to hear from you. For me, it’s about maximizing public investment. Zoning and land use changes confer wealth and obligate taxpayers to infrastructure costs when increased density is conferred. It must be in the community’s interest to do so. Did you take a look at the video? Our county is sitting on huge potential housing inventory where we already have public investment. No business would operate the way our County does, and it is costing and will cost taxpayers big time.
As for Andres Duany – I have heard him talk three times, which hardly makes me an expert on his work. When I have heard him he spoke about easing restrictions on urban development – regulations that make it too onerous to build in existing urban areas. He also talked about how the way US western pioneers built towns of real value – particularly in Utah – cities that were efficiently structured to encourage commerce. He advocated for ensuring we allow a range of housing choices – from urban to rural. I know his ideas have been criticized, but the three times I’ve heard him speak those were my takeaways, and they made a lot of sense to me.
My focus is ensuring we have policies in place that set the stage for real economic growth, not short term gain and huge long term liabilities. Unfortunately, our County has given us the latter and wants to keep doing the same.
Kathy, I’d like to know what you thought of Andres Duany and what you think of “urban sprawl”. Thank you looking forward to your response.