Awaiting traffic study, Main Street project stalls

Eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Tampa-based Taco Bus franchise to Sarasota? Excited to knock down the pins at the bowling alley planned for the forthcoming Evie’s bar and restaurant on Main Street?

According to the developer of that project, you may have to wait a little longer — and you have to city to thank.

Entrepreneur Jesse Biter, who is spearheading the project in the 1500 block of Main Street, said administrative red tape is holding up the building process. Specifically, the development is on hold as the city conducts a traffic study for the new businesses. To Biter, that requirement was a perfect distillation of the city’s negative reputation among developers.

“My biggest argument is we shouldn’t even be doing traffic studies for downtown unless we’re going to celebrate the people bringing traffic to downtown,” Biter said. “That’s the whole reason we have a Main Street.”

Biter and Evie’s owner Michael Evanoff both scoffed at the idea of requiring a traffic study in an area already teeming with businesses. In correspondence with Biter, city staff admitted that it was unlikely that the findings of the traffic study would require the developer to make any upgrades.

“We understand the concern with the time for a study, and while we do not expect there to be required concurrency improvements, these would be required to be constructed,” City Engineer Alex DavisShaw wrote.

If the project is on hold now, city staff said, it’s because of a choice the developers made, not because the city wouldn’t let them to go forward. The city has issued a permit for core and shell construction, which allows the developer to construct the bones of the building. The only thing held up by the traffic study is the construction of elements specific to a particular use, such as a kitchen for the Evie’s restaurant. 

“What we can’t permit is the build-out — because that’s actually what permits those uses — until we’ve got traffic concurrency,” city Senior Planner Courtney Mendez said.

Still, Biter and Evanoff said the lag time between the two permits puts the people behind the project in a tough position: They could begin construction now, only to backtrack when installing  plumbing and other elements that require the issuance of the build-out permit. Or, they could hit pause now, waiting for the study so construction could be completed in one phase. The group has opted for the latter.

“This is a prime example of what’s going on with the city. There’s nobody you can talk to to make an exception.”

Biter and Evanoff also say the city took months to notify them that the project would eventually require a traffic study to move forward. Plans for the construction were filed in June, but Evanoff wasn’t made aware of the need for a traffic study until January. Even after the developers were made aware of the requirement, they were upset by the amount of time it took to get the study underway — and they’re unaware of when they’ll ultimately get the go-ahead from the city.

As a result, Evanoff said the completion of the project is likely set back several months.

“If we didn’t have to wait for the traffic study, we probably would have been open in June,” Evanoff said. “Now, we’ll be lucky to open in September.”

To Evanoff, the process has typified the rigidity of the city when it comes to new projects, a frequently echoed criticism. He’s encountered more problems as he attempts to retool the Evie’s location on Ringling Boulevard; going forward, he’s hesitant to do more business with the city.

“This is a prime example of what’s going on with the city,” Evanoff said. “There’s nobody you can talk to to make an exception.”

Biter wrote that the development process for this project was an example of the city “beating up on its own” — and said that process is an obstacle to the continued growth of downtown.

“We want traffic downtown,” Biter said. “We want businesses here. You want things that are going to get people to shop and hang out and be there.”