Downtown group explores Main Street makeover

Ernie Ritz wants to redesign the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Main Street, creating wider sidewalks, more outdoor dining space and enhanced landscaping by converting angled parking spaces into parallel parking.

It’s not a novel idea. A decade ago, the city explored the removal of angled parking on Main Street. The response drew opposition from downtown merchants, who feared a reduction in parking spaces would reduce the number of visitors and negatively affect business. Officials ultimately listened to merchants’ concerns: Although the 1300 block of Main Street converted to parallel parking, angled parking remained in the 1400 and 1500 blocks.

Today, Ritz thinks conditions have changed enough to try again. In 2011, the city had just opened the Palm Avenue parking garage; downtown added a second garage on State Street in 2015.

City and regional planners have identified the conditions on Main Street as problematic. The Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization identified the street as one of the top sites for crashes in the two-county area, which Ritz attributed to fender-benders associated with angled parking.

And, most recently, the emergence of COVID-19 has invited people to reimagine the use of public spaces. A long-time downtown property owner, Ritz said he thought walkable streets and sidewalk cafes were already popular prior to 2020, but the pandemic has placed an even greater premium on high-quality outdoor spaces.

“With COVID-19, we found that people don’t want to eat inside any more,” Ritz said. “We can see all of our downtown dining on the outside of the street now — as a matter of fact, they’re taking up a lot of parking spaces.”

Ritz doesn’t think that’s going to change when the pandemic ends. That’s why, at the Feb. 2 Downtown Improvement District meeting, Ritz proposed spending $22,730 on concept plans for a streetscape improvement project in the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Main Street. Although board members shared different priorities, the DID voted 4-1 to commission the plans in hopes that it would kick-start a conversation.

The dissenting vote came from Ron Soto, the owner of Soto’s Optical Boutique and president of the Sarasota Downtown Enrichment Association. The head of a merchants group, Soto indicated business owners might continue to oppose overhauling Main Street and removing parking spaces.

Soto said the concerns would likely be amplified by the effects of COVID-19 and a wave of downtown construction projects.

“After we dealt with The Mark for a year and a half or two years of construction, then we did Lemon Avenue with the construction there, then we had COVID-19, now we want to subject those businesses to eight months of construction?” Soto said. “Let’s put that final nail in that coffin for them. I’m not a big fan of it, if you couldn’t tell.”

Board member Mark Kauffman said any construction likely would not begin for at least two years, giving businesses an opportunity to recover from the effects of the pandemic. Still, board member and Art To Walk On Owner Eileen Hampshire shared Soto’s concerns about detrimental effects for merchants despite her support for the streetscape proposal.

“Conceptually, I’d love to see it because it’s the heart of our downtown, and it looks shabby,” Hampshire said. “It would be really nice if we made it beautiful, but we really need to think hard about how we do it and how we impact the retailers.”

City Engineer Alex DavisShaw said a Main Street improvement project remains a priority for city officials. Although the city has not produced specific plans, Main Street improvements ranked as one of the top 10 projects in Sarasota in Motion, staff’s proposed transportation master plan written in 2020. Soto questioned why the DID, funded by a voluntary property tax on commercial property owners within the district, would pay for concept designs for a project the city already intends to pursue at some point.

Board member Wayne Ruben, the owner of the commercial space in the State Street garage, said he thought the DID could take a more active role in the planning process if it came to the city with a concept the group supported.

“I’d rather have a seat at the table,” Ruben said.

In addition to making a good-faith gesture to the city, Ritz said producing a concept plan would be an important step in a longer process involving public feedback and potential revisions.

“You can’t just ask people to imagine in their heads what it’s going to look like,” Ritz said. “You have to have something; you have to have a concept drawing.”

The DID’s conversation also indicated the group has a longer list of capital projects it hopes to undertake. Kauffman and Hampshire discussed adding brick crosswalks on Main Street and Palm Avenue. Kauffman, Soto and Ritz talked about the possibility of relocating the Sarasota County Area Transit bus stop on First Street and replacing it with a parking facility and  retail.

Ritz said he wanted to start by focusing on the Main Street streetscape effort, but other board members were eager to discuss a longer list of projects. Hampshire said the discussion about Main Street could launch a comprehensive conversation about downtown improvements.

There was consensus among a majority of the board that the time was right to consider large-scale efforts to reinvigorate the heart of the city.

“I really think we need to have a more global picture of what we’re going to do downtown,” she  said.