What's happening: Week of Feb. 26, 2015

What’s the buzz?
Customers at a local Starbucks got an unexpected jolt after a vehicle crashed into the coffee shop Tuesday afternoon.

The Starbucks at 3571 Bee Ridge Road was evacuated after an 88-year-old woman drove over a wheel stop and into the glass storefront. Nobody was injured as a result of the crash, although the woman was cited for careless driving, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.

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“I stopped there one hour later and wandered about the yellow tape. ... Did not get any glass in my cup ... ” Miriam Harburger Goldfarb

“I was just telling someone how the parking there was terrible.”
Bob Gorevan

“The drive through is located on the other side of the building!”
Tom Dowdy

SCOPE hosts community discussion workshop
Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence, or SCOPE, hosted the fifth installation of a six-part series of community workshops focused on face-to-face discussion on community issues and concerns Tuesday, at the Gulf Gate Public Library.

After presenting up-to-date demographics and data on Sarasota County, John McCarthy, SCOPE’s executive director, turned the discussion into small focus groups of county residents and government employees.

Some of the top concerns among participants were the lack of college graduates who stayed in Sarasota County and the lack of affordable housing available to the workforce. Kevin Connelly, board member of Sarasota Manatee Manufacturers Association, is concerned with the lack of industrial and manufacturing development in the county.

“In Sarasota County, zoning is changed to squeeze out light industrial,” Connelly said. “Once you build residential, it’s a one-time shot.”

Better Government Association of Sarasota County hosts public forum
BGA invited three panelists to speak Saturday at the Gulf Gate Public Library: Sarasota County Commissioner Charles Hines, former Commissioner Jon Thaxton and former President of Sarasota County Council of Neighborhood Associations Bill Zoller.

The three community leaders spoke to an audience of about 50 people about growth and development in Sarasota County, and their opinions on how it should continue.

Thaxton’s major concern with the development was the lack of housing that the service workforce could afford and that residential housing dominated development in the county.

“Building houses is unsustainable economic development,” he said. “It shouldn’t be the only zoning in our portfolio.”

Zoller said the comprehensive plan called for redevelopment and infill within the Urban Service Boundary, but Hines said that the commissioners got pushback from both directions—residents pushed back when development occurred east of I-75, but also when development proposals increased density in urban areas.

BY THE NUMBERS
$275 million - Sarasota County’s fiscal year 2016 general fund budget, which is balanced with no shortfall

$100 - the fine for having a dog on Siesta Key beach

1924 - year Out-of-Door Academy was founded

MEETINGS
Regular City Commission meeting — 2:30 and 6 p.m. Monday, March 2, Commission Chambers, City Hall, 1565 First St., Sarasota

Sarasota County School Board meeting — 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, 1980 Landings Blvd., Sarasota

Sarasota County Commission meeting — 9 a.m. Wednesday, March 4, Commission Chambers, Administration Building, 1660 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota

“I know that I’m asking you to trust me, but I’m asking you to trust me that we have thought this through.”

Woman’s Exchange CEO Karen Koblenz, addressing concerned attendees at a workshop regarding the store’s proposed expansion in Laurel Park.