READY FOR BATTLE

TARA — With just a week before the Manatee County Board of Commissioners vote on proposed changes for the Tara community, residents there are refining their strategies for one last fight.

Members of the 12 Oaks Advisory Committee, are ramping up their efforts to oppose the project, particularly the request for commercial development on land behind the community’s entrance sign at the corner of Tara Boulevard and State Road 70.

Since residents first learned of Lake Lincoln’s plans to change Tara’s development of regional impact early this year, the group has been pooling its experiences and resources to ensure residents are heard throughout the approval process.

The group’s executive committee — Bill Pastori, Will Russell, John Lane, Rod Tait and Tony Greising — and other key residents — Michele Redwin, Sandy Gilbert and Cathy Woolley — also have played critical roles in opposition efforts, both in decision-making and in presenting arguments to the Manatee County Planning Commission Sept. 9.

Now, the group is preparing to make its final plea, presenting its case to the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners at 1:30 p.m., Oct. 7.

Here’s a look at a few of the men and women with the final say on opposition strategy, and who are raising the residents’ concerns at next week’s public hearing.

Bill Pastori
Originally from New Jersey, 13-year Tara resident Bill Pastor is leading the charge. He brings to the table decades of experience in marketing and managing.

Pastori learned how to coordinate the efforts of a $34 million operation during 30 years with Eaton Corp., a diversified power management company. There, Pastori worked as the go-between, interfacing with the marketing department, engineers and finance office to make sure tasks and objectives were implemented correctly.

“It sort of gave me the background to do this,” Pastori said. “My experience (especially with Eaton) has taught me how to get a highly talented, intelligent, but diverse group of people to work together in a unified fashion toward a common goal.”

John Lane
As the liaison between the 12 Oaks Advisory Committee and the Tara Master Association, John Lane considers his role on the board much more low-key than others would suggest.

With experience as a developer in Maine, as well as with property management of homeowners associations, commercial centers and shopping plazas, Lane has a fundamental understanding of the development process and maintaining relationships with the community.

Lane said he considers some changes developer Lake Lincoln has made to Tara over the years — particularly the “desecration” of the entrance to Tara in 2006 — as bothersome.

Will Russell
A resident of Tara since 1995, Will Russell was the first president of the Tara Master Association. His involvement in 2004/2005 in the public outcry against changes to Tara became a training ground for the current fight, he said.

Plus, Russell brings with him more than 20 years as an executive at Massey-Ferguson, a farm machinery company, and 20 years with the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., from which he retired as vice president.

“It sets the stage for me to work through the challenges of trying to convince people this isn’t the way to go,” Russell said.

Cathy Woolley
With experience in human resources, Cathy Woolley also spent 14 years in the shopping-center business, managing and leasing properties. The experience, she said, has given her an understanding the land-use equivalency matrix — a system that allows a developer to trade in approved but un-built residential units for more commercial or other uses on other portions of a property.

Twelve Oaks Plaza started as a basic service center for Tara and East County residents, but Woolley said Lake Lincoln’s current and past DRI requests are making the commercial-to-residential ratio disproportionate.

She also says approval of the matrix would “disenfranchise” residents.

Woolley’s presentation to the board will focus on aesthetics and the negative economic impact residents believe the project will have.

Michele Redwine
Preserves resident Michele Redwine got her first taste for defending the community more than two years ago when she became concerned about noise from Interstate 75. She pulled together a group to talk with Manatee County and other officials about the concern until improvements were made.

“From that, all sorts of things started coming to the community,” she said, noting the Braden River bridge, cell towers and then the 12 Oaks issues came to the forefront.

With Redwine at its helm, the Community Affairs Committee, an ad hoc committee of the Tara Master Association, formed. And from it, the 12 Oaks Advisory Committee formed earlier this year to delve specifically into the DRI issues. With 35 years of executive leadership experience, Redwine is helping to facilitate the group, and also presenting a summary of resident concerns at the commission meeting.

Tony Greising
As general manager of the Tara Golf & Country Club and property manager for the Tara Master Association, Tony Greising has a history of Tara that goes unmatched.

“I pretty much have seen everything that’s happened here since 1994,” he said.

Greising has been critical for providing background to the group and even digging up e-mails such as one from the former county planning department head stating no development would occur at the southwest corner of Tara Boulevard and State Road 70.

He also is handling other important details such as ordering protest signs and scheduling a bus to transport residents to the county hearings.

Sandy Gilbert
A longtime account executive with Time magazine, Sandy Gilbert is yet another Tara resident lending his expertise to the cause.

After he and his wife retired on Longboat Key, Gilbert was named president the Public Interest Committee, a watchdog organization monitoring government policies, and worked with the public works department to create a new water conservation program. He also served on Longboat’s Planning and Zoning Board from 2002 to 2007.

Now at Tara, Gilbert is using those and other experiences to tackle issues related to the DRI request, specifically speaking to the board about traffic issues along Tara Boulevard and at its intersection with State Road 70.

Rod Tait
A member of the 12 Oaks Advisory Committee’s executive team, Rod Tait brings to the team experience as an electrical engineer.

Although he was out of town and could not be reached for an interview, Pastori said Tait plays a critical role between the committee and residents, handling e-mail blasts that go out to residents in the Preserve.

GETTING RESULTS
About 150 Tara residents attended the Manatee County Planning Commission on Sept. 9, where commissioners recommended denial of allowing development on the parcel in question but did recommend approving the addition of a mini warehouse and assisted-living facility as allowed uses on Tara’s DRI and to approve the land-use equivalency matrix, which would allow more commercial development in Tara in the 12 Oaks Plaza area.