Vet clinic slated for S.R. 70 site

MANATEE COUNTY — Lakewood Ranch residents Dr. Wally and Rene Dabasinkas plan to bring life to a previously bank-owned property just west of the Manatee County Tax Collector’s Lakewood Ranch office.

Although Manatee County commissioners are slated to formally approve their project — a new 8,000-square-foot veterinary clinic at 10915 S.R. 70 E. — on Sept. 1, they worked out a few details in the approval process at their Aug. 4 land-use meeting.

Residents in Braden Pines, for example, worried a county mandate to remove exotic plant species along State Road 70 in front of a lake, would have significant consequences for neighbors.

“You take down all those trees, you take down the visual buffer and (open it up) for noise,” resident Robert Lewis said. “We need to keep the integrity of that barrier along that pond.”

Commissioners suggested the site owners work with the county to develop a phased-approach to exotics removal and to consider planting additional buffering along the lake’s frontage.

Rene Dabasinkas, who will manage the clinic, said she and her husband, a veterinarian for the SarasBanfield Hospital in Sarasota, hope to get final approvals by the end of the month and start construction on their facility in September. The clinic is expected to open in April 2012, she said.

“(This location) is ideal for what we have in mind, and we’re looking forward to (opening),” Rene Dabasinkas said.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].