City will help repair plants damaged by crowds

The city’s Public Works Department soon may play an integral part in plans for the Downtown Improvement District’s portion of Main Street.

DID Operations Manager John Moran told the DID Board of Directors during its Tuesday meeting that the city department is willing to help repair thousands of dollars in damage to plant beds from the bayfront to Orange Avenue.

Public Works General Manager Todd Kucharski walked Main Street with Moran last week, making suggestions for new plants and mulch that will be more durable when downtown is packed during an event.
“The new plan involves not planting any plants in the beds and bulbouts where people walk,” Moran said. “We will mulch where people walk and replace only durable plants closer to the trees.”

Kucharski agreed to implement a short-term plan that involves mulching areas where people usually walk and adding heartier plants, at no cost to the DID.

“The key is to manipulate these areas where people walk and revamp the plant beds,” Kucharski said.

The issue arose last month after Moran took pictures of trampled plants and bushes during and after the Presidents Day weekend-long art fair. The photos showed people walking through bulbouts and street vendors propping up their wares on plants and bushes.

Moran also showed the DID board pictures of vendors stockpiling merchandise in Selby Five Points Park during events and questioned whether that’s a city-permit enforcement issue. Moran explained that a city ordinance states that “set up of displays, merchandise and/or vendors is strictly prohibited on the (Selby) park’s grass area, landscape beds and center paver pathway.”

City staff, meanwhile, is planning to come back to the DID board in three to six months with a longer-term proposal for a uniform DID landscaping plan.

DID Chairman Ernie Ritz and the rest of the board members agreed last month with Moran’s suggestion that they join city staff in taking a comprehensive look at the town’s green space ordinance, to create a uniform look for landscaping throughout downtown.

Moran also told the DID members Tuesday that the DID should consider hiring a Public Works employee, at an annual cost of $55,000, to perform landscaping maintenance exclusively within the DID boundaries.

The DID, which has $60,000 set aside for enhanced maintenance, is at a crossroads, according to Tuesday’s discussion: Two bids have come in, for $232,000 and $151,000, to perform the extra work the DID wants to see undertaken downtown.

“It seems we have an opportunity to combine a landscape technician with the city’s level of service,” Moran said.

Main Street Push
Sarasota architect Brent Parker urged the Downtown Improvement District Board of Directors this week to think bigger when it envisions a new Main Street from U.S. 41 to Orange Avenue.

Parker and longtime Sarasota resident and activist Gil Waters began pitching a plan last year that involves making a portion of Main Street pedestrian-friendly and creating a pedestrian overpass to Sarasota Bay.
At the very least, Parker said, the DID should consider bricking Main Street from U.S. 41 to Orange Avenue and installing electronic ballards to close off a portion of Main Street for pedestrian use.

Parker added that a new nonprofit association called Sarasota Vision Inc. supports the pedestrian-only zone and has obtained more than 1,000 signatures of people who agree with it. Sarasota Vision, Parker said, also has raised money to help supplement street bricking and ballards for the pedestrian portion of such a Main Street project.

“We urge you to focus on those segments of Main Street when you’re planning your project and get it right,” Parker said. “The rest of Main Street will be clamoring for the same thing.”

Earlier this year, the DID board decided not to move forward with a proposal for brick streets as part of its Main Street streetscape project, citing the expense.

The Sarasota City Commission has not yet made a decision on whether to approve funding for a Main Street project.