CCNA backs push for review of bayfront development

More residents joined the efforts to revisit a traffic study for a proposed bayfront development, as the Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations unanimously voted to encourage the city to remeasure the project’s projected impact at its meeting Saturday.

The push to revise the traffic study conducted to gauge the impact of Vue Sarasota Bay, a hotel/condominium planned for U.S. 41 and Gulfstream Avenue, began in October. Occupants of the Tower Residences at the Ritz-Carlton have called for more streets to be measured in the traffic study since then, even as the project moved through the city’s Development Review Committee.

Representatives of the Downtown Sarasota Condominium Association, the Golden Gate Point Association and the St. Armands Residents Association all said they believed the project would have a direct impact on their neighborhoods, and that they wanted the city to take another look at it. Those groups got a breakthrough last week, as City Attorney Bob Fournier said it was likely that the city would ask for a more detailed traffic study.

In advance of a stakeholder meeting Monday afternoon regarding the development, CCNA members wanted to emphasize that they believe the intersection of U.S. 41 and Gulfstream is a critical one, and that any project in that area should be thoroughly vetted.

“I think it would benefit us all to take a look at that and see that we're really doing the very best we can at that intersection,” said Cathy Antunes, a member of the Golden Gate Point Association. “Right now, I have concerns.”

Contact David Conway at [email protected].