New county building consolidates development services staff

With the ceremonial snip of a green ribbon, a new building to consolidate all of Sarasota County’s development services personnel and functions under one roof was officially opened on April 14.

The Planning and Development Services “one-stop shop” is the latest facility to open in the county’s growing campus in the Fruitville Commons area just east of I-75 between Fruitville Road and Palmer Boulevard. Located at 870 Apex Road, ground was broken on the 55,600-square-foot, $33 million facility in May 2024.

“The new one-stop shop for Planning and Development Services centralizes all of our five major divisions and brings them under one roof for our staff and the community they serve,” said department Director Matt Osterhoudt. “Having all the professionals under one roof creates an opportunity for the public to have a true one-stop destination and customer experience for their planning development services needs.”

Photo by Andrew Warfield

Photo by Andrew Warfield

Consolidation of all the services within a single building, Osterhoudt said, brings efficiencies and greater collaboration opportunities not only for the staff, but also for clients. 

“Having that disconnect between the locations sometimes would create disconnects among communications,” Osterhoudt said. “Bringing them here under one roof creates not just an environment for staff to be able to connect, but also then to be able to connect with the members of the community that we serve.”

Those functions include the county’s property management, planning and zoning, environmental protection, building code enforcement, business administration, neighborhood services and development review.

In his remarks at the ceremony, County Commission Chairman Ron Cutsinger said the department over the last five years has executed more than 800,000 inspections, and in 2025 issued nearly 59,000 permits supporting residential, commercial and infrastructure growth projects.

“When you're going through the planning and development services permitting processes, there are multiple technical disciplines that could be anything from planning, building, zoning, environmental protection, stormwater utilities and so forth,” Osterhoudt  said. “Having all those professionals at one stop allows the public an opportunity to interact and engage and get their answers in a quicker, more efficient manner.”

About a mile to the east of the one stop shop is the new $74 million, 120,000-square-foot Sarasota County Administration Center, which is expected to begin gradual occupation of county staff within weeks.