St. Armands visioning wraps up, but more work remains

After the completion of two visioning sessions regarding the future of St. Armands Circle, city of Sarasota staff will continue to execute the wishlist generated, with the promise of continuing coordination with stakeholders.

The second and final visioning session was held April 13, with facilitator David Brain leading the audience through the results garnered from the first meeting, which generated some 61 ideas of what St. Armands should be. 

Like the first session, Monday’s workshop was held at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium on City Island, but the format was decidedly different. Rather than arranging attendees at 20 round work tables, at which they conceived more than 61 suggestions for improvements to St. Armands and its recurring traffic and flooding issues, retail tenant mix and the condition of commercial buildings and public realm amenities, chairs were arranged in rows for a presentation of results of the first session and to discuss projects already underway to address some concerns.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

Chiefly among them is traffic, which comprised 27.86% of the table responses’ lists of three issues, followed by concerns about redevelopment of the commercial district at 24.59% with flooding at the Circle’s boutique character at 18.03% each. Public realm — conditions of sidewalks, landscaping, etc., completed the list at 11.47%.

Although it was the last of two sessions, the visioning work will be ongoing, Brain pledged, as staff will revisit comments from both workshops as the city works to balance the needs and desires of the residents and those of the commercial property owners and the merchants, which at times can be at odds. 

During the Q&A (and as it turned out, comments) portion of the workshop, residents generally agreed that until persistent flooding is addressed — even that resulting from occasional heavy rains — little else matters when it comes to the vitality of St. Armands Circle.

Hannah Brechue, who represented the year-old Sarasota County Stormwater Division, said planning for relief is underway with how to most effectively spend $13.5 million in Resilient SRQ federal funding.

“After this meeting, we are going to move forward with the solicitation scope for design so that we can get a good design put together, and then from there, we will go through permitting processes that we need to go through,” she said. “We are estimated to start construction in 2029, but again, that all depends on solicitation.”

St. Armands improvement projects

Short-term actions (0-5 years)

Resilient SRQ drainage and evacuation route recovery

• Lead: Sarasota County
• Funding: $13.5 million county, $479,000 city
• Status: Preliminary scoping is underway. The intent is to improve how quickly water is removed from critical evacuation and recovery routes.

State Road 789 improvements from Bird Key Drive to Sunset Drive 

• Lead: FDOT
• Funding: $12.3 million from state
• Status: Construction is underway. Adds dedicated bicycle and transit lanes on the Ringling Bridge, drainage upgrades, raised seawall cap near Sunset Drive, resurfacing and new traffic signals. Completion anticipated in early 2027.

Photo by S.T. Cardinal

Lido Beach renourishment and New Pass dredging

• Lead: Army Corps of Engineers and city
• Funding: $12 million federal
• Status: Expected completion April 2026. Restores 1.2 miles of shoreline using up to 300,000 cubic yards of sand sourced from dredging project.

Business support and retail strategy

• Lead: City and Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota County
• Status: Business and commercial property discussions to continue alongside infrastructure work to address vacancies, tenant mix, storefront reinvestment and long-term retail competitiveness.

Long-term actions (5-20 years)

Barrier Island Undergrounding and Resiliency District

• Lead: City, utility companies, property owners
• Estimated Cost: $30 million to $50 million
• Concept: If supported by City Commission and affected property owners, the program would bury power and communication lines, reduce outage vulnerability, improve recovery after storms and strengthen the public realm. Potential delivery window 2031-2033.

Courtesy image

Little Ringling Bridge replacement

• Lead: FDOT
• Funding: $74 million state
• Status: Design stage of project to replace Little Ringing Bridge structures to improve emergency evacuations and add bike and pedestrian lanes. Construction anticipated later this decade.

St. Armands corridor/public realm improvements

• Lead: City
• Cost: Not available
• Concept: Improvements to sidewalk, crosswalk, curb, drainage, lighting, signage, landscape and speed management. Project currently on hold because of funding constraints. Park activation is also anticipated to be considered.

Private property resilience

• Lead: Home, commercial property and business owners
• Cost: Not available
• Concept: Property-level adaptation to augment infrastructure improvements. Includes front and rear entry flood barriers, flood proofing, elevation where appropriate, seawall improvements where permitted, resilient utilities and improved on-site drainage.

Multimodal access and traffic management

• Lead: City, county and FDOT
• Cost: Not available
• Status: In addition to more roadway capacity is better crossing management, safer walking and bicycling, more reliable barrier island access and continued evaluation of transit, shuttle, water transit and advanced air mobility options where feasible.