A political science professor of mine was fond of saying, everybody gets a vote. It’s just that some people’s votes are worth more than others.
The was likely the case last week when Sarasota County commissioners voted unanimously to green-light Lakewood Ranch developers plan to build five-thousand new homes on about four-thousand acres of currently undeveloped land in northeastern Sarasota County.
The unanimous decision came despite spirited opposition from locals and what is clearly a plan that ignores the reality of the impact of at least twelve-thousand new residents and their cars and trucks to the area.
My voting point? Why is it the wishes of developers always seem to carry more weight than those of the very constituents who elect Sarasota County commissioners and countless other elected officials.
Our slavish devotion to developers goes back at least 100 years. The Florida Land Boom, as it was called, got going in the early 1920’s, and got snuffed out by a 1928 hurricane and the Great Depression. Clearly, we’ve been making up for lost time ever since.
What county commissioners and their developer enablers failed to address is we already lack infrastructure to handle those of us already here. How many of us sit through two or three light changes at intersections in the middle of the day? How many of us look for detours through residential neighborhoods to avoid bottlenecks at intersection of Tuttle and Fruitville or 301 and 41?
In voting to approve this new community, county commissioners even blew off concerns expressed by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity—An agency of, let’s all agree here, the conservative, pro-business DeSantis administration. In a letter to commissioners, the agency asked for additional analysis to demonstrate the new development “will not contribute to urban sprawl.” Commissioner Ron Cutsinger’s response? “The argument of urban sprawl has been made over and over. I’ve read that in just about every letter and every comment, and I just completely disagree that this is urban sprawl,”
So, give it a few years and imagine yourself on Loraine Road north of Fruitville. And, you’re sitting and waiting for the light to change again and again. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
That’s how we view things this week. I’m Craig Burdick. Thanks for watching SNN, THE Suncoast News Network. And, don’t forget to VOTE on or before November eighth and then watch your vote count Tuesday night starting at 7, right here on SNN.
