Siesta Point project renewed

Sarasota Herald Tribune

By Toni Whitt
Published Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.

SARASOTA COUNTY — After being stalled for more than a year, Benderson Development Co. is moving ahead with plans for Siesta Point, a proposed high-density, mixed-use development at U.S. 41 and Stickney Point Road.
Neighbors have been complaining for months that the former mobile home park has become an eyesore at one of the most prominent gateways to Siesta Key.
Today, Paul Blackketter, a project manager with Benderson, is scheduled to meet with homeowners in the Siesta Key Association to detail plans for the 25-acre site, which could include retail, residential, hotel and office development.
Developers and county planners say Siesta Point could become a trend-setter for intensive "new urbanism" redevelopments which are likely to crop up all over the region.
As a first step, Blackketter intends to lay out details for a planning meeting that would include residents, county officials, architects, planners and Benderson representatives. The session -- known as a "charrette" -- would allow input from all the players as far as design and density.
That meeting would take place in late spring or early summer.
"I want to develop a good, positive relationship with the people in the neighborhood," Blackketter said.
Benderson officials say Siesta Point has been stalled as they awaited changes to the comprehensive plan, the county's blueprint for growth.
The plan has to be amended before the developers could do the kind of urban infill they want, said Blackketter and Mark Chait, Benderson's director of Florida leasing.
In the meantime, Benderson has hired security and fenced off the site and put up opaque panels to try to quell residents' frustration.
"We can't clear it until we know what we can do with it," Blackketter said. "And we can't know until the county develops the tools and methods to be able to develop it."
Sylvia Weiss, a Midnight Pass Road resident who has voiced her concerns to both the county and to Benderson, is looking forward to today's meeting.
"The county has been touting Siesta Beach and Turtle Beach, and to have visitors pass that trailer park is just a disgrace," Weiss said. "Until there's movement, I would rather see an empty lot there. I can't see how difficult is is to get permits to get rid of those trailers."
Weiss embraces the idea of improvements to the area, but she fears that Benderson has been so busy with its University Town Center project that the company has all but forgotten about the 25 acres leading to Siesta Key.
But from the beginning Benderson officials said they wanted to use the tools of "new urbanism," which calls for developments to include places where people can live, work and shop, without ever having to own a car.
Matt Lewis, a county planning manager, said a public hearing on the changes is expected for May.
Then the specifics would be sent to the state and, if approved, would come back to the county.
The new zoning could be approved and included in the comprehensive plan in the fall. Each new development would then have to go through a separate rezoning, including public hearings.
It is an undertaking that has been two years in the making with Siesta Point as the first real project in the works.
In that time, Southwest Florida's economy has been in a downturn largely because of the real estate slump. But Benderson, a private company with deep pockets, has continued with projects along University Parkway and now Siesta Point, something the company says is evidence of its faith in the region's long-term housing and retail prospects.
It also demonstrates a belief that Siesta Point fits in with the community's need for "new urbanism" projects, Benderson officials said. Such projects can be highly profitable because increased density and diversity of uses allows developers to maximize the land they buy.
Under Benderson's proposal, the 25-acre project would include a 220-room hotel, 265,000 square feet of retail and 575 homes, along with office space and parking. That would all be near public transportation and include affordable housing for people who want to work within the district.
Under the proposed zoning, Siesta Point would have to include interconnected streets and routes for pedestrians and bicyclists, tree-lined streets, a neighborhood park, architectural diversity and space.
The idea is to create a sort of self-contained downtown or a center of commerce.
"It gives you a sense of place," Blackketter said. "Instead of driving to get goods and materials you can walk. You can bike, walk or catch the bus for anything you want."
But nothing is final. The new zoning requires the charrette so that neighbors have an opportunity to help design a project that has less impact on them.
For Weiss, the Midnight Pass resident, that means no high-rise buildings, though she likes the idea of apartments and a hotel: "Something that makes it nice."
Lewis, the planning manager, said Siesta Point-like redevelopments are likely to happen in many areas of Sarasota County during the next several decades.
"What we're looking at is making it possible for all major commercial centers to rebuild in this manner," he said. "In the next 20 or 30 years, all of them will rebuild."