The Ten Year Old Elephant in the Room

We need a City Commission with common sense

After four “hundred year” storm events in Sarasota County since June, our local governments are doing their very best to clean up and ensure public safety. For those who believe government doesn’t do anything right, come have a look at the hardworking government employees putting Sarasota and her cities back together again. Times like these make the importance of good government clear.

While our hurricane clean up and fatigue is in full swing, elections are upon us. We have decisions to make. Voters in the City of Sarasota would easily see and would not tolerate a half-hearted hurricane clean-up effort. Hurricane clean up is a very visible responsibility of local government. It’s easy to see if it’s going well or not.

Hurricane clean up is going well.

But there are less visible and equally important elements of how our City functions which are concerning. Who is steering the ship? Are decisions based upon good information? Are City priorities straight, or not? Are projects tackled in a timely manner? There are reasons to be concerned about how the current City leadership has performed in this regard.

Remember Bayfront 2020?

Back in 2013, Bayfront 2020 was formed (the organization has since been renamed “The Bay”). In 2013, the year 2020 seemed pretty far away. You can find the original mission statement for Bayfront 2020 from The Bay website:

“The goal was to create consensus among community and neighborhood leaders about what the future could be for the bayfront. A vision statement was created to allow for broad community support and input: ‘We support the creation of a long-term master plan for the Sarasota bayfront area that will establish a cultural and economic legacy for the region while ensuring open, public access to the bayfront.’ ”

Here is a 2013 aerial photo of the bayfront area being reimagined, which includes the Van Wezel, its parking lot, the 10th street boat ramp to the left, and surrounding buildings:

I remember attending the meetings which began in 2013 to envision turning the Van Wezel parking lot into a beautiful bayfront park. Everyone agreed that a parking lot is not the best use for waterfront land! The name Bayfront 2020 implied what it said: the goal was to get the park in place by 2020. The timeline gave our community seven years to create a beautiful park instead of a parking lot, which seemed quite doable. The plan also included a new performing arts hall. The parking needs for a new and/or remaining performing arts hall proved to be a key issue that had to be addressed before a park could be created. After all, if you are replacing parking with a park, and you still need parking, how are you going to solve that problem? This parking issue has been ignored for over a decade by City leadership. Did they even know it was a problem? Based on the plan they approved in 2018, it appears they didn’t know.

The City Commission approved the Bayfront Master Plan, pictured below, on September 6, 2018.

Here is an overhead view:

In the first image, you can see the Van Wezel is still in place. Still purple.

In the second image, the new performing arts hall is purple (plus another kidney bean shaped structure). Van Wezel (?) is still there, but it’s white.

So when the Commission approved the Bayfront Master Plan in 2018, it included two performing arts halls - the Van Wezel as well as the new Sarasota Performing Arts Center (also known as SPAC).

Do you notice anything missing?

There is no provision for parking. The plan has two performing arts halls. The parking lot is gone, and there’s no replacement parking for the parking eliminated by the park.

The failure to recognize the need and provide parking for the performing arts center(s) is one “elephant in the room” which stalled the project for years. This was a clear problem. City leadership - notably the City Manager and most City Commissioners, who asked very few questions - failed to recognize the problem their plan created. Note: addressing the parking problem may lead to a discussion about whether or not the bayfront is the best place for an expensive, new performing arts hall. It may mean questioning whether a new hall is the right move at this time. That basic analysis and discussion is missing.

Here is the latest master plan which was presented on September 18, 2024 at a town hall meeting at the Van Wezel.

Before we get into this plan, it’s worth noting that this City Commission, in a 4-1 vote, approved a $37 million contract for the architect who is working on this new plan for The Bay. The Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation has said it will front the costs of the contract, but the City is on the hook for 50% of the architect’s contract. Is $37 million a reasonable sum to pay an architect to design a performing arts hall for a City with 55,000 residents? Maybe it is, but it sure does seem like a lot.

Now let’s look at the plan. At this point, it has been deemed “conceptual” - which means it can change. The Van Wezel is still there. The large new performing arts hall is gone. There are four buildings near the 10th street boat ramp. These are the new performing arts buildings. These four separate buildings include a large, medium and small theater, and a lobby. One structure is over the water. Two of the others flank the building suspended over the water.

In the past, the new performing arts hall has been estimated to cost between $250 - $300 million dollars. Perhaps these four buildings will cost less to build. The boat ramp parking appears to be the parking lot for these arts halls. That boat ramp parking is far less than the Van Wezel parking lot. Will these theaters hold more patrons? Fewer? Is this parking sufficient? Because the plans are “conceptual”, at this point, we don’t have answers. Will the boat ramp eventually be eliminated, or will the City ensure that boating will still be permitted there? More questions to be answered.

Here is another elephant in the room: after four major flooding/storm events in Sarasota: Milton, Helene, Debby and June’s “thousand year” tropical storm flooding, does it make sense to be putting millions of dollars into new public arts structures right next to and suspended above our bayfront? Even more important: why aren’t all of our City Commissioners and our City Manager asking this basic question?

Restoring our environment was one of the major principles behind the effort to create a park where the Van Wezel parking lot sits. A surface parking lot on the bayfront does not make sense.

Yet for over a decade, City leaders advocating for a new performing arts hall ignored important issues, like parking for a new or existing bayfront arts hall. In order to replace the parking lot with a park, a different parking solution had to be created. It never happened. How is it that the City has ignored this problem for a decade?

”How about building a garage?” you say. Building a parking garage would surely be costly. But a bigger concern is that residents in nearby condos have an easement preventing a tall structure which would block their bay views. Which means a parking garage could be blocked by a lawsuit that the City could lose. I expect City staff may appreciate this risk. This would explain why there is no proposal for a garage. It would also explain why the new plan places smaller buildings across from 10th Street, not the condos.

How about underground parking? Could we raise the area and build a parking lot underneath the park? There’s been zero substantive discussion about this option.

Other important and ignored problems with the proposed plan include expensive ticket prices for a new arts hall. Higher ticket prices is one of the questionable funding mechanisms for a new hall. Advocates claim a larger hall will enable Sarasota to attract big name shows. But market forces prevent a large local hall from competing with Tampa venues for big name shows. There are more issues that many incumbent City Commissioners have ignored. You can listen to a show about there concerns here.

There is some history at City Hall of shooting the messengers (aka City residents) who bring up concerns challenging some projects. Unfortunately, this tendency has gotten much worse in recent years, to the point where the City Manager has taken to dressing down neighborhood leaders at CCNA meetings (Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations). When a City Manager engages in reprimanding residents at public meetings, a divisive culture of bullying at City Hall has gone off the rails. We need sanity and civility to return. We need a City Commission that sets a more professional, collaborative tone.

We deserve leaders who:

• ask good questions and protect the public interest

• welcome questions and public input

• recognize & address obvious problems (like no parking for a new arts hall!)

• understand the consequences of climate change
  

The Sarasota City Commission will discuss the New Performing Arts Center Implementation Agreement on Monday, October 21st. It is under item IX Unfinished Business.

Ignoring problems doesn’t make them go away. Bullying constituents erodes public trust. As a community, we can bring this project across the finish line. We need different values and attitudes from our City leadership.