- January 8, 2025
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A disagreement between supporters of an internationally recognized bird sanctuary and a landowner's property rights is taking flight in east Sarasota County.
One side is people and groups in support of the Celery Fields, a popular hilly hiking and bird-watching spot in Sarasota, just east of Interstate 75. The other side are the owners of a 50-acre parcel, known as the Smith farm, nestled next to the bird sanctuary.
Smith Properties is asking the county to change its zoning for the site from “open use rural,” which allows for one unit every 10 acres, to “residential single family,” which would allow 3.5 homes per acre.
If the rezoning is approved, Arlington, Texas-based D.R. Horton, one of the largest homebuilders in the country, is poised to buy the property and build 170 single-family homes.
The Sarasota Planning Commission voted 4-3 Nov. 21 to not recommend the rezoning request. However the Planning Commission’s recommendation is not the final word. The Sarasota County Commission is scheduled to take up the request early next year and does not have to abide by the Planning Commission’s recommendation.
“What it means to me is that we had a small victory by one vote … and this fight is not over,” says Sara Reisinger, the president of the Sarasota Audubon Society.
“We still have to keep the momentum going and get everyone charged up for the county commissioners’ meeting, because that's really where it's important.”
The Smith Farm sits along Raymond Road, south of Palmer Boulevard, bordering the eastern edge of the bird sanctuary.
Right now, a single home sits on the Smith property, along with some sheds and a few dozen cattle.
Opponents of the plan have said the density of homes is not compatible with the surrounding area, and the mostly two-lane roads around the property will not be able to handle the added traffic.
They also say light from the development will disturb the birds in the sanctuary and spoil the Celery Fields as a location for stargazers and local astronomy clubs who routinely use the area because of its remote location.
The Sarasota Audubon Society has helped manage the Celery Fields, a 400-acre site owned by the county. In addition to the birding areas, there are walking and biking trails, and lakes for fishing and kayaking.
The county and the local Audubon Society have restored more than 100 acres of the Celery Fields into a wetland area. The county also built two boardwalks that extend over lakes to provide vantage points for wildlife watching.
Kelley Klepper, representing D.R. Horton at the Planning Commission hearing, says the firm's plan is consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan, complies with all codes and argued the 170 homes will be compatible with the surrounding development.
Klepper told the Planning Commission Nov. 21 the developer is doing more than they are legally required to do to go ahead with the housing project, including providing open space, buffers in the form of trees, landscaping and berms and increasing building setbacks.
He also reminded commissioners the county has expected the property to eventually be developed. “This is listed on the county’s future land use map as moderate density residential,” he said at the hearing.
Klepper said they’ve tried to negotiate with the Audubon Society. But neither side will budge. “We did have discussions with the Audubon leadership,” Klepper said. “Again, we’re going to agree to disagree.”
Kelley, along with land use attorney Charlie Bailey, said this is not a unique situation, pointing to other development projects in recent years that have been reviewed and approved, “consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan, the land development code and, more importantly, the standards that have been adopted by the county,” Klepper said.
Bailey pointed to projects next to ecological areas that were successfully rezoned for homes, including Palermo, a development next to Oscar Scherer State Park; a development around Red Bug Slough, south of Clark Road; and Urfer Family Park at Bee Ridge Road and Honore Avenue.
Reisinger disagrees, saying 170 homes just won’t work on the Smith land. “Unfortunately, there is no way to mitigate yourself out of this situation like this,” she says. “There's too many issues to overcome, too many things to fix. It's just not compatible with that piece of property to be a development.”
The recent hurricanes also exposed another red flag, opponents say.
Attorneys for D.R. Horton says their construction plan goes beyond county requirements of 10 inches of rain in 24 hours (a 100-year storm event), saying this development will be designed to handle up to 11.8 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.
Opponents say recent history proves that’s not good enough anymore.
“Unfortunately, in the last six months, we've had two storms that have exceeded that,” Reisinger says. “And the real issue, to me, on some of those stormwater related issues, is that we really as a community, need to ask for a change in the standard.”
Susan Schoettle, a member of a citizens group called the Sarasota Citizen Action Network, says there is documented evidence that suggests those criteria need to be revised. “The 100-year storm has more rain in it now than it used to,” she says. “It's more like 12 or 13 inches instead of 10 inches.”
Schoettle notes the Smith farm was nearly entirely underwater during Hurricane Milton. “The way the county is letting people develop in flood plains means that the house may or may not be high enough to not be flooded, but the roads will certainly flood, the yards will certainly flood.”
I think it's going to be a ring of houses built up on fill. So it's going to look pretty funky, I think.”
Before the Planning Commission voted Nov. 21, commissioner Donna Carter sided with the Audubon Society. "We have a lot of reasons, whether it is schools, the stormwater, the flooding," she said.
"I don't think that is a buildable property and I hope the county does find a way to buy that property and just add it to the Celery Fields," she said.
Commissioner Colin Pember later cast what was to be the deciding vote. “This is a unique property, a unique place, and I just don’t think this is the right place for this project. I can’t support 170 units on this property.”
Both Schoettle and Reisinger agree — and say they’ll use information from the Planning Commission hearing to refine their arguments before the County Commission.
“We have to continue on in January and see it through to the end to make sure that this rezone gets denied," Reisinger says. "It's not a time to rest on our laurels."
This article originally appeared on sister site YourObserver.com.
