Workshop on Planning for the Fruitville exchange

Those interested in the future of planning and in the quality of communication among stakeholders in the community take note:

Tonight (Tuesday, August 31, from 6:30-8:30 PM), you are invited again to participate in the third of five workshops being conducted by the Sarasota County Planning Department at The Church of Hope, 1560 Wendell Kent Road (Fruitville Road to Coburn North. Coburn North to Richardson Road. Left onto Richardson Road. Richardson West to termination at I-75. Right onto Wendell Kent Road/Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. Travel North approximately 1/2 mile. Park on the South side of building).

This workshop is extremely important to the development of the Fruitville/I-75 area. As residents, it is vitally important for us to be part of the planning process and to offer our input on projects that will affect our quality-of-life for years to come. Tonight's workshop will include a discussion on existing land uses, potential zoning districts, and how much square footage (baseline) could currently be allowed on the 325 acres. They will review how much square footage could be allowed under scenarios such as the "Illustrative Plan," and options with transect planning, including discussion of general impacts that baseline and transect scenarios might have on the area and local residents. Input from local residents is encouraged in these discussions. Hope to see you there.

Rowing Regatta could be Big

From the local paper:

"We didn't understand the potential economic impact at the time," said Paul Blackketter, a project supervisor with Benderson Development Co., the real estate development firm whose retail, hotel and office properties surround the park. "We didn't understand rowing and what it could bring."

Benderson officials contend the accoutrements -- adequate retail and restaurants, hotels within close proximity, amenities such as museums and beaches -- will make the park the best in the U.S.

If some $40 million worth of amenities such as a boathouse, docks, improvements to Cattlemen Road and other upgrades are developed, as planned, experts say the park could become to rowing what London's Wembley Stadium is to soccer.

... Funded with federal stimulus dollars, $5 million from the county and a $1 million Benderson donation, the park and the road will be fully built out by early 2012.

Eventually, the park could host as many as 15 regattas a year, drawing some 200,000 people and pumping an estimated $40 million annually into the regional economy, company and county officials believe.

images from yesterday's warm-ups here.

Going forward

As this blog was produced for a specific occasion, its immediate purpose has been realized. Of course, if the occasion re-presents itself, we hope to be back, along with more bloggers and twitterers and others.

Moving participation in community life and governance to a place which is more common, more open, more available to end users and inhabitants is what this is all about.

Meanwhile, if relevant news, information, appear, let us hear of it. We'll post what we find here and look forward to future virtual town hall meetings in Sarasota.

Message from a community leader

Dear Community Connections,

I wanted to thank Sarasota County Government for conducting it's first interactive town hall meeting concerning the budget. Tonight's "live" meeting is a great start to something that can benefit all of us. As you know, it's important for the citizens to be actively involved in the process. Without open dialogue or transparency we will be unable to move forward. Our community is dependent upon its leadership to do the right thing. Commissioner Thaxton's comment about the "time being right for all parties to be engaged" on subjects of mutual public interest was spot on. Please know, our organization will remain pro-active on the challenging issues that face us. I look forward to future town hall meetings. Thanks again.

Sincerely,

John Krotec

Chairman, Fruitville 210 Community Alliance
5373 Fruitville Road PMB 101
Sarasota, Florida 34232
www.Fruitville210.org

Your questions welcome

To blog the virtual Town Hall meeting, I'm in Sarasota County's "think tank" room, where we have wifi and monitors from the TV studio. Here are some of the participating citizens:

Any questions  for the virtual Town Hall received through the comment portions of this blog will be relayed to those in the studio. Here's a shot of the studio shortly before the start of the meeting:

The meeting will be available via this feed:

http://www.scgov.net/appvideo/scgovtv.asx

Add your voice

At this evening's virtual Town Hall Meeting, the subject is the $40 million decrease in county tax revenues, and its impact on the Sarasota County budget. One goal will be to gather knowledge and input from as wide a range of sources as possible with regard to deciding reductions in what many regard as essential services: What are our community's priorities? Can we discuss openly and reach public consensus? How can the public become more central to the process?

There are several ways for people who aren't physically present at this evening's meeting to participate:

• Telephone: 861-2255 (active on June 8)
• Fax: 861-7354
• E-mail: communityconnections@scgov.net
• Comment right here on this blog.

As the meeting develops (it begins at 6:30 p.m.), feel free to drop comments, questions, observations here. This is an independent blog created by a Sarasota resident interested in exploring the possibilities of social media for civic purposes, and will serve as a public record of the event.

Think of it as an experiment in an alternative mode of citizenship and join in!

New Budget Survey

A new budget priority survey can be found on scgov.net, Sarasota County's site. Click here to take the survey, then talk about it here.

Virtual Town Hall gets Press

From the North Port Sun Herald:

Sarasota County residents to weigh in on 'Money Matters'

By CAROL SAKOWITZ
North Port Assistant Editor

  SARASOTA -- The classic town meeting gets an update Monday when Sarasota County holds a virtual town meeting starting at 6:30 p.m.

  The show will be broadcast on Access Sarasota Comcast TV 19/Verizon 21 and streamed online at www.scgov.net/communityconnections.

  The town hall, titled "Money Matters," will focus on the county's annual budget process and is part of an effort to engage its residents in county affairs, according to Crystal Pruitt, head of media relations.

  "It's an opportunity to do something new," Pruitt said.

  The virtual town hall, part of Community Connections, is the first of its kind in the county, but there are hopes that it won't be the last. If successful, there could be others regarding different topics on a quarterly basis.

  The cost to produce the town hall is about $2,500, Pruitt said, with the funding coming from various county sources.

  Monday, viewers should be watching a program that is virtually seamless. Friday afternoon, however, everything was abuzz in the Access Sarasota TV studio on the third floor of the County Administration Center at 1660 Ringling Blvd.

  Technical staff -- director, floor director, cameramen and a host of other personnel -- wore a path from the engineering booth to the stark black set where Pruitt, veteran journalist Ken Jefferson and county budget director and panelist Steve Botelho practiced an introduction and various talking points. In the seats audience members will use, county staffers sat as stand-ins, asking questions and allowing tech personnel to set sight lines.

  Jefferson, who is volunteering his time for the event, and Pruitt will be co-hosts. ("We're lucky to get him," Pruitt said of Jefferson.) Pruitt and Jefferson appeared to have a natural chemistry as they blocked portions of the program, which will include taking questions via studio audience and e-mail, telephone and fax, as well as a previously produced segment on the county.

  Concurrent with the program, viewers can blog their comments on* http://sarasotacommunityconversations.blogspot.com/.

  County Commission Chair Jon Thaxton and County Administrator Jim Ley will join Botelho as panelists. Off-camera, five to six directors of various key departments, such as John McCarthy of Parks and Recreation, will be available to supply their expertise.

  A key and untested component of the program is a "Money Matters" calculator tool that will allow residents who go online after the show to calculate how much their taxes will be, based on the valuation of their home.

  County commissioners have scheduled a series of budget workshops June 16-17, with another, if necessary, on June 19. The total budget this year is $1.1 billion, but the commission's discretionary portion is $243.4 million, or 22 percent.

  Tom Conway, a 10-year county TV engineer, will direct the show. Dave Hannon is the producer.

  Conway said that he and the TV staff are excited about doing the show.

  "It's not every day we get to do something like this," he said.

  E-mail: csakowitz@sun-herald.com

*URL is corrected from newspaper article.

How do social media change the conversation?

Time Magazine's cover story this week is about Twitter - it's by Stephen Johnson, and it's a good intro to how users of social media are extending its reach and transforming traditional conferencing and dialog formats. E.g.:

Injecting Twitter into that conversation fundamentally changed the rules of engagement. It added a second layer of discussion and brought a wider audience into what would have been a private exchange. And it gave the event an afterlife on the Web. Yes, it was built entirely out of 140-character messages, but the sum total of those tweets added up to something truly substantive, like a suspension bridge made of pebbles. more here.

An initial conversation: about money

Would you like to talk about how you want your community to spend your money?

You're invited to a conversation - about "Money Matters" - a public discussion regarding Sarasota County's revenues and budget planning for next year. It's on Monday, June 8th, starting at 6:30 p.m.

For more information about the virtual Town Hall meeting, call the Sarasota County Call Center at 941-861-5000 or visit the Community Connections Web site. Or stop back here - we'll have more details soon.