Sarasota County staff has denied requests to put traffic signal at entrance to shopping center opposite Venetian Golf & River Club
VENICE – Details for developing the controversial new Village at Laurel and Jacaranda were approved by Venice’s planning board by a 6-1 vote Tuesday evening after a five-hour public hearing.
The overwhelming approval contrasted sharply with a March 2023 Planning Commission vote recommending denial of a growth plan change needed by Border and Jacaranda Holdings, LLC – a company controlled by developer Pat Neal – to build a commercial center on 10.42 acres on the southwest corner of Laurel road and Jacaranda Boulevard.
What did the Planning Commission approve?
The site plan calls for two commercial buildings, including a 50,325-square-foot grocery store that is expected to be a Publix, 2,100-square foot liquor store and a 1,750-square-foot retail space, and a 7,200-square-feet building for six retail spaces.
The 7,200-square-foot building would be closest to the eastern side of the property, just north of an entrance off of Jacaranda Boulevard.
The larger structure would be near the western side of the property – closest to currently undeveloped land – and have direct access to Laurel Road.
The approval came with five stipulations: the parking lot lights must be shielded and not spill light outside of the shopping center; security cameras have to cover all parking lots; all overnight parking is prohibited and noted by signs; no gas station or gas pumps will be allowed and there will have to be landscape buffers.
Three of the planning commissioners who were part of a 4-3 vote against a decision last year advising against a growth plan change – Bill Willson, Kit McKeon and Barry Snyder – voted Tuesday for the commercial center’s site and development plan, along with Pam Schierberg, Richard Hale and Jerry Jasper, who were also involved in the earlier decision.
Robert Young, who was not on the board in 2023, cast the no vote in the latest approval.
What did the residents want?
Though technically the Planning Commission has authority to approve a development’s site plan, the residents who oppose the shopping center can appeal that decision to the Venice City Council.
The Venetian Golf & River Club Property Owners Association, represented by attorney Dan Lobeck, and Venetian Golf & River Club resident Gary Scott received “affected party status” in the court-like proceeding
Lobeck took issue with a discrepancy in landscape buffer density, notably the number of trees. Scott challenged the size of the commercial development, arguing it would serve people from outside the Milano planned-unit development.
But the major issue involved the entrance to the shopping center directly opposite the primary entrance to the Venetian Golf & River Club, via Veneto Boulevard.
Residents have pleaded for a traffic light there. They also centered on statements made by Neal’s transportation consultant, Frank Domingo of Stantec, to Sarasota County transportation staff, regarding the intersection’s safety.
Because that entrance is within 650 feet of a planned traffic signal at Laurel Road and Jacaranda Boulevard, a second traffic signal could not be placed there.
Domingo noted that county planning staff would consider a traffic circle there, though that would likely require right of way from the Venetian.
Lobeck dramatically asked if the Planning Commission wanted “blood on their hands,” if they approved the site plan without a traffic light and stated that Neal typically gets what he really wants from the Sarasota County Commission.
Snyder, the planning board chairman who also resides in the Venetian Golf & River Club, seized on an observation by attorney Jeff Boone, who noted that none of the residents had made an effort to contact the Sarasota County Commission directly, to influence county staff.
“Mr. Lobeck, it won’t be blood on our hands – that was kind of a cheap shot that you put out there, in my opinion,” Snyder said. “It will be blood on the county’s hands for not approving a stoplight.
“An attempt was made by the applicant to get that,” he added. “To the extent that more attempts can be made, they should be made, in terms of what’s out there, but that’s not something that we can deal with, because the county controls that road and the city staff made that very clear to us, right off the bat.”