Newsletter 95

NEWS FROM THE SUNCOAST

POPULATION GROWTH STEADY

Sarasota and Manatee counties kept their responsive rankings along Florida’s most populated counties in updated data released recently by the U.S. Census Bureau. As it did in 2017, Sarasota County again ranked 14th in population among Florida’s 67 counties. Miami-Dade remained Florida’s most populous county. Liberty County, in the Panhandle, again had the least population as of the bureau’s July 1, 2018 snapshot. Manatee’s population increased from 385,450 as of July 1, 2017 to 394,855 a year later, which is a 2.4% increase of 9,405 newcomers. Sarasota County’s population grew from 419,689 in mid-year 2017 to 426,831 by the summer of 2018, an increase of 7,029 or 1.7%. By comparison, it had 379,435 residents in 2010. Over the next eight years the county’s population grew by another 47,823 or 12.5%. To read more on this story, please click here: Population growth

HOMES ON THE RISE, CONDOS SLUMP

Home sales rose but condominium deals sagged again in the Sarasota-Manatee region during March, traditionally one of the busiest months of the year for real estate activity. Buyers closed on 1,407 existing single-family homes throughout the two-county area, a 4.5% increase over the year and the second-straight month of higher sales, according to data released recently by the Florida Realtors trade group. But condo sales totaled 669, off by 9.5% from 2018. Local home sales are still down 0.5% so far in 2019, after starting the year with a 13% annual decline in January. The condo market, following record volume in 2018, is off from last year’s pace by nearly 13%. Click here if you want to read more: Homes Up, Condos Down

A GOOD TIME TO BUY A LUXURY HOME

These are torrid times in Southwest Florida’s luxury real estate market. Sales records fall quickly. A Longboat Key beachfront estate in Regent Court recently sold for $7.5 million – the highest Longboat Key sale recorded through the Multiple Listing Service in eight years. The previous Longboat Key record didn’t stand long – about two weeks. A bayfront residence in Country Club Shores sold for $5.1 million in mid-April. A single-family Siesta Key home in Hidden Harbor recently sold for $4.6 million – the highest price for a Siesta Key bayfront property since 2015. But a one-acre, coastal contemporary residence on Siesta Key just entered the market for $8.9 million. A Casey Key Gulf-to-Bay property with two deeded single-family homes sold for $5.3 million – most expensive sale on the key so far this year. But a beachfront Casey Key residence recently entered the market for $6,799,000. Please follow the jump for more on this story: Luxury Homes

SARASOTA EXAMINES WATER TAXI SERVICE

City officials are hopeful residents and tourists will someday cruise the waterways and unclog Sarasota streets to shuttle back and forth between some destinations. The city is moving forward with a feasibility study conducted by an outside firm to examine the best locations where water taxis could potentially operate and dock and determine which size vessels could work in certain water depths. The Sarasota City Commission recently rubber-stamped the $108,000 study. The study should be complete by January, the city’s chief transportation planner, Colleen McGue said. Sites to be evaluated for potential docking locations are: Ken Thompson Park, St. Armands Circle and O’Leary’s Tiki Bar & Grill, McGue said. There’s more on this story here: Water Taxi?

FUTURE OF TRAVEL IS FOCUS OF FORUM

As the population of the Sarasota-Manatee region continues to expand, planning for adequate roads, bridges, transit and other modes of transportation is expected to come with increasing challenges. Recently, about 150 elected officials, government employees and interested residents attended "Transform Tomorrow," a forum about forecasting transportation needs to 2045. The Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization, which prioritizes federal and state transportation projects in the bi-county region, and Florida Development of Transportation hosted the program at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. The presentations served as an introduction to the MPO’s next Long Range Transportation Plan, which is required for the area to qualify for federal funding for transportation projects. Please click here for more: Transportation planning

SPEAKERS FOCUS ON RED TIDE NUTRIENTS

Appearing at the South County Tiger Bay panel on water quality and red tide – his third such panel in a week – Jon Thaxton had no simple solution to reduce the impact of red tide or cyanobacteria blooms that led to devastated waterways along much of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean coastlines over the past year. Neither did the other three experts on the panel – Richard Pierce of Mote Marine Laboratory, John Ryan, a Sarasota County environmental supervisor; or Alan Jones of Jones Potato Farm. But all four pointed to the need to reduce the flow of nutrients from stormwater and wastewater into the gulf and ocean as the key to curtailing the frequency of red tide blooms. Click here for more: Red Tide panel

APPRAISE-WORTHY

A National Endowment for the Arts study found Florida ranked ninth in the nation for the fastest-growing state in economic value added by arts and culture industries. In 2016, Florida arts and culture meant $35 billion for the state economy, with an annual growth rate of 7.1%. "It doesn’t surprise me," says Jim Shirley, president of the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County, "because Florida for the last 20 years has been one of the fastest-growing states. If you’re looking at overall value, it would make sense that we would be increasing. Arts and culture have a huge impact on the state economy. In Sarasota, we know that impact." The fastest growing states were Washington, Georgia and Utah, which all grew at a rate of more than 10%. There’s more here: Arts & Culture

BETTER WATER WON’T BE CHEAP

County officials recently delivered sobering statistics to the Sarasota County Commission about sea-grass death and pollutant levels in area waterways while providing an equally astonishing price tag to upgrade its three wastewater treatment plants – one of which is the subject of a lawsuit for illegally spewing millions of gallons of treated wastewater for years from an overwhelmed holding pond. While presenting its proposed Water Quality Improvement Program to the commission, county staffers said six area bays, including Sarasota and Lemon bays, have lost a combined 771 acres of seagrass – an important species to help determine the overall health of coastal ecosystems – from 2016 to 2018. The cost of proposed work to potentially alleviate bays’ woes could top $300M. Click on the link for more: Better water is expensive

SURPRISES IN THE SAND

For only the second time in Sarasota County history, a leatherback sea turtle nest has been found. Two nests, in fact, were located by turtle patrollers – one in Venice and one in Sarasota, according to a Mote Marine Laboratory biologist, who said the exact locations are being kept secret to protect the nests from harm. They have been staked off and caged to ward off predators. "It’s very exciting for us. We don’t now a lot about leatherbacks here," said Mote senior biologist Melissa Bernhard of the endangered turtle. "We’re going to do whatever we can to get as much data from this nest as possible without treating it differently or harming the turtles in any way. We are in the early stages of getting over the shock of it." Please click here for more on this story: Rare sea turtle nests found