Newsletter 96

FPL RANKS SECOND FOR SOLAR

Florida Power & Light Company ranks second among all electric utilities nationwide for interconnected solar, according to the 2018 Solar Rankings released recently by the Smart Electric Power Alliance. The 12th annual report compares data from more than 500 utilities across the country. FPL operates 18 major solar power plants, including two in Manatee County, three in DeSoto and one in Charlotte. The utility also operates more than 200 smaller solar installations. A report recently released by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy showed that Florida recently surpassed Georgia in solar capacity and is now forecast to outpace North Carolina in the next two years. To read more on this story, courtesy of the Sarasota Herald Tribune, please click here: FPL #2 in US

FPL BEGINS BUILDING TEN SOLAR PLANTS

Florida Power & Light announced recently that construction has started on a major expansion of its solar energy capabilities. The utilities ten newest solar power plants, scattered across the state, include sites in Manatee, Charlotte and DeSoto counties. Power generation is expected to begin by early 2020. Combined, the plants will contains 3 million solar panels, as part of FPL’s goal to complete its "30-by-30" plan to install more than 30 million panels by 2030. The latest Manatee County operation follows an announcement in March that the utility plant would be converting an old plant into the FPL Manatee Energy Storage Center, whose massive batteries will stockpile power from the existing solar plant in Parrish for use during peak hours. The center will have 409 megawatts of capacity. Click here if you want to read more: 10 New Solar Power Plants

LEADERS EXCHANGE THOUGHTS ON TRAFFIC

At an unprecedented joint session between Sarasota City and Longboat Key town commissioners to hash out transportation and planning issues that affect both municipalities, some areas of agreement emerged – along with the usual sticking points having to do with Longboat residents’ ability to get on and off their island. One clear improvement that seemed to set the tone for a cordial exchange of views – a recent reconfiguration of the all-important intersection where John Ringling Boulevard meets Tamiami Trail at Gulf Stream Avenue – was so widely praised by Longboat Key commissioners that they implored Sarasota officials to consider dropping plans to put a roundabout there. Please follow the jump for more on this story: Traffic

FEWER FLIPS, LOWER PROFITS

Home flippers in Southwest Florida are closing fewer deals and pocketing smaller profits this year. In the Sarasota-Manatee region, 5.0% of home and condo sales in the first quarter were considered flips – an arms-length sale for the second time within 12 months – real estate researcher ATTOM Data Solutions reported. The 225 flips were down by 16% compared with the first quarter of 2018. And the flippers made less money on their deals. The median gross profit on a first-quarter flip was $50,000, down by $8,000 from a year ago. Across Florida, the share of flips to total home sales rose over the year, but gross profits were lower during the January – March period. There’s more on this story here: Flips Down

FOCUS ON LWR’S FUTURE

When developer Rex Jensen delivers a talk about Lakewood Ranch, the expanding community straddling the Sarasota-Manatee county line, he covers a lot of ground. Roads, parks, schools, businesses, clubs, churches, medical care, medical research, entertainment, affordable housing – the list of topics seems endless. Recently, the president and CEO of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, the family-owned firm that launched Lakewood Ranch 25 years ago, presented his "State of the Ranch" address to the Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance. A sold-out audience of more than 300 alliance members and guests got a detailed progress report, with a little history lesson as well. Please click here for more: LWR Future

A GLOBAL ARRAY AT THE RINGLING

The 2019-20 Art of Performance season at the Ringling Museum of Art will circle the globe with everything from traditional Indian dance and Spanish flamenco to Cuban jazz and experimental Mexican theater. If that’s not enough, there will be Chilean puppets, Chinese-American dance and hip-hop filtered through the rhythm and culture of Brazil. Elizabeth Doud, Ringling’s new Curator of Performance Art, announced the season recently in the Chao Lecture Hall at the Center for Asian Art. Click here for more and for the list of performances: Ringling Season Calendar

MUSEUM MOMENTUM

Art lovers and donors have been in a holding pattern for several years awaiting the opening of the long-delayed Sarasota Museum of Art. A grand opening is now planned in December. The $27 million project has transformed the historic Sarasota High School building on U.S. 41 south of downtown Sarasota into the Ringling College Museum Complex, composed of a museum designed for temporary exhibitions, lectures and discussions and classes in Ringling College’s School of Continuing Studies, which includes the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Larry Thompson, president of Ringling College of Art & Design, said recently that construction is expected to be completed soon on the major renovations to the historic building on U.S. 41.There’s more here: Museum to Open

PARKS MASTER PLAN APPROVED

A City Commission meeting recently resulted in a unanimous decision to accept the master plan for Sarasota’s parks and a request for strategies to implement and pay for it. The latest version of the plan includes budgets for 25 local parks, 13 community parks, 9 urban open spaces, 3 special-use facilities and 8 property acquisitions for a budget total of nearly $50 million. The criteria used to score the priority of each location were: asset stability, existing conditions analysis, priority needs, environmental factors, social equity, accessibility and level of service. Click on the link for more: Parks Master Plan

WELCOME THE LIZARD, KING OF SUMMER

We are coming up on summer, a sublimely reptilian time in Florida. Some might say it’s already here; have you noticed the lizards starting to congregate in sunny spots near you? Recently, a neighbor who moved here from Connecticut told me she had to replace some windows in her new home because lizards were getting inside. I didn’t want to be the one to tell her: Lizards will always get inside. For one thing, this is their habitat, and they make no distinction between sun and shade because, being cold-blooded, they can go either way. What we actually have in Florida are anoles, which is so awkward to say that it’s just better to call them lizards. If you’ve been here for awhile, you might have noticed that the native green anole, which can go from a spritely chartreuse to a tasteful beige depending on surroundings, is becoming harder to spot, This is due to as many as seven invasions of the Cuban brown anole, its duller but more aggressive cousin. Please click here for more on this story: Lizards