9 hours ago Share Although city officials and property owners have expressed a desire to redesign two key downtown blocks, merchants aren’t happy with the prospect of losing parking spaces.
A group of downtown business owners is asking the city not to proceed with a plan to widen sidewalks in the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Main Street by replacing angled parking with a reduced number of parallel parking spaces.
Although the project is still in the conceptual stage, merchants on the blocks are raising concerns about shrinking the on-street parking supply. Darci Jacob, the owner of clothing boutique Darci, and Harmoni Krusing Bens, the owner of Lotus Boutique, gathered signatures from businesses opposing the concept unless a series of other issues are addressed first.
9 hours ago Share Officials are exploring opportunities to revise the city’s building regulations outside of predominantly residential areas. What could this mean for Sarasota’s future?
It’s been more than two decades since the city adopted a comprehensive overhaul of its zoning code, but that could change next year.
On Monday, the City Commission voted 3-2 to move forward with a plan to develop options for revising the building regulations in nonresidential areas of Sarasota. The forthcoming proposals could reshape permissible developments downtown and on commercial roads, such as U.S. 41.
Monday’s vote did not commit the city to making any changes. The commission authorized the Planning Department’s plans for drafting and evaluating potential revisions, a process likely to extend into 2022.
9 hours ago Share Despite some concerns about potential issues with brick-and-mortar restaurants, the city offered an initial endorsement for mobile food businesses.
For more than a decade, food trucks have been an increasingly common business across the country, but the city’s zoning code doesn’t recognize they exist.
That could change next month if the City Commission finalizes adoption of a series of zoning text amendments it approved on first reading Tuesday. City staff is proposing new regulations for food trucks, adding a definition to the zoning code and allowing the mobile eateries to operate in several districts around town.