NORTH PORT North Port residents had direct access to city staff on Tuesday night to give their opinions about the proposed city budget at a community input meeting.
The meeting s first 45 minutes gave staff an opportunity to discuss everything from misconceptions about the property tax rate and the purpose of government to spending on hot topics such as the North Port Aquatic Center, Warm Mineral Springs, the proposed master plan for a municipal water and sewer expansion and the Price Boulevard widening.
Last month, the North Port City Commission agreed to not increase the current property tax rate as staff builds the 2021-22 fiscal year budget.
NORTH PORT The three candidates seeking the vacant District 1 City Commission seat in the March 9 special election found more common ground than difference during a Zoom forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Sarasota County.
The candidates, Joseph Garren, Walt Grzenikowski and Alice White, all spoke of the need to bring in higher-paying jobs and business and to ease the tax burden on city homeowners.
White, a 30-year resident, said she had concerns about the original annexations in the early 2000s and was among several who foresaw problems fostering unity as new residents moved in.
Specifically, she said the city would “really struggle to have that area feel they’re a part of what I would call North Port proper, because they’re three miles up the highway.”
SOUTH SARASOTA COUNTY – COVID-19 pandemic-related social distancing concerns have prompted the cities of North Port and Venice both to juggle their planned public meetings.
In North Port, Interim City Manager Jason Yarborough canceled the North Port City Commission’s Tuesday meeting, as well as Thursday’s Code Enforcement Board hearing.
Meanwhile, the Venice City Council hosted its regularly scheduled hybrid meeting but did so without a quorum in chambers at Venice City Hall – which meant board members treated the day as a cross between a workshop and a meeting.
North Port spokesman Josh Taylor confirmed that the cancelations were COVID-19 related.
NORTH PORT – Circuit Court Judge Hunter W. Carroll denied a motion for a preliminary injunction against a resident push to contract the city of North Port Monday morning.
In a 12-page ruling, Carroll essentially said the push by the attorneys for Wellen Park, LLLP, Mattamy Tampa Sarasota, LLC; Neal Communities of Southwest Florida, LLC; and GB WV, LLC, to stop contraction did not prove “likelihood of irreparable harm; the unavailability of an adequate remedy of law; the substantial likelihood of success on the merits; and the injunction will serve the public interest.”
Given that, Carroll later wrote in his conclusion that, while the developers’ investment of more than $370 million is substantial, the uncertainty of deannexation is an adverse impact.