Longboat Key News and Sarasota City News encourages Letters to the Editor on timely issues. Please email to: letters@lbknews.com or mail to PO Box 8001, Longboat Key, FL 34228. We also print letters sent to Town Hall that address Longboat Key issues. We reserve the right to edit.
Prior Uninterrupted Beach Access Discussions
To: Longboat Key Town Commission
As we discussed at Tuesday’s Workshop, I am attaching and distributing the 2021-22 meeting and workshop materials (Powerpoint, Memos and meeting minutes) that reflect the Town Commission’s December 2021 and January 2022 discussions on the subject of uninterrupted beach access in front of several of the gulf fronting properties on the North End. For those of you who were not on the Town Commission at that time, I am happy to discuss in greater details these materials and the alternatives considered. Please let me know if you would like to schedule a one on one call or meeting to discuss.
Maggie D. Mooney
Town Attorney
Town of Longboat Key
Boat lift ordinance
To: Planning and Zoning Board Member Jay Plager
Please consider this a renewed reminder and request to use your Town issued email address to conduct all Town related business. Using the Town issued email account by the members of the Town’s advisory boards (including the PZB members) and Town Commission ensures that all emails relating to Town business are retained on the Town’s servers and no one’s personal email accounts become subject to Florida’s Public Records laws. Attached is a previously circulated Memorandum dated June 27, 2024 on this subject. Your ongoing observance of these guidelines is requested and appreciated. If you have any questions about the attached Memorandum or the Sunshine and Public Records laws please let me know and we can schedule an in person meeting to discuss the laws.
Maggie D. Mooney
Town Attorney
Town of Longboat Key
Boat lift ordinance
To: Longboat Key Commissioner Gary Coffin
Further on our brief discussion about the LBK boatlift issue. I voted no on the proposal before the P&Z Board on Friday, in part because of the initial staff confusion over exactly what the proposed ordinance would say, and the effort by the staff and the Board to re-write it on the fly during the meeting. (I was the only no vote.) Here’s what I now understand to be where we are:
First, since many boatlifts are attached to docks which are attached to seawalls, we have to go there first. The standard in LBK for measuring the maximum allowed height of permitted seawalls is the old NAVD 1988 standard (the theoretical sea level). The standard we use for docks and boatlifts however is different – it is the Mean High Water Line (MHWL), an empirically-determinable and widely used standard for measuring water levels. Here our water gets a bit murky – the operative difference between NAVD and MHWL as a standard is about 1 1/2 feet – the MHWL is 1 1/2 ft. above the comparable NAVD line, so for example a dock built to the height of its adjacent seawall cap that is at say 4.5 ft. NAVD is actually at about 3 ft. MHWL. (For consistency and simplification we need to amend the standard for seawalls to be the same universal standard as docks and boatlifts – MHWL – but that is a separate issue.)
For some time the maximum permissible height for a seawall was set at 4.5 ft. NAVD – the Commission recently changed it to 6 ft. Current rules on dock heights differentiate between docks attached to seawalls and those without seawalls – dock heights when attached to a seawall are the height of the seawall cap; when not attached, 5 ft. above MHWL. I will focus my remarks on docks with seawalls since that is what many canal properties with boatlifts have.
Finally to the boatlift issue – boatlifts as of now can be up to 5 ft. above the dock (or the top of the associated seawall cap). Thus, as a practical matter a homeowner on a canal, such as we have here at CCS, can build a new seawall 3 ft. high (or under the recent change 4.5 ft high) above MHWL, attach a dock at that height, and then add a boatlift structure (supported by pilings) that goes up an additional five feet. The net effect is that a homeowner now can have a structure including a seawall, a dock, and a boatlift together that reach some 9.5 ft. above the water at MHWL in the adjacent canal. Of course, an actual boat sitting on the boat lift’s bunks at maximum height extension (assuming the bunks – the horizontal beams on which the boat sits – of the lift are about three feet below the top of the lift) can be anywhere from 10 to 25 or more feet higher, depending on the size and design of the boat and its superstructure.
(As an aside, my recent renovation of my waterfront involved a new seawall at the 4.5 ft. NAVD level (the earlier rule) with an adjacent dock at the same level, and a boatlift five feet higher – a non-crossbeam lift. My total height then is 8 feet MHWL. I found that quite satisfactory for Helene and Milton and leaves the sightlines largely unobjectionable under normal weather conditions when the boat often sits a bit lower, though it is true that I secure my boat to the lift with heavy straps when needed. My next door neighbor who did not even bother to tie her boat with rope had her boat blown half off her lift in the hurricanes.)
The P&Z Board proposal is for one rule that mandates the maximum allowable height of the pilings on which any boatlift is supported will be eleven feet above MHWL, but it excludes from the rule the crossbeams that the older design lifts use and their motors. The crossbeams, about one foot in height, typically are placed at the top of the pilings, and the motors are on top of the crossbeams, all of which add another two or so feet to the structure. If my math is correct, essentially we are adding a foot and a half of piling and another 2 +/- mechanical structure to the permitted boatlift installation.
My reaction is that this is not enough to make a dramatic difference in the issue of unsecured boats coming off their lifts from the surge of water and wind in a major hurricane, even assuming that is a real problem when boats are properly secured to their lifts. Nor does any study suggest that we are threatened by such great sea rise in the next period of years that it is necessary to make this adjustment now. I favored clarifying a more incremental height limitation closer to the status quo, perhaps more like an even 10 feet, and importantly including all the mechanical parts of the lift since they are the ugly parts of the project. In truth, however, the whole issue may not be significant enough to fall on one’s sword over…I doubt that the excited proponents appreciate how little a change this is, and it seems primarily of benefit to the dock/lift builders and piling people.
PS I am copying this to Ken as he was at a lecture that we both attended recently on ways to mitigate flood damages from storms and we had spoke about it briefly, and a copy to Allen to advise of any misstatements I may have made.
Jay Plager
Member Planning and Zoning Board
Town of Longboat Key
Longboat Key Vacation Rentals-Urgent
To: Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Board Director Allen Parsons
Thanks for your response to this letter. I wonder, though, whether the question relates to approval of an applicant to allow a vacation rental as opposed to permitting for rehabilitation? Of course, if the proposed rental property is being rehabbed, it would amount to the same thing.
Ken Schneier
Mayor
Town of Longboat Key
Longboat Key Vacation Rentals-Urgent
To: RVA, Resort Vacations Accommodations Manager Mindy Farro
The Mayor shared your message. I want to share with you a good first step to help ensure building permit applications proceed through the review process as quickly as possible.
For condominiums, the best place to start is inquiring either with the manager or with a member of the Board to ensure that the unit (you’re inquiring about) has been submitted as part of a submission that includes all units that may need to be repaired in a given structure.
Because the Town participates in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), we have to ensure that improvements to a structure (as a whole) do not exceed 50% of its market value, otherwise the entire structure is required to be brought into full compliance with current flood regulations.
The Town has supplemented our staffing & Town staff are working overtime to move storm damage permits through the review process as quickly as possible. We know how important it is to get people back in their homes and back to recovering economically.
If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me or staff at the PZB Department.
Allen Parsons
Director Planning, Zoning & Building Department
Town of Longboat Key
Longboat Key Vacation Rentals-Urgent
To: RVA, Resort Vacations Accommodations Manager Mindy Farro
Thanks for your note. You raise an interesting point that may arise from the crush of redevelopment permit requests at the Planning Board. I am forwarding your note to Town Manager Howard Tipton and Planning and Zoning Director Alan Parsons and will discuss the issue at tomorrow’s Town Commission meeting. The meeting begins at 1 pm, and you would be welcome to further discuss your issue during public commentary.
Ken Schneier
Mayor
Town of Longboat Key
Longboat Key Vacation Rentals
To: Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier
I am reaching out as a member of the Longboat Key community who is deeply invested in the island’s tourism and housing sectors. Due to the significant impact of recent hurricanes, many properties remain uninhabitable, forcing us to move guests to alternative accommodations at the last minute. Unfortunately, the delays associated with condo application restrictions for vacation rentals have made this process increasingly challenging.
With many properties still unavailable for use, expediting the handling of condo applications for vacation rentals could provide much-needed flexibility for housing displaced guests and supporting the local economy during this recovery period. The current application timelines, while understandable under normal circumstances, are adding a layer of difficulty in meeting the immediate needs of both property owners and visitors. I have several displaced guests that I am in the process of potentially having to cancel their month long reservations due to limitations on timing of condo application approvals.
I kindly ask for your assistance in exploring ways to temporarily streamline or expedite the condo application process for vacation rentals to better accommodate these unique circumstances. Your support would go a long way in helping the community recover while maintaining Longboat Key’s reputation as a welcoming destination.
I would be happy to discuss this matter further or provide additional details to illustrate the urgency of this issue. Thank you for considering this request, and for your continued dedication to the well-being of Longboat Key and its residents and business owners.
Mindy Farro
RVA, Resort Vacations Accommodations
Reservations Manager/Rates Strategist
Longboat Key Vacation Rentals-Urgent
To: Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Director Allen Parsons
Thanks for your response to this letter. I wonder, though, whether the question relates to approval of an applicant to allow a vacation rental as opposed to permitting for rehabilitation? Of course, if the proposed rental property is being rehabbed, it would amount to the same thing.
Ken Schneier
Mayor
Town of Longboat Key
Longboat Key Vacation Rentals-Urgent
To: RVA, Resort Vacations Accommodations Manager Mindy Farro
We (the Town) do not make the rules for condos- their HOA’s establish their own.
BJ Bishop
Commissioner
Town of Longboat Key
Longboat Key Vacation Rentals-Urgent
To: Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier
Thank you for responding so quickly. I think my email may have been misunderstood. I am a manager of a large vacation rental company in LBK and we are having issues with condo associations approving rentals in LBK (last minute) due to properties being under construction or not ready for season. Many of our guests have been calling LBK their 2nd home for generations and I am struggling trying to find options for these guests to move to. Is there anything that can be done to exempt condo association application timeframes for approval?
Mindy Farr
RVA, Resort Vacations Accommodations Manager
Longboat Key Vacation Rentals-Urgent
To: RVA, Resort Vacations Accommodations Manager Mindy Farro
Thanks for your note. You raise an interesting point that may arise from the crush of redevelopment permit requests at the Planning Board. I am forwarding your note to Town Manager Howard Tipton and Planning and Zoning Director Alan Parsons and will discuss the issue at tomorrow’s Town Commission meeting. The meeting begins at 1 p.m., and you would be welcome to further discuss your issue during public commentary.
Ken Schneier
Mayor
Town of Longboat Key
Longboat Key Vacation Rentals-Urgent
To: Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier
I am reaching out as a member of the Longboat Key community who is deeply invested in the island’s tourism and housing sectors. Due to the significant impact of recent hurricanes, many properties remain uninhabitable, forcing us to move guests to alternative accommodations at the last minute. Unfortunately, the delays associated with condo application restrictions for vacation rentals have made this process increasingly challenging.
With many properties still unavailable for use, expediting the handling of condo applications for vacation rentals could provide much-needed flexibility for housing displaced guests and supporting the local economy during this recovery period. The current application timelines, while understandable under normal circumstances, are adding a layer of difficulty in meeting the immediate needs of both property owners and visitors. I have several displaced guests that I am in the process of potentially having to cancel their month long reservations due to limitations on timing of condo application approvals.
I kindly ask for your assistance in exploring ways to temporarily streamline or expedite the condo application process for vacation rentals to better accommodate these unique circumstances. Your support would go a long way in helping the community recover while maintaining Longboat Key’s reputation as a welcoming destination.
I would be happy to discuss this matter further or provide additional details to illustrate the urgency of this issue. Thank you for considering this request, and for your continued dedication to the well-being of Longboat Key and its residents and business owners.
Mindy Farro
RVA, Resort Vacations Accommodations
Reservations Manager/Rates Strategist
Longboat Key Library and Community Center
To: St. Armands Residents Association Chris Goglia
As you know, Longboat has been developing its Town Center area next to Publix. it now includes a park holding regular open air markets and similar events, and the Karon Family Pavilion, holding concerts and other performances during Season. It has always been our expectation that St. Armand’s and Lido Keys would view these amenities as yours as well. In your capacities as heads of the St. Armand’s and Lido Residents’ Associations, respectively, you should receive notices of activities at the Town center from Kim Verreault, head of the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce (copied on this note) as well as press alerts.
The last piece of our Town center puzzle, and the largest, is the construction of a Sarasota County Library and attached community center with a common area, terrace and multi-purpose room for indoor performances, art shows, meetings and the like. The County is funding the ca. $9mm cost of design and construction of the library and 100% of the cost of operations of the entire facility, the first such contribution by the County on our barrier islands. The community center portion of the project, costing about $3.6mm, is to be funded by public donations. Sizeable donors will receive naming rights, including naming rights for the entire facility for a substantial majority donor.
We are speaking with members of Longboat and the wider philanthropic community for naming donors, with a goal of having the project funded in principle by the end April. If you know of any residents on your islands who might be candidates for this opportunity, please let me know or have them contact me or Howard Tipton. This should be a great resource for all of us going forward.
Ken Schneier
Mayor
Town of Longboat Key
Public Works Director
To: Longboat Key Public Works Director Charlie Mopps
Congratulations, Charlie! We are so fortunate to have you step into this role. Looking forward to more great progress for LBK.
Sarah Karon
Commissioner
Town of Longboat Key
Public Works Director
To: Longboat Key Commission
Happy Friday! I am pleased to announce that Mr. Charlie Mopps, after competing against external candidates, has been selected as the next Public Works Director for the Town of Longboat Key. Charlie has been with the Town for a total of six (6) years, including these past few months as the Interim Director of Public Works. He has brought a strong work ethic and positive attitude every day, working very well with the public, as a key team member with all our internal operations teams (including storm response), a respected liaison with all our coordination and permitting agencies, as well as accomplishing major projects, initiatives, and leadership goals. Charlie originally came to the Town with a diverse background having been working extensively in the project/program management and organizational leadership arenas, as well as law enforcement, and also strong and extensive military service experience. In his service with the U.S. Army Reserve, Charlie served for over twenty-two (22) years and was deployed as a detachment commander and also served as a basic training battalion operations officer. In addition, during the latter portion of his service, Charlie moved into strategic operations supporting multiple movement companies across seven (7) different locations. Charlie then completed his service as a mentor and trainer to operational units. Included in his many military honors is a Bronze Star, and we are grateful for his service to our country. We are excited to have Charlie in this role to lead a strong and dedicated Public Works team.
Howard N. Tipton
Town Manager
Town of Longboat Key
Sabal Cove Fire Hydrants
To: Longboat Key Fire Chief Paul Dezzi
We live in Sabal Cove, a small single family home neighborhood in Bay Isles. For some time now, Bay Isles water in our area and beyond has been unavailable due to a leak they can’t locate. Their water usually irrigates our common areas and the Bay Isles grass along Harbourside Drive. As we try to solve this issue, the question was raised as to whether our 5 fire hydrants are served by that Bay Isles water or, hopefully, by the Town system. Can you shed light on this? Thanks much.
Ken Schneier
Mayor
Town of Longboat Key
Sabal Cove Fire Hydrants
To: Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier
Thanks for your question. The water system on Longboat are all connected together through the distribution system. We have not been informed of any water outage on Longboat key. Our water department is very efficient in communication if there are any issues. If you have any concerns, feel free to call me 941-650-9445. Make it a good week
Paul Dezzi
Fire Chief
Town of Longboat Key
Meeting with Senator Boyd
To: Senior Legislative Assistant to Senator Jim Boyd, Amanda Romant
Do you have a date that Town Manager Howard Tipton and I can meet with Senator Boyd in Bradenton to discuss the ongoing insurance issues that residents of Longboat Key are having post hurricanes? Possible dates I sent you earlier this week: Afternoon of January 22, fairly open January 27 and 28.
BJ Bishop
Commissioner
Town of Longboat Key
Meeting with Senator Boyd
To: Longboat Key Commission
Senator Boyd has committee meetings on Jan. 22, in Tallahassee. January 27 and 28 are on hold due to possible Special Session. If there is something I can do to individually assist our residents and constituents, I am happy to make inquiries with the OIR or the CFO on their behalf. With regard to a District meeting, I still need to coordinate with Senator Boyd.
Amanda E. Romant
Senior Legislative Assistant to Senator Jim Boyd, District 20
Sabal Cove Water
To: Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier
Sir, first Thank You for the kind words. As for the irrigation solution you mentioned below, I have included members of the team to confirm what Neil has told you and to make sure the following statement is accurate. I spoke to John Michael and he informed me that the Town Water could not be valved into to a well fed irrigation system, due to the potential of cross contamination. Irrigation could be established in the small area you describe using the Bay Islas meter, but additional and separate irrigation system would need to be installed, isolating that system from the irrigation well sourced system. It would probably be easier for neighbors with hoses to hand water for the time it takes to repair the well leak you described. As for the Fire Hydrants, they are all fed with Town Water.
Charles Mopps
Public Works Director
Town of Longboat Key
Sabal Cove Water
To: Longboat Key Public Works Director Charlie Mopps
Charlie: First, congratulations on your appointment as Public Works Director. You have done great work here and deserve the post.
Sabal Cove is a small, single family home neighborhood in Bay Isles. We normally receive water from Bay Isles Association to irrigate our small common areas and the grass along our portion of northern Harbourside Drive. For several months, that water has been unavailable due to a leak in the Bay Isles system which they have had great difficulty finding. As a result, all of our common area plantings and grass are dying. Several of us in Sabal Cove met last week to consider solutions, which raised these questions:
Can we connect our irrigation system to Town water, so that we can switch to that system when Bay isles irrigation is down? I posed this question to Neil Fleet, head administrator for Bay Isles, who told me Sabal Cove is already connected to Town water for optional irrigation. This is news to us. Can you confirm if this is the case, and if so how we can switch to Town water as needed? If not, can you advise how we can establish a Town water connection for our neighborhood’s common area irrigation.
We also wondered whether our 5 fire hydrants are fed by Bay Isles water or (hopefully) from a Town source. Neil said all LBK hydrants are fed by a single, separate Town source. Also news to us. Can you confirm that’s true? It would be good to know we are not relying on a Bay Isles source that doesn’t work for fire protection.
Ken Schneier
Mayor
Town of Longboat Key
Professor Mendelsohn’s presentation
To: Longboat Key Town Manager Howard Tipton
I am forwarding the slide show by Environment Professor Robert Mendelsohn delivered at last week’s Yale Club of the Suncoast lunch. He has studied sea level rise throughout the US and is laser-focused on his preferred solution, which involves low sea walls built in all at-risk areas, sooner rather than later. Interesting economic analysis, FYI.
Ken Schneier
Mayor
Town of Longboat Key
Professor Mendelsohn’s presentation
To: Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier
Here is Professor Mendelsohn’s presentation.
Richard S. Lannamann
Public Works Director
Town of Longboat Key
Hot cars and greenhouse gases
To: Longboat Key Commission, Sarasota City Commission
During his confirmation hearing earlier this week, Lee Zeldin, the newly appointed EPA Director, was asked about the linked issues of climate change and greenhouse gases. His responses were that he believes that climate change is real, and that CO2 is a pollutant that can contribute to climate change. In that, Mr. Zeldin is aligned with Governor DeSantis’ former and current Chief Science Officers, Drs. Tom Frazer and Mark Rains, respectively. And also aligned with the SBEP’s 2022 CCMP update, which mentions climate change nearly 100 times.
Climate change is real, and its impacts are beginning to manifest themselves in our region. Our air temperature is warmer now than the average conditions we experienced across the 20th Century. Both the Gulf of Mexico and Sarasota Bay are warmer now than they were several decades ago, as we’ve pointed out in prior Director’s Notes. Increased water temperatures are providing more “fuel” for tropical weather events, which is likely why there is a clear trend towards an increase in “major” hurricanes (Category 3 and higher) over the past few decades in the North Atlantic Basin. When you fire up the burners at the bottom of a hot air balloon, you increase what is called the “kinetic energy” of the air within the balloon’s envelope. This causes the air molecules (mostly di-nitrogen gas) to bounce against each other more often (and with greater force) increasing the space between each other, resulting in lower amounts of air molecules in a given space. This brings about decreased density, which is why hot air balloons rise up off the ground. Well, warm water expands in response to heat in a similar manner, but not outward, but upward, and onto our shorelines, which is the basis for the accelerated rate of sea level rise we’ve seen over the past few decades. We’ve had sea level rise ever since the last glacial maximum, about 20,000 years ago. But the average rate over the past few thousand years has been about 1 inch a decade, while we’ve experienced about 6 inches of sea level rise over the past 20 years alone. With a tidal range of about 18 inches, this means that by the year 2055, our average sea level should approximate what today’s high tide is, and high tide would likely be 9 inches stacked on top of that. Not a tsunami of water over our seawalls on a daily basis, but we expect more street and neighborhood flooding in low-lying areas, particularly if it rains on a high tide.
There is a consensus among the vast majority of scientists that climate change is real, and a recent poll by FAU researchers found that over 90% of Floridians believe our climate is changing. The vast majority of climate scientists have concluded that the burning of fossil fuels is playing a part in climate change. As noted above, that is also the opinion of the two Governor-appointed Chief Science Officers in the State of Florida, and the stated opinion of our new EPA Administrator.
The SBEP will continue to inform our public and policymakers about the impacts of climate change on our bay and our coastal communities, but the SBEP does not, will not, and cannot prescribe solutions on how to respond to the causes behind climate change. In this situation, we are focused on preparing our system for the impacts of climate change, not “fixing” the root causes of climate change. Why? While it’s true that our local governments can – and have – enacted enough projects to make a difference in the nitrogen loads to our local waters, climate change is a global problem that needs a global solution. We could act to become fully carbon-neutral for emissions in our watershed and it wouldn’t make a noticeable difference in terms of what we are likely to experience. Yeah, maybe that would be a great way to show leadership, but that would be a mostly symbolic move.
However, what we can do is to try and make sure that our stakeholders understand WHY greenhouse gas emissions are problematic.
Most people have heard of the term greenhouse gas, but most people in Florida have not likely been in a greenhouse, I would bet. But, almost everyone in Florida knows what it’s like to get into a hot car in the summertime. Leave your windows rolled up in your car while you run into Publix, and what’s it like when you first get back into the car? Well, why does your car get so hot? Basically, the car windows act like a “greenhouse gas”. How does that happen? To understand that, you have to know a little about sunlight, visible light, and electromagnetic radiation in general.
The term “sunlight” includes both visible and invisible (to the naked eye) wavelengths of what is more properly called “irradiance”. Spectral irradiance, shown with the green line below, comes from the sun and includes energy with wavelengths shorter than visible light (ultraviolet light) as well as wavelengths longer than those of visible light (infrared light). Thus, our planet receives energy from the sun that we can both see and not see. Some of that energy is re-radiated back out towards space, which is the curve shown by the dashed red line. This is often termed long-wave radiation. In this example, long-wave radiation is more accurately called electromagnetic thermal radiation, “terrestrial radiation” or “emitted terrestrial radiation”.
Over 99% of solar energy is associated with shorter wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, and over 90% of outgoing energy is associated with longer wavelengths of radiation – as illustrated below.
Why does your car get so hot inside when you come back after picking up your groceries? Because the wavelengths of sunlight that heat your car can pass through your car’s windows, while the majority of “re-radiated” energy – which has longer wavelengths – cannot pass through those same glass windows. Your car windows are acting like a greenhouse gas, and so every time you get in your car in the summertime, you are experiencing the same phenomena that are behind climate change. Greenhouse gases thus act like the windows on your car – they let incoming solar radiation pass through, while they are more resistant to allowing long-wave terrestrial radiation to pass on out to space.
Keep in mind – our planet has always had greenhouse gases. Without them, our planet would re-radiate most of our incoming irradiance, and we’d be a cold and dead planet. Also, the most abundant greenhouse gas on our planet is water vapor! Across the planet, water vapor accounts for about 2 to 4% of our atmosphere, while CO2 accounts for about 0.04% of our atmosphere (or about 400 ppm). So why should we worry about CO2, when it’s not the most abundant greenhouse gas? Because water vapor is more stable over time – and its role in “trapping” outgoing long-wave radiation has not changed much over time. In contrast, the average CO2 concentration over the last ten thousand years was about 280 ppm. Basically, by taking coal, oil, and gas from underground and burning it in our power plants and car engines, we’ve increased the abundance of one of our greenhouse gases by about 40%. That’s mostly why our planet is getting warmer, and why Sarasota Bay’s land and water are getting warmer, and why our rate of sea level rise has increased over the past few decades.
Some have said that a gas that is only 0.04% of our atmosphere can’t possibly be enough to affect our global climate, because that concentration is “so low.” Well, how many of you drink a cup of coffee at night? Not me. Why? Because coffee contains caffeine, which is a stimulant. Wanna guess the average caffeine content of a cup of coffee? It’s about 0.04%, the same as the CO2 concentration in our atmosphere. Sometimes, “small” concentrations of something can have a big impact. Like caffeine in a cup of coffee. Or CO2 in our atmosphere.
The science behind climate change is complex, but it’s not that controversial among scientists, including the State of Florida’s current and past Chief Science Officers, and it is acknowledged by the EPA Administrators from both the Biden and incoming Trump Administrations.
We may not be able to fix our climate change challenges in Sarasota Bay the way we’ve been able to fix our water quality challenges. But we certainly shouldn’t shy away from talking about them.
David Tomasko
Executive Director
Sarasota Bay Estuary Program
To: David Lough
I wanted to acknowledge receipt of your email below and I also saw the email where the Mayor said she will pull Item XII.1 from the agenda Tuesday, which certainly isn’t a problem since she requested it to be on the agenda to begin with.
However, I just wanted to ask if you were going to reach out to Patrick Seidensticker, the attorney for the applicants for the Saravela project and associated right-of-way vacation, to let him know why you asked the Mayor to pull the item, or alternatively, to ask if you could give me a call after the Commission meeting to tell me about the new information you referenced so that I could pass it on to him. The reason I ask is because I believe that the Applicant has been very cooperative about your proposal, but have asked only that their project review schedule not be held up as a result of having to petition the County Impact Fee Administrator regarding the credit, so I just want to stay mindful of their concerns in this regard.
Robert M. Fournier
City Attorney
City of Sarasota
Suggestion to pull 1/21 agenda item
To: Sarasota City Mayor Liz Alpert
I’d appreciate at short call, ref my text messages of yesterday. I did send the following to Shayla yesterday as a heads up…but, as protocol you would have to be the one to make a formal request.
New information available from Jerry Fogle and the PREP board meeting (which I attended on Thursday) has prompted me to recommend pulling item XII.1 on the agenda Tuesday.
David Lough
Sarasota
Possible suggestion to pull 1/21 agenda item
To: Sarasota City Clerk Shayla Griggs
I am trying to reach Mayor Alpert….will be discussing my suggestion that the following 1/21 agenda item be pulled…formally the mayor asked for the agenda item to be added, with Bob being behind the recommendation too. No confirmation at this point…
I note this item is the last on the 1/21 agenda.
XII. NEW BUSINESS:
XII.1 Presentation and Discussion Re: Proposed acquisition of property at 211 N.
Tamiami Trail (former site of Joey D’s Chicago Style Eatery & Pizzeria and Wheel
Street bike shop) for use as a public park
XII.1 Agenda Request Form.pdf
David Lough
Sarasota
