VENICE – Venice wants Sarasota County buy a 2.4-acre site on Pinebrook Road once targeted for 43 apartments for a public park instead.
The City Council unanimously agreed this week with a citizen panel’s recommendation to nominate the land for consideration for potential purchase by the county.
The Citizen Advisory Board had supported a proposal by Loretta Berardinelli, who lives just south of the parcel at 1220 Pinebrook Road, that Sarasota County buy the land through its Neighborhood Parkland Acquisition Program.
Berardinelli was among three residents who urged the City Council to support the nomination.
With Sarasota County preparing to redesign Wellfield Park as a modern regional park, she said that public acquisition of the site would fill the need for a neighborhood park and allow Venice residents in the area to enjoy “some of the neighborhood park beauty that those on Venice Island have.”
Both Berardinelli and JIm Monkowski, president of the Pinebrook South Homeowners Association suggested the park could contain playground equipment.
Monkowski suggested adding picnic tables with chessboard tops, though he wanted to keep existing trees to “encourage people to come outside and sit in shade.”
While the council unanimously endorsed the idea, Council Member Rick Howard noted that “the county would have to have an appetite to purchase this land.”
In May 2018, the City Council denied a request for a change in the Pinebrook South planned-unit development to allow construction of a 43-unit market rate apartment complex on the land.
The Pinebrook South Homeowners Association successfully fought that change.
Initial approval given to speed zone cameras at Venice High, Ephiphany Cathedral
Venice will put speed enforcement cameras at Venice High School and Epiphany Cathedral Catholic School after the council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance creating the program.
The council last viewed the proposal in February.
Venice Police Chief Andy Leisenring and Venice Police Capt. Louis White presented the council with updated data that between April 3, 2020 and April 3, 2025, there have been a combined total of 40 crashes at the two sites, with four of those resulting in injuries or possible injuries.
RedSpeed USA, one of companies that offer the traffic camera service, conducted a two-day study on Nov. 20-21, 2024 at Epiphany Cathedral School along Harbor Drive; Venice High School on Bahama Street; and at Venice Elementary School along both Bahama Street and Miami Avenue.
During that time, 235 vehicles were recorded traveling more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit at Epiphany and 270 vehicles were recorded speeding at Venice High.
The program costs the city of Venice nothing.
The cameras would be used from 30 minutes before the start of the school day to 30 minutes after the end of the day.
Similar programs are in effect in the cities of Sarasota and Bradenton.
Manatee County started the program last August put pulled the March because of citizen complaints.
After a public information campaign and a 30-day period when only warnings will be issued, a $100 citation will be sent to the owner of the registered vehicle but no points would be assessed and insurance companies would not be notified.
That fine would be split between the city, state, school district and the vendor installing and maintaining the system, with $39 going to the city, $21 to the system vendor, $20 to the state general fund, $12 to the Sarasota County Public School System, $3 to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement Standards and Training Fund and $5 to school crossing guard recruitment and retention.
Multifamily lots may be downzoned
On a 6-1 vote, with Council Member Ron Smith dissenting, the board approved a change in zoning of about a half-acre at the northeast corner of Park Boulevard South and Menendez Street from multi-family to single-family, which would allow for the Boruff Family Trust – the family of Gary Boruff, the former owner of B&B Bootery – to build three single-family homes on property where four multifamily structures now sit.
Attorney Jeff Boone noted that, while the parcel is located in a section of the city known as the Apartment District, John Nolen’s original 1926 plat showed the property planned for three single-family homes.
The property, owned by Pinebrook Park LLC, has a taxable value of $575,524, according to the Sarasota County Property Appraiser’s website. Ian Black Real Estate currently has the property listed for about $1.4 million as a possible nine-story assisted living facility with up to 110 residences.
Until the most recent zoning code rewrite, the Boruff family could have developed single-family homes there.
The zoning now suggests that as many as 10 homes could be built there, with an allowable height of 46 feet over 10 feet of parking.
Both Smith and Kristin Hoffschmidt – who was speaking on behalf of the grass-roots group Venice Thrives – argued that the multifamily zoning should be preserved in hopes that affordable housing would be developed there.
“We ask you to consider the need to increase rather than decrease the zoning for affordable housing,” Hoffschmidt said. “The apartment district is currently zoned to fit this need.”
Smith, pointing to retired attorney Donald O’Connell choosing to rent homes in the historic Granada Apartments as one example of affordable housing on the island of Venice.
O’Connell has previously said he can afford to ask for lower rents because he bought the building at a reasonable price. But he has also complained that Venice’s adoption of a suburban-style zoning code hampered the ability to build affordable housing on the island of Venice.
Venice Planning and Zoning Director Roger Clark told the council that the request by the Boruff trust is consistent with the John Nolen Plan.
The majority of the council concurred, Council Member Lloyd Weed noting, “They bought this property with certain rights to develop and rights were taken away from them.”
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice wants county to buy Pinebrook Rd site for park; OKs school speed zone cameras
Reporting by Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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