Poll: Is Sarasota Anti-Business?

Since the new city commission was seated in May, its No. 1 priority has been creating business in Sarasota.

Commissioners said the city has an image problem. Developers, they say, feel zoning codes and regulations always go against development.

At Monday's commission meeting, the commission voted 3-2 to reject a 'fast-track' zoning text amendment that would have sided with business owners/developers/applicants in the case that there was conflict with city zoning codes.

The vote has drawn a strong response with the business community as well as the neighborhoods.

City staff has said that there have been almost no cases where this has happened. Even facts about the limited number of zoning conflict cases have had opposite responses.

Vice Mayor Terry Turner, who originally supported the amendment, said the limited number of conflicts begged the question of why take the litigation risk of changing the amendment.

"Moving forward with this is not a prudent course of action," Turner said at Monday's commission meeting.

Planning board member Chris Gallagher said the limited number of cases show there is no risk.

“This is a small piece of the picture,” Gallagher said at September planning board meeting. “Like the action to , those two impact fees that were taken off the books will not have a huge impact; but it’s all of these things together that begin to build [the reputation] that [the commissioners] are really getting serious about doing things in the city of Sarasota.”

We want to hear from you. Is Sarasota anti-business?