VENICE – Venice Mayor Nick Pachota opted to bypass the city’s established process to pick advisory board members Tuesday by nominating the reappointment of four current members of the Venice Planning Commission to new three-year terms.
That decision, which passed on a 4-2 vote, with Council Member Rachel Frank absent, kept Bill Wilson, Richard Hale, Jerry Jasper and Pam Schierberg on the key development review panel.
It also bypassed the current closed-ranking system that would have allowed former council candidate Patricia Ouelette a seat on the board, with the council deciding to break a tie between Jasper and Schierberg.
Under that system, council members rank applicants – in this case on a scale of 1-6 – and, just as in golf, the lowest score wins.
Neither Frank nor Pachota voted in those rankings.
“Five people voted; that doesn’t mean we’re locked into those five,” Pachota said, “because myself and Rachel haven’t had a chance to vote, so I’m nominating this slate and that’s where I’m at on it. I think they’re very qualified, they’ve proven themselves to be valuable to the process and that’s my decision.”
In addition to the four incumbents, only Ouelette and former council candidate Joan Iacono applied for the board.
City Council Member Ron Smith disagreed. He thought three seats should go Willson, Hale and Ouelette and the council should have then broken a tie between Jasper and Schierberg. He voiced displeasure upon Pachota’s motion which excluded Ouelette.
City Council Member Ron Smith disagreed, in which case the top three candidates would be awarded seats and the council then would choose between Jasper and Schierberg and voiced displeasure upon Pachota’s motion which excluded Ouelette.
“I find it terribly arrogant to nominate four people who were not selected by the council,” said Smith, who stressed that Pachota did not weigh in on the rankings. “Now, when you don’t like the results you’re trying to tank it and put forth your four people.
The Venice City Council voted 4-2 to reappoint four members to the Venice Planning Commission, despite the results of a closed ranking system. Only five of the seven council members participated in that system.
“I’m appalled that you’d make this move,” he added. “Pure power politics and you’re entitled to do it.”
Joan Farrell, who also voted in dissent with Smith, said that both Pachota and Frank had plenty of time to weigh in and missed that opportunity.
She later noticed that both she and Smith ranked the six candidates in an identical fashion but stressed that the two had not talked in an attempt to game the system.
“If we had been trying to game it, we wouldn’t have been so stupid as to do it the same,” she added.
Pachota, in reference to the rankings of Ouelette and Iacono, said, “Three council members voted these last two candidates at five and six and somehow one of them still got in there.”
The Planning Commission appointment vote came on the heels of the council voting 4-2 to abandon the closed ranking system in favor of the system employed by the Sarasota County Commission, in which commissioners nominate candidates, explain their reasoning and the candidates are publicly discussed.
“I think the system is good; the reason we didn’t do that before we had some issues where things were getting put out into the public and people were getting torn apart,” Pachota said. “I think this council will be good about not defaming anybody’s character, so I’m not too worried about that.”
Land-use change to allow hotel development stalls
A proposal to unify the future land-use designation of a 1.44-acre parcel at 705 S. Tamiami Trail – just south of Gold Rush BBQ – to mixed-use corridor, which would allow for the development of a boutique hotel and condominium, resulted in a 3-3 tie.
As a result, the question will come up again Jan. 28, when Frank returns.
The land, an aggregation of six lots, has been owned by the Barsuk family since the 1970s, noted Marty Black, who was representing Barsuk Florida Properties LLC.
The three lots that front Tamiami Trail are designated mixed-use corridor.
Three lots that front Guild Drive in Country Club Estates are designated as high-density residential.
Black explained that while his clients did want to develop a hotel on the three lots along Tamiami Trail, they planned for a residential development on the back three lots.
Council members worried about compatibility with the single family residents in Country Club Estates.
Black offered stipulations for a fence and landscape buffering from the Guild Drive homes and that any multi-family residence would be no taller than 35 feet, have no direct access to Guild Drive and meet the architectural requirements of the Venetian Theme District.
Council Member Rick Howard, who used to live in the neighborhood, voted with Smith and Farrell against the change.
In a related hearing to change the zoning for the back three lots from RMF-3 to South Trail Area 2 and unify the property, Black noted that under existing development standards, the high-density residential could be as tall as 56 feet – 46 feet of residences above 10-feet of parking – and have direct access to Guild Drive, with no buffering requirement.
“Effectively the taller, more intense buildings would go to Guild,” Black said.
That hearing was continued to Jan 28.
The City Council previously balked at plans for a hotel at 775 S. Tamiami Trail. Once that proposal stalled, the land was purchased by MPS development. Developer Mike Miller has plans to build a 36-unit condominium there.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice council member calls out mayor over planning board appointments