Payne Park Defended Again
from Seizure of portion of Park by Parks Department
Update May 5 2021: RESOLVED !
After several meetings last week and this week, the fences are coming down and another site in the City, not in Payne Park, will be found for this Parks Dept dept.
Park users -- including leaders of Laurel Park, Alta Vista, Arlington Park neighborhood associations, Preserve Payne Park Coalition, numerous others -- presented the public pushback to the City, holding meetings with City Manager Marlon Brown, Head of Parks Jerry Fogle, Commissioner Erik Arroyo, and other City representatives to seek a better answer to solving the urgent space needs of the Landscape Dept of Parks & Rec. Several meetings, including on April 29, as well as public comments at City Commission meeting on May 3, resulted in discussion at the City Commission May 4 meeting where it was agreed that this siting will be temporary and another, more appropriate site will be found.
After several meetings last week and this week, the fences are coming down and another site in the City, not in Payne Park, will be found for this Parks Dept dept.
Park users -- including leaders of Laurel Park, Alta Vista, Arlington Park neighborhood associations, Preserve Payne Park Coalition, numerous others -- presented the public pushback to the City, holding meetings with City Manager Marlon Brown, Head of Parks Jerry Fogle, Commissioner Erik Arroyo, and other City representatives to seek a better answer to solving the urgent space needs of the Landscape Dept of Parks & Rec. Several meetings, including on April 29, as well as public comments at City Commission meeting on May 3, resulted in discussion at the City Commission May 4 meeting where it was agreed that this siting will be temporary and another, more appropriate site will be found.
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In April 2021 a portion of Payne Park, near and including the Auditorium, was fenced off. There was no public information as to why. See yellow area on map.
It turns out that the City Parks, Recreation and Environmental Protection had repurposed (without any public notice or input) the auditorium plus the grass area surrounding it as the new home of their Landscape Division (which had been stuffed into a temporary trailer up at Public Works, and needed, legitimately, more, and more adequate, space). The auditorium, no longer a public venue, is now Park Dept staff offices. The fenced lawn area is now the work site, for staff vehicles, materials, and work vehicles/trucks. But they told me they intend to install a hedge to block the view of this, their new materials lot/truck parking lot, which obviously presents an ... shall we say, "ugly"? ... view to park users!! Initially in April even more lawn was fenced off, but Parks Dept reps responded to a plea by park users to reduce the excessive footprint. As of this writing, however, despite this consolidation, Dept Staff are still using the (no-longer-fenced) lawn north of the auditorium for parking their staff trucks. There is, by the way, an adequate City parking lot, rarely if ever full, just southwest of this new fenced-off site. This new fenced-off and signed/restricted (to Parks Dept workers only) seizure has also resulted in the gating-off of the main west/central access sidewalk to Payne Park, just north of the Church, used widely by pedestrians and bicyclists to/from West of Trail, because that is the route leading directly from the Oak Street traffic light crossing of US301/Washington Boulevard, the only safe, traffic-signaled crossing point west of Payne Park between Ringling Blvd all the way to Bay Street! |
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Unsurprisingly, many park users are upset about this SEIZURE of part of the green space of Payne Park. About trucks parking on the area of lawn that the Dept agreed to "Give Back." About the gating-off of the "Oak Street" access sidewalk. Issues of park user safety have been raised in the context of fencing off this entire half side of the park. Questioning whether the work lot couldn't be located somewhere else in the City. (the large acreage of Bobby Jones has been widely suggested).
Yet another not-unrelated context is the recent attempt of the Sarasota Orchestra to repurpose 7acres of the park to build an orchestra/teaching/entertainment complex. While this may still be, apparently, "in play," the overwhelming public opposition to this incursion really should have been a red flag to the Parks Dept that local residents use, love and intend to protect Payne Park (merely 36 acres, all-told) from being nickeled-and-dimed away (which obviously would include a truck and heavy machinery parking lot and work site)!
There has been significant urgent discussion among residents and neighborhood groups. The Preserve Payne Park Coalition and the Laurel Park Neighborhood Association leaders have met with the City Manager, the Head of Parks, and various City representatives to try to achieve a resolution to this incursion that offers all parties some positive outcome.
Yet another not-unrelated context is the recent attempt of the Sarasota Orchestra to repurpose 7acres of the park to build an orchestra/teaching/entertainment complex. While this may still be, apparently, "in play," the overwhelming public opposition to this incursion really should have been a red flag to the Parks Dept that local residents use, love and intend to protect Payne Park (merely 36 acres, all-told) from being nickeled-and-dimed away (which obviously would include a truck and heavy machinery parking lot and work site)!
There has been significant urgent discussion among residents and neighborhood groups. The Preserve Payne Park Coalition and the Laurel Park Neighborhood Association leaders have met with the City Manager, the Head of Parks, and various City representatives to try to achieve a resolution to this incursion that offers all parties some positive outcome.
