Its physical location and climatic lure are bringing people of all types for health, recreation, and business; many for a short first visIT , but often followed by prolonged return visits or permanent residence. Travel facilities by water, rail, and overland are increasing apace with the public demands. Great variety in natural advantages exists, so that almost every desire may be met, and places of popularity have developed.
Sarasota, beautifully situated on Sarasota Bay looking westward to the Gulf of Mexico, is prominent among those places of popularity, and its growth has been quite marked. This growth has crowded the hotels, congested the streets, caused a shortage in business, residential, and recreational facilities. The spirIT of expansion is everywhere, for IT is recognized that Sarasota must show acknowledgment of the guests' appreciation.
Expansion can best be made by means of the city plan. IT is with the physical problems of civic growth that city planning is chiefly concerned. These problems are studied in themselves and as related to one another, so that the result is unity of design. The city plan includes the area undeveloped as well as the builtup sections, presenting a framework over which the city may spread in an orderly and practical manner. IT is also a stabilizing influence in development and in property values and as a program for improvements and extensions. A good plan is one which does not attempt to bind the city too far in the future, but is subject to amendment from time to time. IT is an encouragement to civic art in that its very design suggests harmony of elements and beauty of form. These features in a recreational center, such as Sarasota, are prime essentials.
In this report the plans are discussed in a very systematic method, presenting the fundamentals briefly and directly.
The method of producing the Plans for Sarasota was briefly as follows:
(a) A survey of local conditions was made including the many factors which go to make up community life. The result of the survey was the production of the Existing Conditions Map, showing graphically the city at the beginning of the city planning work.
(b) Planning studies and the producing of the Comprehensive City Plan for the city, based on the study of the Existing Conditions Map, public opinion in Sarasota, and the application of the fundamental principles of City Planning.
(c) A Zone Plan showing diagrammatically the logical uses for business, industry, or residence of the various parts of the city area.
(d) The Regional Plan, which goes beyond the city limits and suggests the development of the surrounding country within a radius of five miles from the Five Points.
In the creation of the city plan the general scope of the work has been made to include parts of Indian Beach and Sarasota Heights. This secures continuity at the municipal boundaries and aids in general in securing coordination of development from the other communities.
As a basis for the city plan a thorough survey of the existing conditions was made. This survey included physical, economic, and social investigation. The facts so obtained were analyzed and correlated, and so served as a framework on which to build the city plan.
The growth of Sarasota will be mainly along the lines of tourist recreation, banking, and agriculture, although other factors will also play a part. The past few years have shown the strength of these trends and the increase in growth attendant upon the efforts in these directions. With a thorough understanding of the existing conditions, provision was made to secure development for the city on the following lines:
(f) Street Sections. The establishment of street sections for the various types of streets definitely assures the harmonious development of streets, even though construction may be carried on over a number of years. The ordinary streets may be classified as Major Thoroughfares with a width of 80 to 100 feet; Secondary Thoroughfares, 60 to 80 feet in width, and Minor Streets, 50 to 60 feet. Special streets should have an individual treatment consistent with their purpose and use.
(g) Bridges. Bridges as a form of civic decoration should not be overlooked. The opportunity exists for several bridges as definite gates to the city at the southern boundary over the Hudson Bayou. They should carry the streets at full width to produce a dignified appearance and to avoid constrictions of the highway at strategic points in traffic flow. Bridges will be necessary, sooner or later, at the following points:
(b) Existing Parks and Parkways. Sarasota's present equipment to satisfy its needs is generally recognized as being insufficient. Its waterfront is not publicly owned, although IT has been used along with some adjacent land for park purposes. The Fairgrounds, the only public property available for recreation, now serves as an athletic field in addition to its official purpose.
(c) Recommendations. IT is proposed to establish a system of parks and parkways which will serve the entire city. The predominant feature of the city's natural characteristics, the Bay Shore, will he the nucleus of this system, and with the development of a Waterfront Park will make a water gateway. Connecting with this predominant feature will be parkways on the north (Bay View Park and North Parkway) and on the south (Hudson Parkway). From these arms stretching back inland, leads will extend into the city.
Scattered about the city at convenient points will be small community parks and open spaces. IT is recognized that the present area of the city will focus on the bay shore (Waterfront Park), consequently the local parks are small.
Hudson Parkway. As part of the system to carry the waterfront development back into the city, the banks of the Hudson Bayou have been parked and a drive leads from Longboat Pier and South Park around IT to Rigby Point. Retaining walls, and the bridges spanning IT , would echo the treatment of the bay shore. The North Branch of the Bayou, developed in like manner, pushes still further into the city and terminates in Seminole Park, from which the Live Oak Parkway and its connections lead the parkway system to the Civic Center.
Large Parks and Reservations. The growth of the city beyond its present area will bring about the question of providing park areas of considerable size inland. Both increased use of Waterfront Park and distance to IT from inland sections will make another park of some size necessary. When this stage in growth is reached the suitability of the present Fairgrounds for that purpose will have diminished and the acquisition of a new site for a fairground outside the city would release an area well located and well adapted for a large park.
Municipal Golf Course. A valuable addition to the city's park equipment would be a municipal golf course of eighteen holes. High land values within the city, attendant upon rapid growth, make IT advisable to look for a tract beyond the present city limits that would serve this purpose. East of the city, along the Seaboard Air Line Railway, is a tract adjacent to the city which is within twenty minutes' walk from the waterfront. If this land could be Secured before development for residence has progressed far, IT would provide a location for a course of ample size at a more economical cost. (Proposed location of the Municipal Golf Course is shown on the Regional Plan.)
Schools and playgrounds should normally be within a halfmile walking distance of children, so that parents may have the same confidence in supervised play as in the regular school system.
(b) Present Schools and Playgrounds. With the growth in population of Sarasota and the extension of business along Victory Avenue, IT becomes apparent that the present site of the Public Schools will become less desirable and more unsuitable through smallness of area, and its location on one of the heaviest traffic streets of the city.
The High School site is located on Osprey Avenue, adjacent to the North Parkway. IT is an area of about twenty-seven acres, and will allow for the complete layout of a modern High School, with football and baseball fields and other forms of organized sports. Its relation to the parkway is very fortunate, as IT becomes an integral part of the parkway system of the city.
This intersection, and the part of Main Street between Pineapple Avenue and Palm Avenue, has been made the subject of a special study and report already submitted. This study provided for the relief of the traffic congestion by the redesigning of the intersection at the Five Points, along more ample dimensions, and the widening of Main Street to a width of 125 feet.
(b) Recommendations for Downtown Area. This area must expand to accommodate the increasing demands for business space. IT would be far better to have greater ground area than the erection of an increasing number of high buildings. A sense of uniqueness and individuality in the business and shopping section of Sarasota would be of great productive value in the contact with visitors spending the winter in the city.
Quite naturally the direction of expansion will be along the line of certain main thoroughfares: Banana Avenue, Central Avenue, Pineapple Avenue, and Victory Avenue, with the latter as the strongest.
The removal of the present tracks, and station of the Seaboard Air Line Railway will assist greatly the progression of business out Victory Avenue and aid in decreasing traffic congestion. The removal of the tracks will allow full width use of Lemon Avenue.
(c) Recommendations for Local Areas. Business in outlying territory of the city is now rather indiscriminately scattered, with stores settled in residential areas. These stores may serve a specific community in a limited fashion, but do not aid much in the general development of the city. To offset this tendency there should be developed by zoning local business centers in strategic locations. The stores in these centers might be independent, or branches of stores in the central district, depending upon local desires and tendencies.
7. RAILROADS
(a) General. The railroad situation in Sarasota .is closely allied with the development of the city. The promotion of one benefits the other, assuming of course coordination in effort. The growth of the cities and communities in Florida has opened a field in transportation that is bound to increase year by year.
The present location of the Seaboard Air Line Railway tracks down Lemon, Pineapple, and Strawberry Avenues will eventually be an unfortunate dividing factor in the business area. With the increase in business the railroad will require additional trackage to supply needs and for general operation. The danger to the public of operating in streets is apparent, and its early termination will be a great step in advance.
(b) Recommendations. The relocation of the tracks of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, in a right-of-way 100 feet wide, along the east boundary of the city parallel to the right-of-way of the Atlantic Coast Line, would have several beneficial effects upon the city: First, to concentrate trunk line tracks in one location; second, to avoid duplication of street crossings; third, to remove industry from the center of the city to outlying sections; fourth, to remove tracks from residential areas. Parked barriers would screen railroad tracks in the new right-of-way on the residential side.
The municipal tracks would be extended to connect with the A.C.T. and S.A.L. (relocated), giving access to the Municipal Docks on the bay and the new City Water Works. This railroad will be separated from the city by a parkway which will be wide enough to provide recreation spaces for the entire north side of the city.
A part of the railroad problem is the location of passenger stations at points where they will serve the requirements of the railroads and act as gates to the city. The situation is unique in Sarasota, for IT presents an opportunity for the placing of a union station to serve both railroads on the axis of Victory Avenue, so that IT presents a striking terminal to the long avenue, and at the same time a fitting gateway to the city at a point tremendously commanding.
8. INDUSTRY
(a) Present Location. The wholesale and manufacturing interests of the city are located, in general, Within the present business area along the Seaboard Air Line Railway. The fishing industry is conducted from the Municipal Docks on Banana Avenue, where there is rail connection over the municipally owned tracks.
(b) Recommendations. The location of railroad facilities on the eastern city limits will open up an area very suitable for manufacturing and industry. The present area is unsuitable, due to its close proximity to the center of the city, high land values, and the coming demand for its use, either as business or residence. The land east of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad tracks offers an area sufficient for the industries themselves and housing for the industrial population.
The Municipal Docks have been increased in both area and accommodations. Two piers, 225 ft. x 900 ft., have been shown as a suggestion of the method of treatment along with railroad accommodation from the municipal track, making connection with both the Seaboard Air Line and the Atlantic Coast Line.
9. GENERAL SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
(a) Development of a Main Thoroughfare System based on traffic circulation about the city, and connection with country roads to the north, east, south, and west.
(b) Development of a Park and Parkway System with the Waterfront Park as the controlling feature.
(c) Location of School and Playground Sites, to include two Grammar Schools (white), a High School (white), and one colored school.
(d) Creation of a Civic Group connected with the Parkway System, to include a small central park, City Hall, County Court House and Library at the intersection of Osprey and Victory Avenues.
(e) Lines of Expansion for Downtown Business Area, and the establishment of Local Business centers.
(f) Removal of Seaboard Air Line Railway tracks from Lemon, Pineapple, and Strawberry Avenues, and Alderman Street to a right-of-way along the present eastern city limits, paralleling the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and the erection of a Union Station at the eastern end of Victory Avenue.
(g) Location of Wholesale Business, Manufacturing, and Industry east of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad tracks and spreading northward (see Regional Plan).
(a) General. The conformity of the addition to the main thoroughfare system, park and recreation system, and other factor of the city plan which concern the residents of the city at large.
(b) Local. The suitability of the land for the proposed use, the securing of good street arrangement, including circulation within the property, and orderly connection with existing street layout. The obtaining of blocks of sufficient size and shape to prevent an unnecessary number of street intersections, and the division of blocks in lots of adequate size, shape, and approach.
The interpretation of the regulations should encourage individuality in development, so long as they conform in principle to the city plan and the requirements of the local section.
The Regional Plan treats the city and its surrounding zone of influence as a unIT , and seeks to determine the uses to which the different parts of the area are best adapted, following which the best means of relating these parts must be discovered.
2. REGIONAL UNIT The unIT for the Regional Plan of Sarasota includes the area within five miles of Five Points in the city of Sarasota. The zone of influence of the city in many respects is still further extended, especially with the back country lacking in community development. IT is in this five-mile area, however, that the urgent need of well-directed development must be met. 3. TYPES OF DEVELOPMENT The two outstanding lines of development of this region are its agriculture and its popularity as a winter resort. There is little conflict between the two, and they seek, and in general locate, in distinctively different localities. The former seeks the unbroken lands of the back country, which, when cleared of the palmetto and other natural growth, are rich farm areas. The winter residents, who are coming in greater a numbers each year, desire sites which are near the Bay and Gulf, so that they may enjoy bathing, sailing, and other forms of recreation in the most favorable environment. Industry in this region has not developed to any great extent, but there are certain types that might find IT an agreeable location, such as those connected with agriculture, fishing, and manufacture, which can be carried on regardless of its specific location.
4. USES OF AREAS The following have been suggested on the plan as being logical uses for the different areas: (a) Residences and Estates; the shores of Sarasota Bay, Little Sarasota Bay, and the Keys off the mainland looking out over the Gulf of Mexico. This would include most of the land west of the Tamiami Trail.
(b) Truck Farms, Small Groves; the areas about the city of Sarasota on the east, and in general, the lands immediately east of the Tamiami Trail. Farms and Large Groves; lands further to the east and south, nearer the rim of the region.
(c) Industry; the relocation of the tracks of the Seaboard Air Line Railway to avoid their passing through the central section of Sarasota, and the continuance of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad south, along the present Seaboard Air Line Railway right-of-way, will assist materially in the development of the region. A tract of land east of the railroad right-of-way at Fruitville Road, extending northward through the divergence of the two lines for a distance of three miles, will be devoted to yards and industrial development. Connected to this area by the municipal tracks of Sarasota are the Municipal Docks, which can be increased considerably in size without the acquisition of additional land.
5. COMMUNITY CENTERS Scattered about through the entire region at strategic places at the intersections of important highways, there ought to be developed small community centers, which would focus the life and business of each area, and provide a location for stores, churches, recreation areas, schools and such local industrial development as fruIT packing and canning. These centers have been shown on the plan. 6. HIGHWAYS The highway system of the region will be the means of relating all the areas, both among themselves and with the city of Sarasota, which will be the focus of the entire region. These highways will fall into three classes as follows:
(a) The Major Highways or Arteries. In this class the Tamiami Trail will be the most important, carrying the north and south traffic, but there will be other arteries leading in each direction, such as the present Fruitville Road, the road over the proposed Ringling Bridge, the road through Siesta to Sarasota Beach, and the diagonal roads to the northeast and the southeast.
(b) Secondary Roads which may parallel or join the Major Highways. These roads will link the community centers with each other and serve both to supplement and assist in carrying the traffic of the Major Highways.
(c) The Local Roads, which will complete the system by linking all districts to either Major or Secondary Highways.
7. PARK AND RECREATIONAL SYSTEM To the three factors in social life already mentioned, work, transportation, and residence, should be added recreation. The latter plays such an important part in the development of this region that special emphasis should be placed upon IT .
The waterfront will be tile most important possibility in the development, and the bayous, creeks, and drainage areas will be linking members. There should be a parkway extending along the Bay shore and Gulf shore, and as much of the shore front should be in the form of Public Reservations as can be obtained, especially in the matter of beaches. There are at present existing roads that can be utilized in part for this system, and the missing links and new roads should be part of an immediate program before the difficult situation arises, such as that in the waterfront of the city of Sarasota. From this shore parkway advantage should be taken, too, of the bayous and creeks to project the system inland. This can be done at the Whitaker Bayou, Hudson Bayou, and most notably at Phillipi Creek. Phillipi Creek can be used to reach the very heart of the region by acquiring a strip on both sides and carrying on through to the Fruitville Drainage Area, where IT can widen out into a large park and recreational development. The present characteristics of this drainage area are very pleasing, and careful study can produce an extremely interesting reservation. Definite parts of this parkway reservation could be set aside for regional recreational areas. The Passes, which are the entrances to Sarasota Bay, also should receive attention, and small reservations acquired adjacent to them. These need not be so large as to interfere with private development of land, but of sufficient size to make of the Passes attractive Gateways. Good design in the bridges on the parkway system will aid materially in successful development. In addition to the general parks system, each community center should provide a small park and recreational area.
A Municipal Golf Course of eighteen holes, for Sarasota, has been suggested, adjacent to the city, south of the Seaboard Air Line Railway right-of-way, so that IT may be within walking distance of the waterfront and hotels. In addition to this public course there is need for private club courses, and IT is suggested that they be located with reference to the park system. The site for an Aviation Field has been located in conjunction with the park system on Sarasota Key, accessible by the proposed Ringling Bridge. The land for the field would be reclaimed by filling out from the Key, and so would accommodate both airplanes and seaplanes.
The city is in possession of plans with which to direct its development and expansion in thoroughfares, business, and industry, and in living and recreational facilities. The City Planning Commission should be continuous in its operations, informing the public of existing conditions and needs of the future, making detailed studies for the accomplishment of selected projects, exercising public control over projected subdivisions and other such functions as will insure harmony with the city plans.
IT is desired to make acknowledgment of the assistance and courtesy extended by the Mayor, City Council, City Planning Commission, and other officials and citizens.
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