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Venice council approves first reading of comprehensive-plan updates, transmits draft to state
Summary
City Council voted 4–2 to approve on first reading a large set of updates to the City of Venice comprehensive plan, including a new coastal-resilience section and a statutory-required change to allow floating solar; the plan will be transmitted to the Florida Department of Commerce for review.
The Venice City Council on first reading approved changes to the city's 2017'2027 comprehensive plan and directed staff to transmit the package to the Florida Department of Commerce for review.
Planning Manager Amy Nelson told the council that the filing follows the state'mandated seven-year evaluation and appraisal cycle and mainly updates dates, maps and a new coastal-resilience element. The package also adds a statutory-required provision to allow floating solar facilities in appropriate future land-use categories and makes layout and ADA accessibility edits intended to make the plan easier to use online.
"The biggest addition that we have is coastal resilience," Nelson said, and she credited the former city engineer with advancing that work. She said staff also replaced blurred or outdated graphics, removed redundant tables, updated references to Sarasota County planning material and corrected typos.
Council members pressed staff on policy and implementation details. Councilmember Smith said the document contains more substantive changes than the "cleanup" label suggests and asked staff about items raised by the Planning Commission, including a change in wording related to the city's joint-planning area with Sarasota County. Planning Director Roger Clark said the change was intended to avoid locking the city into policy while preserving an option to discuss expansion of the joint-planning area in the future.
Other questions from council members covered whether street connections listed in earlier plans had been constructed and whether the city should retain a definition for "constrained roadways." Nelson and Clark said the connections identified previously had largely been built and that most truly constrained roadways in the area are under county rather than city control.
The council vote was 4 in favor, 2 opposed. Councilmember Frank moved the ordinance on first reading; Vice Mayor Boldt seconded. The ordinance will now be transmitted to the Department of Commerce; staff said the statutory review timetable requires a submission by mid-May for the current cycle. Nelson told the council the official valuation date for the state review is September 30 for the fiscal year in question.
Council members and staff said they expect some follow-up work in the coming weeks and months to clarify language and that subsequent amendments may follow after public and county review.
