Sarasota County commissioners used a strategic planning retreat to narrow a long list of potential 2025 policy items to a focused set of infrastructure priorities, with stormwater modernization rising to the top.

"This is, in many ways, the most important day of the year for us as staff and for me as your county administrator," County Administrator Jonathan Lewis told the board as he framed the retreat's purpose of setting big policy priorities. Commissioners spent hours debating wording, scope and sequencing before consolidating several station-specific and program-level stormwater items into two distinct tasks: a complete review of stormwater level-of-service and maintenance, and a complementary program to identify regional stormwater facility opportunities and land acquisitions.

Commissioner Maston pressed the case for practical follow-through, urging the board to "get a grant writer" and to track missed federal or state funding opportunities. "I think there are hundreds of millions of dollars that we are missing out on on a state and federal level," he said, arguing that specialized grant capacity should be part of the infrastructure push.

Fruitville Road and Lorraine were singled out as the corridor most in need of an expansion plan; commissioners asked staff to prepare a coordinated expansion plan that includes Lorraine-Palmer and extends Fruitville Road toward Verna. The board also confirmed that keeping Midnight Pass open would be treated as a discrete strategic priority with staff tasked to return funding and maintenance options.

Affordable housing remained a standing priority: commissioners agreed to retain an item for county-level affordable housing action and directed staff to review prior recommendations from the county's affordable housing advisory work groups for specific, actionable steps and financing options.

What happens next: Staff will draft policy descriptions and implementation roadmaps for the prioritized items and return them to the board for adoption in January. The board asked for a clear set of measurable next steps for each priority (level-of-service targets, timeline, funding options).