SARASOTA – Despite all the discussions and openings of the City Commission on Monday about the importance of the Sarasota orchestra and the city’s preference to stay in Sarasota, there is obviously one thing missing from the discussion about reconsidering an earlier resolution not to allow for a new concert. runner in Payne Park: the orchestra itself.
However, city commissioners voted 4-1 to allow the city to explore a possible new home for the orchestra, adding in and around Payne Park, giving new life to a plan that found fierce opposition in 2019 from tennis players and park customers and neighboring neighborhoods. .
The orchestra’s leaders did not attend Monday’s assembly and in the past expressed their astonishment when Mayor Hagen Brody announced several weeks ago that he wanted to revisit the discussion.
Hours before Sarasota’s leaders met at City Hall, Joe McKenna, president and ceo of the orchestra, told participants in a Zoom call that locating a new one for their concert hall remained a very sensible priority.
McKenna said that “the orchestra presented a vision for a new facility in Payne Park that was withdrawn for review in May 2019. The disruptions that prevented the concept from advancing, such as the opinion of the city’s lawyer, a concept of land and network exchange. “Acceptance remains a problem. These points still exist. “
The Bayside Orchestra’s proximity to Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall is too small and its leaders have said they should move away from the water due to considerations about emerging sea levels.
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The orchestra sought to build a 1,800-seat performing arts corridor and a 700-seat recital runner in the northwest corner of Payne Park, which would have displaced the popular tennis center, a proposal that won a significant setback from park residents and users. who opposed the concept of ceding a park to a concert hall.
Dozens of the same citizens spoke Monday, many expressing the same considerations they had two years ago.
They said the city would not yield valuable green space and supported legal considerations as to whether a restriction on the law would even allow the orchestra to build in Payne Park.
Several commissioners argued that the concert hall can also be a legal “related use” through the act of moving Payne Park to the city.
“The east aspect of downtown may need a little help to bring other people and economic progress to this aspect of downtown,” Brody said. “There are orchestras around the world that complement the parks. It is not about exchanging with each other, it is about locating a situation where the orchestra completes the park and the entire park to the orchestra ».
Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch was the only one who opposed the idea and said she would have supported the movement if she hadn’t included Payne Park.
“So I have to vote no, ” said Ahearn-Koch.
Vice Mayor Erik Arroyo insisted that the orchestra move to Robarts Arena at Sarasota Exhibition Park, a concept publicly rejected by the orchestra.
Commissioner Liz Alpert said the city opens “all the parks in the city and if Payne Park looks better, let’s see if we can’t make him paint to benefit us all. “
Commissioner Kyle Battie first stated that he “was not a form, shape or fashion to eliminate green spaces” and that he did not like the concept of moving the orchestra to some other corner of the park.
At the end of the discussion, he said he “had no problem with him entering Payne Park, if everyone can paint in combination to make this happen. “
Alpert noted that the orchestra already occupies about 4 acres along the bay. If you move, you’ll lose greener for the 53-acre Bay Re-urbanization project, which will add open meaning
“It’s almost an equivalent exchange in terms of space,” Alpert said.
Even with the Payne Park Orchestra, that would leave about 36 acres of green areas.
“The orchestra needs the City Commission to say, “We welcome you, we are open,” he said.
Jay Handelman, herald-tribune art and theatre critic, contributed to this article.
Timothy Fanning covers Sarasota for the Herald-Tribune. Contact Timothy tim. fanning@heraldtribune. com or on Twitter: Timothyjfanning. Support the Herald-Tribune by subscribing today.