Dozens of residents gathered inside a quiet, gated subdivision off Tatum Road last week, many dressed in yellow golf shirts, to protest a plan they fear could transform their rural corner of east Sarasota County.
They came in waves — retirees in polos, young families in T-shirts and jeans — united by frustration over a proposal to replace the Tatum Ridge Golf Links with a sprawling apartment complex that could bring thousands of new renters into a low-density area where cows and horses still graze along narrow country roads.
“Our kids and our grandkids play outside,” resident Mark Salomonsky said. “You put 4,000 cars running down Racimo Drive, there’s gonna be a dead kid.”…