For more than two decades, Sarasota County has had a single program to counter the suburban sprawl that has come to define the area’s recent development boom.
In November, voters will decide whether to extend that program for another 23 years.
The Sarasota County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to add a referendum to fund the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program through 2049. As Sarasota County has grown at a staggering pace, carving once-rural areas into asphalt and cul-de-sacs, local environmentalists see the government program as the most effective weapon to protect land from otherwise inevitable development…