VoteJoeBarbetta.com | On the Issues 

Barbetta seeks county commission seat
By Kevin J. Allen, Staff Writer

Planning commission member and 2006 BOCC candidate Joe Barbetta talks traffic, central county growth, and affordable housing.

Article reprinted with permission.

To those familiar with Sarasota County politics, it came as no surprise when planning commission member Joe Barbetta announced last month that he would be running for a seat on the Board of County Commissioners. Barbetta, who has served on the planning commission for nearly 15 years, is seeking to replace David Mills as the District 2 representative.

An upstate New York native, the 59-year-old Barbetta earned his bachelor's degree in accounting and economics from Fordham University, then went on to study law at Union University in Albany. He ran his own law practice for over 14 years before "semi-retiring" to Sarasota. During his career as a lawyer, Barbetta was heavily involved in zoning, planning and real estate development. He subsequently sold his two office buildings in Upstate NY upon relocating to Sarasota.

Barbetta still does some legal and investment consulting for a small group of clients.

"I think a lot of people down here would be surprised to know that I've been on the other side of things, having represented developers, along with being involved in development myself," he says.

Barbetta first came to the area in 1979 after reading a magazine article that listed Sarasota as one of the top places to live in the country. He purchased a condo in Osprey and moved to the area permanently in 1983. He currently lives in Sarasota with his wife, Mary, and their son. Their daughter and grandson reside in Atlanta.

What first drew you to the planning commission?

The issues. I saw the Sarasota area as similar to the area where my law practice started in Clifton Park (NY) - rural roads, a lot of rural land. Having done zoning, planning and development work up there, I wanted to get involved somehow down here. I put my name in the hat in 1990, got appointed in early 1991, and the rest is history. It's been almost 15 years now.

What made you want to run for Board of County Commissioners?

I think I can make a difference. For the past 14 years, our decisions (on the planning commission) have been advisory, and I think we've done a good job. I think now is an opportunity, with David retiring, to be able to participate in the actual decision making process. I think I can contribute to that with my background.

I think Sarasota County is at a juncture now where some strong direction is needed as to how we develop. The makeup of the county commission is going to be very important for the next five to ten years.

How has your time with the planning commission prepared you for a spot with the BOCC?

Over the years, I've really seen all the issues - how land is developed, sprawl control, infrastructure concerns, traffic, air quality - all of the things that have made Sarasota a great place to live. And now, our quality of life is being challenged. It runs the risk of being deteriorated. That's a concern of mine. I'm worried that the quality of life is at a pinnacle right now where, if we're not careful, it can slide down the wrong way and start affecting people's property values, tourism and our air quality and environment.

How do you see traffic affecting the quality of life in Sarasota and what are some possible solutions?

It's obvious when you travel Clark, Bee Ridge, University or Fruitville heading east in the afternoon or heading west in the morning toward downtown, that it's getting worse and worse. It's becoming a nightmare. It's not getting any better and we can't really build ourselves out of that problem. We have to stop focusing on trying to move cars and start focusing on trying to move people. You move people with a better form of transportation and by providing services and employment near where they live.

I'm big on urban infill and urban redevelopment. We've got a lot of areas up and down U.S. 41 and heading out on those roads I just mentioned that are all ripe for revitalization and redevelopment. It's just a case of a county commission with some vision that can assist that. We need to be proactive on all of these issues.

What will be your feeling going into your final planning commission meeting in December?

It'll be bittersweet; melancholy. I've met some great people over the 14 years, some of whom have gone on to further their political careers. I've met a lot of great friends and a lot of good people through the planning commission. It's been a great learning experience and I've enjoyed it a lot. I'm sure I'll miss it, but then I'll get into the heat of the campaign and hopefully get to tune in to some of the meetings.

Assuming that the voters will elect me, I'll definitely support the planning commission because I think it's a hard-working group of good people who really make a difference.

After 14 years on the planning commission, I'm sure you've seen a great deal of change throughout the county.

A lot of things that have happened in the county have been good. A lot of things have been maybe a little bit rushed in how they were decided, and a lot of things may have been a little too short sighted as to the long-range plan.

If I had to look at one thing that's been lacking big time it's mass transportation - no mass transportation at all. I don't consider the SCAT buses alone, as a good form of alternate transportation. I think we missed the boat by not coming up with a good, integrated trolley system. In this day and age, instead of spending money on widening roads and building parking garages, we should be focusing on moving people with good forms of transportation. Money spent on parking garages and more and wider roads could be better spent on buying a good fleet of energy-efficient "people-moving" vechicles. We also need to focus heavily on true economic development, and hold to the zoning classifications and areas that have been designated for industrial, manufacturing and major employment centers. That is a key to our future.

How do you see the county's housing problem relating to transportation concerns?

Housing is one of the forces that is driving our transportation concerns. The average service worker can't afford to live where they work. It's gotten somewhat prohibitive, so consequently, they go farther out to get a better value for their dollar. As they do that, they might get a nice house, but the problem is, they're on a road system that's already at a level of service that's an 'E' or 'F' failure. They're just exacerbating the traffic problem. Plus, the RISING cost of travel isn't helping them either.

After a while, your affordable housing concern becomes a major economic development concern because your employers that were thinking of locating here are not going to locate here. If they can't get housing for their employees, they're going to locate wherever they can get decent housing. Furthermore, our existing employers will suffer from the inablity to attract a viable workforce, and may be hindered from expansion. Consequently, affordable housing becomes a traffic concern, an economic development concern and a quality of life concern.

Is the affordable housing problem ever going to be solved? How do you take it from the "talked about" stage to the "accomplishing something" stage?

I don't know if it's ever going to truly be solved. All you can do is try to put a dent in it and try to come up with some alternatives. There's no magic formula. It's probably a little too late at this point, even though we've talked about it for years. The actual implementation of things to make it work haven't helped. They haven't been there. The new community housing trust is one tool. It may work. It's not going to produce what it's projecting, but it will help. Things like affordable housing trust funds, impact fee mitigation - there are a lot of tools that are working elsewhere. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. We need to find out what's working around the country and try to emulate it. I think that's where we've missed the boat. We're just starting to do that now. Furthermore, we need to be supportive of those that have been addressing the issue all along, such as habitat, and others along the same line.

The problem is that land values are so high that it's hard to say, "I'm going to build an affordable housing development within two miles from downtown," because you can't find the land to do it. Redevelopment, revitilization, and infill will certainly be part of the solution.

At some point, these workers take jobs closer to where they live. As a result, businesses in Sarasota County can't find a workforce and that's a major concern.

What are your thoughts on the recent tax increase for the purchase of environmentally sensitive lands?

I supported that. I campaigned for it. Any time you can preserve land at the prices we can preserve it at today, it's only going to be beneficial to future generations. It is key to maintaining a sustainable environment and to the protection of our natural systems.

I know the argument on the other side is that we're taking land away from affordable housing, but I submit that that land would have never been utilized for affordable housing. A lot of it is environmentally sensitive, so it would never have been built on. Number two, if it wasn't environmentally sensitive, they certainly wouldn't put affordable housing on it. They would have put more mega houses or more exclusive developments and golf course communities. Part of the tax is to buy some park land within the cities. There's no way anyone's going to put affordable housing on the bay front, so it's a ruse to say that you're taking land away from affordable housing.

We're at a fine point right now where every decision is an important one that needs to be thought out before we go jumping ahead and speculating on some of these issues.

In your time on the planning commission, is there anything of which you are particularly proud?

About ten years ago, (we) pushed real hard for the Osprey and Nokomis community plans. We kept seeing this area in between Sarasota and Venice and we wondered why it didn't develop. So we pushed for the community planning process in those areas, which consequently resulted in the Osprey Revitalization Committee and the Nokomis Revitalization Committee, and other neighborhood groups. The process was also expanded to include other areas in the county.

The neighborhood workshops is also something we started on the planning commission. We felt that developments were coming to us with little or no input from the neighborhood. Consequently, our hearing rooms were filled with people who didn't really know everything that was going on. We suggested that the developers start meeting with the neighbors before they get to the planning commission. It's worked pretty well. We're very proud of that. Also, after considerable efforts, we managed to receive better cooperation from the school system in getting important information on capacity and availability. For all too long, school planning and land use planning was not integrated. I have long advocated some form of school concurrency, and we are just recently beginning to see those efforts becoming reality.

Why do some see you as anti-development?

Maybe it's because I talk about the way I think development should take place. I'm certainly not anti-growth. If you look at my votes over the past 14 years compared to what the county commission did subsequently, I'd venture to say that it's in the 80 TO 85% range or higher that they agreed with what I said.

Once in a while, I'm on the losing end of an eight-to-one vote, and sometimes that 'one' ends up being the majority vote on the county commission.

The one vote that I probably get labeled for is my 2050 vote. I voted against it. When it came time for the final vote, there were still four or five issues that I had concern with. I praise my fellow planning commissioners for all they did and how hard they worked on it. It was a good plan and I still had some issues with it, so I voted 'no.' Consequently, the Board of County Commissioners changed it considerably, and it ended up quite different from what we sent them. I still feel that it is has many problems and won't be implemented as originally intended, if at all.

As the Osprey and Nokomis areas continue to grow and morph, what are some of your concerns?

Traffic. I would hope they grow in a manner with more connectivity. In Osprey, we're going to have some more connectivity where Bay Street Village will be connected to Wal-Mart, which is connected to the church, which is connected to the post office.

People living in developments back there can get around without having to go on the main roadway system.

We need to encourage connectivity. That will alleviate some of the traffic concerns and increase walkability. I don't think we can pave ourselves out of our problem.

Building bigger roads is not the answer. When you look at what's been successful around the country, it's narrowing the roads, slowing down your traffic. If you slow traffic, statistics show it will move steadier and smoother than if you consistently try to get your speeds up higher. We need to be cognizant of the impact on our neighborhoods with noise, safety concerns, and cut-through traffic.

Neighborhoods are sacred. We need to protect our neighborhoods. Neighborhoods are what make this community great.

You've often said, "You don't put a fourth bedroom on a house until you fix your leaky roof." How does that apply to Sarasota County today?

That's my argument for the urban service boundary. Part of it is not granting rezoning of large rural tracts of land: not allowing sprawl, not subsidizing sprawl, not moving the urban service boundary. It's easy to build on farmland that's already cleared. That's what most developers will look at. Tough development is the infill and redevelopment. That's the right way to go if you want to have a good balanced community.

It's a question of education and mindset - planners working with developers. I'm not against incentives.

I came up with that saying during 2050. I felt we had sufficient problems this side of the urban service boundary that we should have addressed first before we decided to allow development out east. There was a lot of pressure to open up out east. Fortunately they didn't just open the boundary completely, that they tried to do the village concept.

Our county commission needs to send a message. We have to build where our infrastructure is. We, the taxpayers, can't subsidize any more major development out there.

If elected, which Sarasota County issue would you be most excited to tackle?

There's probably two or three: Of course, environmental concerns - protecting the environment; community housing and workforce housing; infrastructure concerns - I'm not for building new and wider roads, but we DO need to finish our grid system and start connecting some of the streets that were originally intended to be connected, and come up with viable alternative transportation solutions. Also, economic development. It is vital to our future here in Sarasota, and we must become pro-active and supportive in fostering it.

In the end, we must continue to keep Sarasota the special place that it is, and keep it sustainable for our future generations. We need to encourage our young people to remain here or return here to live and work. They are our future.