UPCOMING CHARRETTE - SUGGESTIONS WANTED

This blog was set up by Denise Kowal, President of the Burns Square Property Owners Association as a tool to help us gather suggestions for our area. Your suggestions will help us with our upcoming charrette scheduled in November, 2005. We are requesting constructive input and ideas that will help us create short term and long term visions for our unique Burns Square area.

For over a year we have been discussing the creation of a plan for our area. Several months ago we each contributed money to hired urban planner Ramon Trias to help us define a vision. Mr. Trias came highly recommended by Andres Duany who the City hired to created the Downtown Sarasota Master Plan 2020. Mr. Trias plans to collaborate with his staff architect Michael Carlson. Mr. Carlson has an office in Burns Square and was a partner in the firm that worked hand in hand with the Duany firm on the Downtown Sarasota Master Plan 2020. We graciously welcome anyone interested in volunteering to help us in this endeavor.

The Burns Square area starts at the intersection of US41/Mound Street and Orange Avenue and runs north on Orange & Pineapple Avenues to Ringling Boulevard including Burns Court/Lane, Rawls Avenue and the cross streets Laurel , Dolphin & Cross. We will be looking at every aspect of our district such as traffic flow, intersections, cross walks, curb cuts, parking and "suggestions" for architectural design. The intention of our plan is not to "police" anyone but create a cooperative vision that can be worked on over the years. We are requesting input from our neighbors, area merchants & professionals, elected officials, City and County staff and anyone else interested in contributing to our process in a positive way.

We look forward to hearing from you and gathering constructive input that we can incorporate into our vision.