Sarasota County would own Wellfield Park in latest Venice parks maintenance proposal

VENICE –  Sarasota County would assume ownership of Wellfield Park from the city of Venice and the two governments would spend about $40 million to update the aging facilities of the 80-acre regional park, under a proposal unanimously approved last week by the Venice City Council.

The Nov. 28 action came in response to a summary of the concept for an agreement contained in a July 12 memo from Sarasota County Administrator Jonathan Lewis, which technically was in response to a revised proposal the city of Venice sent to Sarasota County in April.

The current parks maintenance agreement, signed in 2011, expires in October 2026.

Under that agreement, Sarasota County spends about $3 million a year to manage and maintain parks in the city, split evenly between the beaches, athletic fields and local neighborhood parks.

The main change city officials made to Sarasota County’s concept proposal was codifying that Sarasota County would continue to maintain Chuck Reiter Park until a new home is found for Venice Little League.

Venice Assistant City Manager James Clinch said Wednesday that the city is sending a letter to Sarasota County containing elements discussed by the council. The next step, Clinch said, is for both sides to draft an agreement.

Clinch has been part of negotiations for a new agreement as far back as 2017.

“Really not a whole lot has changed in terms of the framework over the past several years, except for the financial strategy,” Clinch said. “That’s been the challenge on both of our sides – the city and the county – is how we're going to fund a significant project at Wellfield Park.

“The whole agreement is resting on what happens with Wellfield Park because it’s such a large part of the agreement.”

What does this mean for Wellfield Park?

Wellfield Park is home to youth leagues in baseball, football, softball and soccer, a disc golf course and the Sarasota County Croquet Club.

Once under Sarasota County ownership, the park will be targeted for a $40 million makeover that will include improved parking, drainage and Americans With Disabilities Act improvements, as well improvements for the fields, which may be reconfigured under a new county master plan, though in 2022, when new sod was placed on two soccer fields -– an expense funded in part by a grant from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation – City Manager Ed Lavalle noted that preliminary documents he had seen indicated that the soccer fields would remain in place.

That work was above and beyond the current parks maintenance agreement, which calls for Sarasota County to spend about $5,000 a year in maintenance, though it has frequently exceeded that sum.

With the prospect of an ownership transfer, previous councils were loath to invest in larger improvements that would ultimately have been transferred to the county.

Instead, under the current framework, the city would pay the county $5 million for park improvements out of its current capital reserves – which would come out of the 2026-27 fiscal year budget – and the remaining $15 million over time.

The county document suggests spending up to $2 million per year out of city park impact fees, which are earmarked for expansion of services.

Clinch said all of the improvements may not be eligible for impact fee funding but capacity-related improvements such as parking, drainage or added features would.

“For example there’s very limited parking right now, there’s very limited ADA access right now, so those are all new features that would qualify for park impact fees in our opinion,” Clinch said.

Sarasota County would spend at least $20 million to develop the park but that commitment could grow as plans are solidified.

For example, in October, Sarasota County approved an $8 million increase in the budget  to renovate 17th Street Regional Park, which now carries a price tag of $65 million and will include artificial turf fields for football, soccer and lacrosse.

In 2022, when Wellfield’s two soccer fields received new sod, the concept of artificial turf was considered but quickly discarded because of the accompanying $1 million cost.

What else is in the agreement?

Sarasota County would continue to manage regional parks along the beaches, Marina Park and Boat Ramp, the east side of the Venetian Waterway Park, and Pinebrook Park – which would still be owned by Venice.

Venice would continue to manage Chauncy Howard, Hecksher, Higal, Legacy and Venice Myakka parks, as well as the Venice Community Center.

Once a new home is found for Venice Little League, the city would manage that, too.

That split would leave Sarasota County with about $2 million of its  previous annual operating cost, with Venice budgeting about $1 million to manage and maintain local parks and the Venice Community Center.

Clinch noted that management of the community center gives the city more flexibility for local needs.

The grounds served as a staging area for COVID-19 testing and the administration of vaccinations; a location for people to fill sandbags in preparation for hurricanes; as well a rally point for people to be transported to hurricane evacuation centers.

What took so long?

While it was no secret that any extension of the parks maintenance agreement would include transfer of ownership to Sarasota County, talks were back-burnered in 2022, until the outcome of the 2022 referendum on extending the 1% local option sales tax.

In turn, Lewis’ letter on behalf of Sarasota County arrived in July, with the proposal not placed on the council agenda until after two new members – Joan Farrell and Ron Smith – were sworn in earlier in the day.

Clinch is hopeful that a formal agreement will be forthcoming though technically there are more than two years left in the current maintenance agreement.

“This is good in the sense that not only do we have a proposal in writing from Sarasota County as to how the agreement would work,” Clinch said, “but we’ve gotten into the details of funding, which is an important step in moving this forward.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: $40 million facelift for Wellfield Park in proposed Venice parks deal