Warm Mineral Springs Survey: 92% favor low-intensity park development

Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
·4 min read
Visitors enjoy Warm Mineral Springs Park on Friday, the first day of its reopening after Hurricane Ian.
Visitors enjoy Warm Mineral Springs Park on Friday, the first day of its reopening after Hurricane Ian.

NORTH PORT – Roughly 92% of the people who responded to an independent survey on the future of Warm Mineral Springs Park favored low-intensity development around the natural resource. The results seem to contradict the city’s current plans to pursue a public-private partnership to develop a portion of the 83-acre park, including adding a hotel and residences.

A total of 666 people took the online survey about how they would like to see the park future unfold, while another 959 households were randomly selected by ETC Institute, an Olathe, Kansas-based firm that specializes in governmental market research.

ETC conducted the survey as part of the public feedback portion of North Port’s exploration of contracting with a private partner to renovate three historic Sarasota School of Architecture structures at the springs, in exchange for developing commercial activities on 61.4-acres adjacent to the 21.6-acre springs site.

Both Warm Mineral Springs and three buildings that date back to the Florida Quadricentennial Celebration are on the National Register of Historical Places.

The city desired to explore a public-private partnership after bids to restore the sales building, spa building and cyclorama came in at about $18 million, roughly twice the $9 million the city had budgeted.

Related For Subscribers: North Port picks partner for Warm Mineral Springs park development. Here’s what’s planned

Hurricane Ian changed the city's timetable. The park was closed from Sept. 27 until this spring. The city fired vendor National and State Park Concessions before it reopened Warm Mineral Springs to the public on April 7 and operated it by city park staff.

Meanwhile, many residents expressed displeasure at the thought of a public-private partnership both at commission meetings and roadside rallies.

Warm Mineral Springs Park is actually a sinkhole some 70 meters (230 feet) deep, shaped like an hourglass. A few meters below the water's surface, the aperture narrows to 48 meters (157 feet). The entrance expands for a brief time around 13 meters (43 feet) below the surface, providing a ledge beneath an overhang.
Warm Mineral Springs Park is actually a sinkhole some 70 meters (230 feet) deep, shaped like an hourglass. A few meters below the water's surface, the aperture narrows to 48 meters (157 feet). The entrance expands for a brief time around 13 meters (43 feet) below the surface, providing a ledge beneath an overhang.

ETC is 95% confident that the survey is within a plus or minus swing of 3.1% accuracy in representing the opinion of city residents.

The second-fastest growing city in the country, North Port has more than 80,000 residents and 61,997 registered voters.

Findings from the ETC survey will be presented to the City Commission at a July 10 workshop.

The full document is at https://bit.ly/45Ss52q.

The next step after that will be discussion of the survey results in a series of yet-to-be-scheduled community workshops.

“We are pleased so many of our residents took the time to participate in this process and share their feedback,” City Manager Jerome Fletcher said in a prepared statement. “We have heard you and look forward to continuing the conversation about how to bring these results to life at our planned community workshops.”

The workshops are designed to be a place for discussion of the survey results and for attendees to say what amenities they want restored or added, as well suggest how revenues generated through admissions to Warm Mineral Springs can be used.

City commissioners have not decided on whether to pursue a public-private partnership.

That would be determined after the public workshops and subsequent public meetings.

Because multiple answers are allowed, percentages may not add up to 100%. Here’s what the survey said:

  • Most of the respondents – 90% – had visited Warm Mineral Springs over the past two years, including 30% visiting monthly and 30% visiting weekly.

  • 82% of those respondents favored using tax-generated revenue for the restoration and improvement of Warm Mineral Springs, with 58% strongly agreeing with using tax-generated funds 24% agreeing with that.

  • 73% of respondents said North Port should retain ownership of Warm Mineral Springs and 18% would support the city selling all interest in Warm Mineral Springs.

  • People also supported wellness services (86%); a spa (85%) and a restaurant (73%).

  • 62% of the respondents said more commercial uses at Warm Mineral Springs – such as a hotel, restaurant, spa and shaping – would lead to their visiting the springs less.

  • Given a choice of low, medium and high intensity development, 92% of the respondents were either very supportive or somewhat supporting low intensity development; 65% supported medium intensity development; 7% supported high intensity development.

  • When asked to pick one level of development 82% preferred low-intensity development.

  • When queried on nine possible expansions of amenities at Warm Mineral Springs, 93% supported a trailhead and parking to connect with Legacy Trail; 92% supported a looped canopy walk and 88% supported placement of historic exhibits throughout the grounds. These were also the three activities respondents were most willing to fund with tax dollars.

The results of the survey are similar to the findings after the city of North Port and consultant Kimley-Horn & Associates conducted a series of meetings in 2018.

That resulted in the current plan that called for a low-intensity development of the park adjacent to Warm Mineral Springs.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: North Port residents want less development at Warm Mineral Springs