An Update on The Bay

Today marks seven years to the day that Gulf Coast Community Foundation got involved on the ground floor of The Bay, the once-in-several-generations opportunity to turn 53 acres on Sarasota’s Bayfront into a legacy public park.

That's when community leaders, concerned that there was no vision or plan for the largest remaining tract of undeveloped land on the bayfront, approached Gulf Coast. Soon, a grassroots effort evolved into a model of community engagement and public-private partnership that, seven years on, is actively transforming Sarasota's Bayfront—environmentally, economically, culturally, and civically—right before our eyes.

This week, Gulf Coast donors who have supported The Bay enjoyed a virtual update from the initiative's leadership and implementation team. A.G. Lafley, founding CEO of The Bay Park Conservancy, began by acknowledging that “transformation is an overused word.” But the former Procter & Gamble CEO and longtime Cincinnati civic leader, whose experience includes many big projects, went on to assert that “none has been as transformative as this will be.”

A.G. Lafley donor briefing on The Bay
An aspirational park

From its grassroots start-up via the citizen-driven Sarasota Bayfront 20:20 coalition, to the creation of a world-class master plan by the Sarasota Bayfront Planning Organization, to current implementation overseen by The Bay Park Conservancy, The Bay has been transformative in every way. “There are very few places like this in the world,” A.G. said. “Fifty-plus acres of neglected, underdeveloped land. We’re transforming what’s essentially a parking lot into beautiful parkland.”

Construction of The Bay Park is now in Phase 1. Two features that community members are most excited about, according to resident surveys, are the Mangrove Bayou restoration and the coming construction of a circular “sunset pier” boardwalk. Also coming soon are expansive activity lawns that will serve as “living learning labs,” according to A.G., where The Bay team and community partners can test out different programming and activation.

“Whatever we can imagine, we’re willing to experiment with and learn,” he said. Indeed, a defining feature of The Bay is that, in A.G.'s words, "the park will be open, accessible, free, and welcoming to the full and rich diversity of our community."

The Bay - Phase 1 entry

Master plan highlights to come in future phases include:

  ► a world-class, state-of-the art public boat launch

  ► a canal zone wrapped by docks

  ► a restaurant zone

  ► recreation and play areas for kids of all ages

  ► and, of course, a new Sarasota Performing Arts Center with fantastic indoor and outdoor performance spaces

  • “I’ve looked at a lot of waterfront parks in America,” A.G. said, “and this plan will hold up against virtually every one I’ve seen.”

Conservation and restoration

Ecological sustainability and access to natural assets have been among The Bay’s guiding principles from the outset. “From the beginning, we’ve wanted to conserve this city land for public use,” A.G. said. “And not only preserve it, but enhance it and restore it.” So The Bay won't just be environmentally sustainable; in many ways, it will restore conditions that haven’t existed in decades.

One innovative water-quality tool under construction is a Gulf Coast Community Foundation-funded “denitrification trench.” Right now, every drop of rainwater that falls on the site drains straight into the Bay. When the trench is complete, stormwater will be diverted through it to neutralize excess nitrogen before it seeps into groundwater and flows into the Bayou and Bay. (Watch below for a description of the process by The Bay's chief implementation officer, Bill Waddill.)

“From an environmental perspective, if you wanted to design a landscape with maximum deleterious impacts, the current site is it,” said Gulf Coast’s Jon Thaxton. “We have the chance to literally rewrite history. We’re going to take 100 years of mistakes in terms of land use, and reverse them. This is a chance of many, many, many a generation.”

To learn more about The Bay’s environmental and conservation efforts, go here.

To become a Friend of the Bay, go here.


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