Officials exploring a special taxing district in the Rosemary District in Sarasota may already have found an insurmountable obstacle to such a plan. Three property owners already in the midst of major developments in the North Sarasota area have expressed concern about a new tax at such an early stage, and it may be impossible to create a district without their buy-in.

Developers met with an ad hoc committee exploring expansion of the Sarasota Downtown Improvement District into the Rosemary area or the creation of a new district. The developers for Cityside, Elan Rosemary and a project from the Framework Group all questioned if the timing was right. The creation of special density rules in the Rosemary has triggered new interest from developers in building housing, but a new tax as high as 2 mills could dull the momentum. “We’re excited about the Rosemary District’s potential, but we have concerns about the implementation of a tax at this point,” said Lewis Stoneburner, developer for Elan Rosemary. “The neighborhood is just starting to transform into a cool, hip, eclectic, artsy type of district, and now is not the time to add additional costs.”

John Moran, DID operations manager, said the property owners together own 10 percent of the $70 million in taxable property value in the Rosemary today, but once the projects are completed, the land owned by the three developers is expected to represent more than half the taxable property value in the area. There are still a total of 130 different property owners in the neighborhood’s traditional boundaries, but Moran noted that even if the developers are treated as a minority in that number, Sarasota City Commissioners will likely give extra heft to the concerns. “These projects are deemed vital to the redevelopment of the Rosemary District,” Moran noted.

The exploratory committee will meet again in January, and Moran expects other redevelopment funding methods, such as a new community redevelopment area, may be explored as well. The benefits of setting up a CRA can be quantified, Moran said, noting if one was set up while property values were low but expected to skyrocket, it could mean substantial tax revenue was set aside for redevelopment of the district. But that could require approval from Sarasota County, which recently decided it would let a downtown CRA in Sarasota sunset next year.