Jennifer Ahearn-Koch as a community activist fought for years to prevent dense commercial development from rising on land at the entrance to the Tahiti Park neighborhood. Now a city commissioner, she called this week for Sarasota to look at the long-term plans for the property. Sarasota City Commissioners on Monday voted 4-1 to direct city staff to explore the possibility of buying land on Hampton Road at U.S. 41 and convert it for a park use. That could only happen if the current owner wanted to cut a deal, something never expressed to city officials before. “We’re just exploring the idea,” stressed Ahearn-Koch. But if some deal could be reached on the land, it could end a decade of angst about the land designation about the North Trail properties.

The land, located at 1174 and 1186 Hampton Road, for years held had a future land use designation calling for multi-family residential development, but the properties in 2008 were redesigned for commercial use. That change, though, came as part of sweeping amendments that affected nearly 2,000 properties citywide, and both local neighborhood activists and sitting officials at the time the public was never notified that any shift would impact those properties. The matter gained some urgency in 2011, after Dr. Steve Bedi purchased the property and then submitted a rezoning request while announcing plans for a medical spa on the land.

Bedi at the time told SRQ the development would spur a revitalization of the North Trail, but amid concerns from neighbors ultimately withdrew his rezone request. In 2015, he announced plans for a similar resort in Allentown but pulled his application there as well. He did not respond to an email from SRQ about the Tahiti Park property.

Melinda Delpech, the new president of the Tahiti Park Neighborhood Association, has approached city commissioners about again looking at the designation of the land. She says the neighborhood would be fine returning the designation of the land to multi-family. “But I don’t think the city is going to entertain that option,” she says. The next best option for the neighborhood, she says, would be for the city to buy the land and make it into parkland.

But that plan has drawn criticism as well. Martin Hyde, a former City Commission candidate who lost to Ahearn-Koch in 2017, labeled such a move “ludicrous,” noting the property is already by Whitaker Gateway Park so the neighborhood is hardly underserved as far as recreational space. “The suggestion to fund what would be an extension to the backyards of Tahiti Park would be laughable if not sponsored by a resident who sits on the City Commission,” he said at a Commission meeting on Tuesday night.

And City Commissioner Hagen Brody, who cast the lone vote against exploring park use for the land, said he had concerns about the finances of such a move. “And I do have concerns this was Commissioner Ahearn-Koch’s initiative for many years,” he says.

Ahearn-Koch stressed that current leaders brought the issue back to the commission. She also said her previous neighborhood activism, in her eyes, was the reason she was elected to the commission. But she also said as an elected official, she would balance the desires of the neighborhood against the needs of the entire city, and take that deliberation seriously.

And other city commissioners note that, so far, the possibility is only under study. The move doesn’t threaten anyone’s property rights, as Bedi could reject any overtures from the city and end the matter “This gives the owner the option to sell to the city if it makes sense,” said Commissioner Liz Alpert. “Exploring that really doesn’t harm anybody’s interest. It’s an option we should explore.”