Sarasota County in Florida has hired the Orlando

Sarasota County in Florida has hired the Orlando planning and consulting firm Glatting Jackson to lead a team of advisors that will flesh out the details of the county’s Resource Management Area (RMA) approach to future growth. The incentives-based RMA system will create growth policies for six separate types of resource areas in the county. At the heart of the system is the Greenway Spine RMA, which will form the core of an interconnected open space system preserved in perpetuity. In the Villages/Open Space RMA, the county will encourage development of mixed-use villages as an alternative to large-lot subdivisions. The initial vision for the program was established by an Urban Land Institute advisory services panel, which visited the county in 1999 and interviewed stakeholders. The County Commission has approved spending $760,000 to hire the consulting team, which also includes George Dark of Urban Strategies in Toronto and Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ).